N4I Daily Briefing | 11:00 AM Wed, Nov 05, 2008
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December 2008
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Dick Stephens (shown at right) is an elderly farmer who gets around on crutches. He also owns two full-grown tigers who could easily kill him. Mr. Stephens will kiss his tigers on the mouth and put his arms in their cage so he can play with them. He insists his tigers aren't dangerous, but when I got too close to the cage, one of the tigers lunged at me, jamming one of her legs through the large openings in the cage. She grabbed me and pulled me toward the bars. She didn't hurt me, but it definately freaked me out. Mr. Stephens keeps the tigers in a cage behind his barn. So, what is he required to do? Under Missouri law, Mr. Stephens is supposed to tell the local Sheriff that he has the tigers on his property. That's it. And, yes, he did that. Mr. Stephens, who lives about 50 miles north of Springfield, Missouri, bought his tigers from a back yard breeder. How easy is it to buy a lion or tiger? I could do it right now. I could buy one over the computer or I could travel to a backyard breeder or auction and hand somebody a handful of cash, perhaps as little as $400, and walk away with a tiger or lion cub. Seriously, it's that easy. Many animal welfare advocates, including Eric Miller, the Senior Vice-President of Zoological Operations for the St. Louis Zoo, support stronger legislation to protect exotic animals and people who could be hurt by them. In June 2003, Mr. Miller testified before a Congressional subcommittee on the issue. Here's a link to his testimony. There are many reasons to be concerned about dangerous animals that are owned by people who may not appreciate the risk. This year, tigers attacked and seriously injured two workers at different animal parks in Missouri.
Three years ago, 17-year old Haley Hildebrand (shown at right) was posing with a tiger at an animal sanctuary in Kansas when it pawed her foot. She got scared, squeeled and started to run away. That's when the tiger attacked and killed her, "like a tiger attacks it's prey," according to Haley's mom Ronda Good.
Haley's parents Ronda and Mike (shown at left) have testified repeatedly in recent years to strengthen exotic animal laws. Their efforts have prompted some reform in Kansas and Iowa, but were not enough to convince Missouri lawmakers to change the law. The Goods are also trying to get federal legislation passed. Kansas Congresswoman Nancy Boyda (D) is the sponsor of Haley's Act. It's been introduced, but there hasn't been any other action on it. Eleven months ago, the USDA gave it a "favorable executive comment." I spoke with the Goods in their Kansas home recently. It's clear that Mr. and Mrs. Good felt like they were on a mission, helping educate the public while they pushed legislators to protect the public through laws that hold the owners of exotic animals more accountable. Unfortunately, the Goods are questioning the impact of their efforts, even describing the overall outcome as "dissapointing." It's easy to see why they could feel that way, but despite their frustrations, there's no question the Goods have made a difference. A big reason why there are still so many potential problems is that the danger keeps moving. For example; Dick Stephens took his two tigers and left Kansas partly to escape the tougher law that resulted from Haley's death. He moved to Missouri, which has a much weaker law. In fact, according to the animal welfare group Born Free, Missouri has one of the weakest laws in the country. Julie Leicht, the Executive Director of the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation, describes the Missouri law as requiring the exotic animal owner "to call the local Sheriff and say 'Hey, by the way, I've got a tiger in my backyard." Although, the exotic animal owners are required to register their animals, the penalties are minimal and it's a misdemeanor. Some pet owners in Missouri have violated the law, kept their animals in horrible conditions and not gone to jail. Obviously, communities can set their standards. For example, residents of the city of St. Louis are not allowed to keep big cats on their property. Leicht says dangerous exotic animals like tigers, lions and bears should be microchipped and registered so the state can easily track them, the owners should have to pay registration fees, should not be allowed to let anyone touch the animals and should be required to get insurance. Leicht is hopeful that Missouri lawmakers will pass a stronger exotic animal legislation following the attacks on the two Missouri workers. A tougher law with mandatory fees and insurance would probably prompt Dick Stephens to finally give up his tigers. And that day can't come soon enough for some of his neighbors who believe the backyard tigers are a timebomb waiting to explode.
