Animal Havens Easily Overwhelmed
Running an exotic animal sanctuary is a demanding labor of love. Zoning commissions and neighbors look suspiciously on the animals. Local laws govern the size of enclosures and the strength of fences. And it takes thousands of dollars to feed big animals with big appetites.
Mary Lynn Roberts, who runs Tiger Haven on 44 acres in Kingston, Tenn., estimates it costs her $1 million a year to house and feed her 163 meat-eating animals: tigers, lions, cougars, lynx, a leopard and a serval. That doesn’t count the bumper crop of tiger and lion cubs, the litters of five of the 34 big cats she recently rescued from Arkansas, that she is now bottle-feeding.
“This is a lifestyle, not a job,” said Roberts, 49, who lives with her husband and a small staff on the premises. “When a storm comes in at 3 a.m., we’re all here to walk them into their lock-downs.” Then there is the most heartbreaking task: saying no to more animals. If Roberts sees them, her resistance melts.
“There’s nowhere else for them to go.”
So when John Weinhart, the owner of the Tiger Rescue sanctuary in Colton, was found to have dozens of dead or starving animals at his Riverside County home, months after he had been cited for a variety of instances of animal negligence at his sanctuary, he was exactly what the struggling animal sanctuary movement does not need.
“How are people going to know the difference between my place and his?” Roberts asked. “There’s no trademark on the word ‘zoo’ or ‘sanctuary.’ ”
Despite the permits required in California, from the Department of Fish and Game and also from the U.S. Department of Agriculture if the sanctuary is exhibiting the animals to the public, shelters for big exotic creatures often have problems caring properly for animals. Sometimes it’s an issue of a well-meaning operator simply taking in too many animals. Other times, an operator is using the animals in a profit-making venture in which the welfare of the animals takes a low priority, according to Kathy Riordan, a former board member of the Wildlife Waystation in Tujunga and a member of the L.A. Board of Animal Services.
“Some people question whether it’s exploitative,” she said.
At least two people who work in the sanctuary business said they complained to the Department of Agriculture months -- in one case, years -- ago about Weinhart’s sanctuary. A USDA official who handles animal care in the western United States declined to talk about the case Friday, referring the inquiry to a department official in Washington, D.C., who did not return a phone call. A San Bernardino County official said Thursday that he would ask a judge to take Weinhart’s animals away from him.
Veterinarian Martin Dinnes of Agua Dulce said he treated Weinhart’s animals in the 1970s and 1980s, until he stopped paying his bills.
The cash-strapped Department of Fish and Game has about 275 wardens -- one for every 1,000 square miles -- to monitor wildlife in the state, enforce hunting and fishing laws and inspect sanctuaries.
The Wildlife Waystation has been mired in legal troubles for three years since it was closed to the public after being charged with hundreds of health, sanitation and other violations. Sanctuary representatives have said they made substantial changes. But the shelter remains closed, and county officials say its use permits are not in order.
Victoria VanCamp, a former volunteer at the Wildlife Waystation, said government officials should be more vigilant about all sanctuaries.
“It’s just left up to the people managing sanctuaries, and everyone hopes they are doing it right,” she said. “These animals came from abusive situations. To be put in another abusive situation should be illegal.”
There are two basic credos of sanctuaries, operators say: One is to never breed -- except in rare circumstances. The other is to not offer the animals for recreation.
For a $20 donation, Weinhart allowed visitors to his sanctuary to be photographed holding a tiger cub. Last summer, he let visitors play in a trailer with tiger cubs for a fee, according to Natalie Paulson, a staffer at another sanctuary, who visited Tiger Rescue then.
Tippi Hedren, the former movie star who founded and runs one of California’s best known sanctuaries, the Shambala Preserve, said her philosophy is “no breeding, no buying, no selling, no trading, no commercial use, no open markets, no taking the animals to a party, no putting them in any stupid situation.”
Tigers, in particular, seem vulnerable to abuse. Ed Maruska, director of the L.A. Zoo, estimates there are 6,500 tigers in the wild but 10,000 in private hands in the United States. Only a fraction of those are in zoos. Not only are people trying to keep them as pets, which is outlawed in some states, including California, but there is a trade in tiger parts as well.
“The main problem facing tigers now is that they are believed, particularly in China, to have medicinal properties,” Maruska said. “People want the bones and the whiskers and their teeth.”
Hedren said people sometimes try to start a sanctuary, thinking they will have a collection of big cat pets.
“This is not a pussy cat or a puppy,” she said. “These are animals whose instinct is to hunt and kill.” When people call her asking advice on how to start a preserve, “My first question is, ‘Are you independently wealthy?’ ” Hedren said.
Chemaine Almquist and her husband, Joel, have owned Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary in the high desert town of Phelan since 1997. The sanctuary houses 19 large cats along with parrots and other exotic pets, such as snakes, birds and tortoises.
They struggle to pay the estimated $700 a month in food, veterinary and construction costs. And right now, they need four more cages.
“I’ve got $300 in the bank and a temporary cage will cost me at least $2,000,” she said.
The couple has declared bankruptcy twice because of the sanctuary, she said.
“These sanctuary operators quite often don’t know what they’re biting off to manage a sanctuary,” said Lora LaMarca, director of marketing for the L.A. Zoo. “Exotic animals take special vet care, special food and animal management. Without all those things, they won’t be successful.”
