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Agitated tiger, hole in fence, over in an instant
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN and JAMIE MALERNEE
© St. Petersburg Times, CENTER HILL -- Tie, the gold Siberian tiger, paced in his dilapidated cage Tuesday as Vince Lowe worked on the other side, fixing a small door. Agitated, the 500-pound cat grabbed the bottom of the chain-link fence and ripped it out of the ground with his teeth. Lowe hammered on the fence with a crowbar, trying to drive the cat back. Tie pushed against the fence with his body. "Get out!" Lowe yelled at his assistant. Tie jumped onto a bench in his cage. Next to him -- unknown to Lowe -- was a 6-inch hole. As Lowe's assistant left the cage, she noticed the opening. "Oh my God, there's a hole in the fence!" Lesa Lucas yelled. The tiger saw it, too. Lowe grabbed a piece of plywood and dashed to the fence, desperately trying to slam it over the hole. "Get my hammer! Get my hammer!" he yelled. The tiger rammed through the opening, tackling Lowe and tearing his throat, killing him in an instant. Lowe had no time to pull and fire the .357-caliber pistol in his pocket, Lucas says. "He came straight in and grabbed (Lowe) by the throat," Lucas told the St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday from Lowe's home east of Brooksville. "It happened in seconds." A day after the attack at Savage Kingdom, more information emerged about the exotic animal ranch in rural Sumter County. The day of the accident, Lucas says she and Lowe, 49, were fixing some of the code violations cited the week before during an inspection by the federal Department of Agriculture. The violations called for the park to clean, paint and repair some of the animal cages, she said. "It's a dump," Lucas said Wednesday. "We were in fear to go into some of the cages." Lowe, a longtime cat enthusiast, and Lucas began working at Savage Kingdom in June, after borrowing a cage Lowe needed for some of the five cougars housed at his Hernando County farm. It was clear, Lucas said, that the facility's aging owner had let the place run down. The two agreed to help Robert Baudy, 77, a once-famous breeder who appeared with his large cats on the Ed Sullivan Show. In return, Lowe hoped to rack up hours working with tigers to qualify for an additional state animal license. But the longer they worked, the more uneasy they felt. They saw sinking floors in the snow leopard cages and holes in the walls of other pens. Just before his death, Lowe was replacing doors on tiger cages because holes at the bottom allowed tigers to poke their legs out. Lowe's wife, Christine, was appalled by Lucas' account of the conditions. "I know I wouldn't have my cats in (cages) like that," she said. State officials are inspecting the ranch but had no plans to close it as of Wednesday. Baudy declined comment when reached at Savage Kingdom. Federal inspection reports from 1998 through 2000 show that the park had a history of problems, ranging from rotting cages and shoddy flooring to unsanitary conditions. Federal officials declined to characterize the problems at Savage Kingdom as typical or unusual for an operation of its type. Since 1998, Savage Kingdom has been inspected by the USDA nine times. In 1997, a full investigation was launched when a 400-pound tiger mangled the leg of a worker, who forgot to close a door while feeding it. The worker survived. That cat, like Tie, was killed. As far as state inspectors know, however, Savage Kingdom is up to code. That's because the last time they visited was in May 1999, as part of a re-inspection of problems found two months earlier. At the time, it passed with flying colors, said Joy Hill, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Hill said her agency would like to inspect exotic animal areas more frequently but lack the resources. The agency has 12 inspectors for the state. Their workload includes keeping track of nearly 4,000 operations approved to house the most dangerous exotic animals -- such as tigers, gorillas, elephants and lions. Thousands more facilities are authorized to own lesser exotics, such as cougars, panthers and coyotes. Animal activists and watchdog groups say such lax oversight is part of a widespread problem involving the breeding and keeping of exotic animals. "It's frightening. It's crazy," said Nicole Paquette, an attorney and legislative coordinator for the Animal Protection Institute, a California-based animal advocacy group. "The question isn't, 'Does he meet the state licensing requirements?' I'm sure he does. The question is, 'Are those enough?' " Loise Kahle, a St. Petersburg resident and member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, doesn't think so. As soon as she heard about the mauling, she started calling government officials Wednesday demanding action. "I want this place fined. I want its license taken away," she said. Her gripe with Savage Kingdom is simple: She doesn't think the facility should exist in the first place. She is against the captivity of any wild animal for any purpose. "How would you like it if I put you in a cage with no friends or family, no socialization, and crappy food? They pace back and forth, and out of boredom, they crack." Actually, compared to the rest of the United States, Florida has rather tough animal protection laws. It has one of the largest size requirements for cages housing exotic animals and a ban on owning the most dangerous of exotics as pets. "Some states, there is nothing," said Paquette, who has been documenting exotic animal escapes and attacks for the past two years. As the number grows, she predicts so will the legislative measure meant to keep the public safe and the animals healthy. "The more the public becomes aware," she said, "the more (requirements) we're going to see." - Times staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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