Caroline board stops influx of big cats

EMERGENCY ORDINANCE PROHIBITS KEEPING OF ‘DANGEROUS, WILD, EXOTIC OR VICIOUS’ ANIMALS

Posted: Monday, May 18, 2015 

BY DAWNTHEA PRICE/THE FREE LANCE-STAR 

When Mary Fineberg was looking for a Virginia residence in 2013, she had a few requirements for her new home: It had to be within reasonable commuting distance of her contractor job in Springfield—and it had to permit her to bring along two exotic monkeys and a cougar.
But because of an emergency ordinance passed on May 12 by the Caroline County Board of Supervisors, Fineberg and her partner, Sammy Johns Jr., must uproot Andrea, Delilah and Czar once more, as well as halt their plans to bring in an additional six big cats and two zookeepers.

During their May 12 meeting, the supervisors unanimously passed an emergency ordinance prohibiting the keeping of animals defined as “dangerous, wild, exotic or vicious,” excepting traveling exhibitions and zoological parks.

There is a 45-day window for the removal of any such animals owned by county residents.

The ordinance, which will expire in its current form on July 11, is based on a similar provision in Fairfax County and will act as a placeholder while Caroline enacts a permanent ordinance.

It also halts Fineberg’s plans to add two cougars, two lynx cats, one Geoffroy’s cat and a tiger.

Fineberg, who has the appropriate permits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said the additional cats—and two qualified zookeepers—were coming to build up her nonprofit organization, PEACE Fam.

PEACE Fam’s mission, according to its website, aims to, “bring people together to enhance appreciation and understanding of each other, of wildlife conservation, and of the Earth’s natural resources.”

At the meeting, several residents living adjacent to Fineberg and Johns attended the meeting to share their own experiences and fears with the supervisors.

Several hadn’t known about the plans for additional cats until new enclosures began to appear in their neighbors’ backyard. “I can’t protect myself against a Bengal tiger,” neighbor Carol Quiggle said. “This is a clear and present danger, this is completely beyond what is tolerable. I’m asking you for your help to protect us.”

Neighbor Sally Calabro, who operates the horse farm Alezan Acres on about 30 acres west of Fineberg’s property, said the “alarming” situation had blindsided her and other neighbors.

“Could it get loose? I ask you—we need your help,” Calabro said at the meeting. “Nobody’s regulating them now, and now we’re talking about getting six more.”

The neighbors were joined by Matthew Gray, state director of the Humane Society of the United States, and by animal control Sgt. J.C. Heffler of the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Tony Lippa also spoke to the supervisors, outlining his own experience with exotic animals in law enforcement.

Lippa told supervisors that Caroline did not have the resources that could be necessary in a worst-case scenario, then recalled a 2011 incident in Zanesville, Ohio, in which a zookeeper released dozens of exotic animals he had been caring for before committing suicide. “If they had animals, and if they got free, who do you think’s going to go get them?” he asked. “It’s our animal control and our deputies.”

Madison District Supervisor Wayne Acors said the ordinance was not to single out Fineberg and Johns, but did call attention to an issue that Caroline hadn’t regulated, beyond prohibiting poisonous snakes. “I think that the concern was, according to the Sheriff’s Department, the pens that they were building for these cats,” he said, “would certainly not be strong enough to hold the cats if they really wanted to get out.”

Fineberg told supervisors that it wasn’t fair for all exotic animal owners to be penalized for what happened in Ohio. Later, she said there is a lot of misinformation about owning such animals. “I guess each case is different, but I am in favor of exotic animal ownership,” she said. “As long as the animals are humanely kept and loved and that people abide by the rules, as I've been doing.”

Though the board’s decision made her sad, Fineberg said she bore no animosity toward the supervisors or her neighbors. Instead, she said she is focusing on finding new, legal accommodations for the animals under her care.

But she still wishes the meeting had gone differently. “I think that, if they had all the facts and knew all the safety measures that were going to be taken,” Fineberg said, “they would be more comfortable.”

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