[FEL-L] Exhibitor whose tiger cubs died has had run-ins with regulators

[BigCatSimba at aol.com]

Last update: July 07, 2007 - 10:59 AM 
DULUTH - The operator of a traveling exhibit where four white tiger 
cubs died has faced allegations by federal authorities over how other 
animals have been handled, the Duluth News Tribune reported on 
Saturday. 
It's still not known why the cubs died. They were born Tuesday to Gita 
and Splash, two royal white Bengal tigers on display at the Zoo 
Dynamics exhibit at the Mighty Thomas Carnival, which is traveling 
through Duluth. 
But a complaint filed in May by the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
claims Zoo Dynamics operator Marcus Cook has supervised numerous 
animals that received improper veterinary care and had untreated 
health problems, and that he allowed the public, including children, 
to handle tigers. The allegations date from 2002 to 2007. 
Also, in 2003 the Texas attorney general's office obtained an 
emergency court order to block Cook and the company he was then 
associated with, ZooCats, from exhibiting tigers. The attorney 
general's office also said ZooCats lied about connections with the 
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and used publicly donated money 
for profit-making purposes even though it was supposedly a nonprofit. 
Cook's agreement with the attorney general's office called for ZooCats 
to be dissolved and barred Cook from claiming he has a good safety 
record. He also must not tell people he has a bachelor's degree in 
zoology. He was ordered to pay $100,000. Cook has denied making any 
misrepresentations. 
Cook's tigers have been involved in at least three biting or attack 
incidents. The most recent was in June 2006 in Texas when a Bengal 
tiger escaped its cage and mauled a yard worker, who required 2,000 
stitches. 
Cook told the News Tribune that the worker had a history of mental 
illness and signed a statement saying he was attempting to commit 
suicide. He said the allegations against him are "99.9 percent are 
completely incorrect, unfounded or misrepresented," and he said he 
never lets the public handle his tigers. People can pay to feed them 
by handing food over a gate with a pair of tongs. 
Zoo Dynamics said it suspected the tiger cubs' deaths were caused by 
congenital defects. 
Ron Tilson, director of conservation at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple 
Valley, said all white tigers are inbred. Their origins are with a 
white tiger captured in India in 1951, which mated with one of its 
daughters, which had a recessive gene to create another white tiger, 
he said. 
"They're all so highly inbred almost to the level of brother and 
sister," said Tilson who, because of that, believes breeding white 
tigers is inhumane. 
"This is abuse; this is not natural. It's doing something that is 
contrary to what nature would order," he said. "They are producing 
cubs that are not doing well simply for the sake of making money." 
_http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1289845.html_ 
(http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1289845.html)  



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