Big Cats Are Likened to Prisoners

A Glen Avon tiger sanctuary operator on trial for animal cruelty and child endangerment treated the animals on his compound as “prisoners,” a prosecutor charged in her closing argument Wednesday.

Authorities discovered 11 live tiger and leopard cubs in an attic, dozens of dead tiger cubs stuffed in freezers and rotting carcasses of big cats littering John Weinhart’s property during an April 2003 raid by Riverside County animal control officials.

Weinhart was charged with child endangerment for exposing his then 8-year-old son, Michael, to a juvenile tiger chained on the patio, young alligators in a bathtub and a refrigerator full of powerful animal tranquilizers, one containing the drug PCP, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephanie B. Weissman.

Over several days of testimony, Weinhart said he did not feel that he endangered his son when he allowed the boy to feed goldfish to alligators, have access to a refrigerator that held a syringe and medication in addition to soda and chocolate candy, or wander around property scattered with decomposing animals and live tigers.

“He has no interest in this stuff,” Weinhart said.

His son testified earlier that tigers had swiped at him about 100 times during visits with his father.In his concluding statement, defense attorney R. Addison Steele II told the jury that evidence against Weinhart -- including photos of a grimy, cluttered house with cobwebs, empty cans and laundry -- was circumstantial and did not prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Being a poor housekeeper is not illegal,” Steele told the jury of nine women and three men. “It makes for some good pictures. It makes for sensationalism.”

Weissman described Weinhart’s home and property as filthy from animal feces, garbage and untended, diseased animals spreading bacteria, and said those and other conditions constituted criminal negligence toward his son and his animals.

Actress Tippi Hedren, who runs Shambala Animal Preserve in Acton, condemned conditions at Weinhart’s home when she took the stand Tuesday.

Weinhart testified last week that he would skin his big cats when they died, store the salted and dried hides in metal trailers to prevent people from stealing them, save their skulls and let their bodies decompose naturally above ground.

The defendant’s stormy relationship with government wildlife officials was cited by both prosecution and defense. Weinhart, 62, testified Monday and last week that he believed that agents with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the state Department of Fish and Game and Riverside County animal control were incompetent.

“They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” he said of animal control officials. “Fish and Game kills everything they touch,” said Weinhart, who also operated Tiger Rescue sanctuary in Colton.

The prosecutor painted Weinhart as a man so hostile to government officials that he was willing to endanger his animals to avoid cooperating.

“He hates Fish and Game more than he cares about these animals,” Weissman told jurors.

Jurors are scheduled to begin deliberations this afternoon.

If convicted, Weinhart faces a maximum sentence of 16 years and eight months in prison.