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Did anyone even notice in the video that there was no actual lock on the tiger cage, just a metal pin holding the door shut. Anyone could walk up and pull the pin and let the tigers out. You might ask, "Who would do such a stupid thing?"; but I've seen kids do worse than that on a dare.
By the way, the sheriff's deputies in Mr. Stephens county, didn't even know that by state law they were required to keep a registry of such animals in their county; and admitted that there are many, many more tigers and lions in that area in backyard pens.
We need protection from such carelessness, and these poor unfortunate creatures need better living conditions.
What is worse than no law is Warren County MO who had a law and refused to enforce it. The elected officials actually "lied" to the residents claiming nothing could be done about the lions, tigers, cougars, bear,wolves and leopards in our county. The problem was so bad it was reported in 2000 to Senator Ted House who investigated and was not told the Zoning Order would have forced the people out of the county or forced them to obtain the necessary permits which could have limited the breeding and established safety criteria. The problem was brought up the Rep. Sutherland in 2003 who also did not know of the Zoning Order and introduced the first Dangerous Carnivore Bill in 2004. The bill has been introduced each year but has not made it out of the Senate. When a man who accompanied a volunteer was attacked in Warren Co. and lost his leg above the knee the owners got rid of their animals and THEN the commissioners passed an ordinance prohibiting ownership still failing to acknowledge the animals were there illegally. The owners have no insurance and are not being charged for "failure to contain the animal" 578.009 only with lying to the Sheriff. They hid the dead tiger & claimed it was a Pit Bull attack. Where is Justice in this case?
Did anyone notice these cats had NO outside yard? They have lived their life in a barn, with one side facing the outside. Their water was black the day I was there, October 25, 2008. Those poor tigers live a miserable and boring life. How can the owner not see that? Shamefully, none of the news stations in Springfield weren't interested in running the story of two adult tigers in an UNLOCKED backyard cage. THANK YOU to Craig Cheetham for his story on the tigers in the unlocked cage in the barn in Tunas, Missouri. I went straight to the sherrif upon finding those tigers in an unlocked cage. They did not know of the law requiruing them be registered. I was sadly disappointed to find only ONE deputy even interested in learning about the law. Her desire and search for knowledge impressed me. I, too had called ALL law enforcement offices in the state of Missouri back in August & September 2008. NONE knew of Mo Statue 578.023 and some said they would absolutley refuse to keep such a registry. Back then I was told by the Dallas County Sherrif they had no exotic carnivores in their county. well, obviously they do. Missouri NEEDS new laws!! Were two tiger attacks in August 2008 not enough? NOTE: Both of the facilities where those attacks happened had been video taped and reported as unsafe in early 2007. TV Stations refused to run the footage in 2007. I can't help but wonder if they had would the two attacks from 2008 in Missouri happened? News media MUST step up to the plate and be responsible enough to inform the public. THANK YOU Craig for your efforts and for your story!
Imagine being parents like the Good's who have watched the federal and state governments repeatedly choose Dick Stephen's right to own and abusively cage a dangerous carnivore as a "pet" over their right for public safety. What is the world coming to? These states and their legislatures should be ashamed!
Missouri needs a law banning the private ownership of dangerous exotic animals. This is for both human and animal welfare.
It is the only sane and humane thing to do.
The public needs to demand that this be the law. That such a bill be passed. It is those who are making big money off these animals who are keeping such a bill from being passed. Slavery has been abolished- but not for these animals.
And these animals are a threat to human safety.
These animals often lead long lives of misery.
And they do attack and cause harm.
Why is Missouri one of the worst states when it comes to this issue? I live in rural Missouri and only recently found out about the exotic animal trade that goes on here. The public needs to be made aware of this. We need much publicity and we need to make our voices heard that this practice is unacceptable!