Tiger sanctuary updates
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:
Return of Long’s lost tiger ordered
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio– Mahoning County Common Pleas Court
Magistrate Eugene Fehr on March 25, 2004 ruled that the Noah’s Lost
Ark sanctuary in Berlin Township, Ohio, must return a lion cub
named Boomer-ang to animal advocate Bill Long, of Upper Arlington,
Ohio.
Helping New York Post reporter Al Guart to develop an expose
of exotic cat trafficking, Long on October 11, 2003 bought
Boomerang from a breeder in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Long and Guart
planned to take the cub to the Shambala sanctuary near Los Angeles,
operated by actress Tippi Hedren, to dramatize why the “Shambala
Bill” Hedren was then pushing through Congress was needed. Formally
called the Captive Wildlife Protection Act, the bill is now in
effect.
American Sanctuary Association director Vernon Weir on
October 15, 2003 wrote to the New York Post that when the
eight-day-old cub turned out to be “too young and fragile to
transport, ASA suggested to Guart that perhaps Noah’s Lost Ark would
be willing to provide temporary care. We had no reason to believe
that Noah’s Lost Ark would decide that they wanted to keep this cub,”
as happened, soon after Noah’s Lost Ark enjoyed a publicity bonanza
from taking in a tiger named Ming who had attacked his owner,
Antoine Yates, in a Harlem apartment.
Noah’s Lost Ark founders Ellen and Douglas Whitehouse held
that Long and Guart had abandoned Boomerang Their attorney, Michael
O’Shea, said they would appeal the Fehr verdict, and asked that the
cub not be moved pending resolution of the case.
In July 2003 the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance
cited Noah’s Lost Ark for failing to meet four of the 16 Wise Giving
Alliance accountability standards and failing to supply information
adequate to determine if six other standards were met.
Long, who has lobbied on behalf of the Fund for Animals,
Humane Society of the U.S., and other animal advocacy groups for
more than 15 years, in 1968 as a backup quarterback for Ohio State
University ran for the touchdown that clinched a championship win
over Purdue and started the Woody Hayes football dynasty.
DePaul “pulls plug” on tiger sanctuary
CHICAGO–Chicago Tribune higher education reporter Robert
Becker wrote on March 14, 2004 that after spending $1 million to buy
55 acres for a tiger sanctuary at a southeastern Missouri site called
Discovery Ridge, and spending $800,000 more for fencing and the care
of five tigers during the past two years, DePaul University “is
quietly pulling the plug on the project.”
Situated 400 miles from the DePaul campus in Chicago, the
Discovery Ridge project started after DePaul ended a short-lived
association with the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge & Found-ation
in Arkansas. DePaul president Jack Minogue served for a time as
Turpentine Creek board chair.
“DePaul subsequently lent the refuge $120,000 and allowed a
DePaul employee to help part-time with fundraising,” Becker wrote.
“DePaul ended its affiliation with Turpentine Creek in 1998 over
‘unresolved concerns’ about the facility’s management, university
officials said.”
The five tigers at Discov-ery Ridge belong to site caretakers
Judy McGree and Keith Kinkade, wrote Becker, adding that “McGee and
Kinkade are negotiating to purchase the property.”
Tigers Only
Superior Court Judge Eugene Serpentonelli, of Toms River,
New Jersey, on March 19 ordered Joan Byron-Marasek to pay $133,555
of the estimated $290,000 cost of relocating 24 tigers to Wild Animal
Orphanage, near San Antonio, Texas. A former circus performer,
Byron-Marasek founded the Tigers Only Preservation Society in Jackson
Township, New Jersey, in 1975. In January 1999 a tiger was found
wandering nearby and was killed by police. While the identity of the
tiger was never firmly established, Tigers Only was closed in
November 2003 after a five-year legal battle.
Tiger Rescue
The Fund for Animals announced on March 9, 2004 that
construction of a 10-acre tiger habitat has begun at the Performing
Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in San Andreas, California, to
house the 39 remaining tigers of 54 who were seized in November 2002
from Tiger Rescue, operated for 30 years by John Weinhart, 62, at
sites in Glen Avon and Colton, California. Thirty dead adult tigers
and 58 dead cubs were also found at the Tiger Rescue premises.
Weinhart is now facing multiple related felony charges.
Fifteen of the Weinhart tigers were previously placed at other
sanctuaries. The Fund has paid more than $500 per day for the upkeep
of the tigers, and is contributing $250,000 toward the cost of the
PAWS facility, Fund president Mike Markarian said.
