What Happened » FAQ

Why don't zoos come in and take these animals?
Zoos would not want most of these cats. When zoos acquire new animals, they want to know the history on the animal and they want to be sure that the animal they are getting is a pure breed - in fact, stud books are often kept, just like in the horse-breeding trade. The tigers at the Colton Tiger Rescue have been allowed to mate with each other over and over, producing offspring that mixes Siberian with Sumatran, and so on. Given the fact that these is no family history on any of the cats, and the fact that most of them are "mutts" of a sort, they are not attractive to zoos. When they put a sign up in front of a Siberian Tiger enclosure, they want to be sure it actually is a Siberian tiger.

How much food are they getting now?
Approximately 500 lbs of chicken is being purchased daily to feed the animals. The facility does not have any kind of refrigeration unit on-site, so we are only able to buy as much as we need for that day. The chicken leg-quarters are bought from a local meat market that offers lower prices for bulk orders.

Why chicken?
Although the Fund for Animals would love to provide beef (or ideally, a specially balanced formula called Natural Balance^® Carnivore Diet), such provisions are not only cost-prohibitive, but there is no conceivable way to actually deliver the food to the animals given the way the structure was built.

Why did Weinhart keep the 58 dead cubs in the freezer?
Back during the raid of his home, Weinhart stated that the cubs were being saved for research purposes - however the process of freezing animals renders the animal much less useful for research, so this seems unlikely.

Has Weinhart taken any of the animals so far?
He has removed many of the domestic animals (such as the goats, the llamas, the alpaca, the camel, and a few sheep).

How can he be allowed to remove these animals?
He is not only allowed to, he is required by law to do so. The animals at the facility are still technically his property. Although he has an order against him disallowing him to possess or care for any animals, they still belong to him, so he is able to move them to other locations provided he is not the one caring for them.

If the conditions were so bad, why didn't we see any of the footage in the news or in the papers?
Photographs and video was sent to the media, but was consistently deemed too graphic to show.

If the cats are used to people, does that mean they are safer than working with animals from the wilderness?
No - in fact, in some ways it makes them more dangerous. Wild animals usually have an inherent fear of human beings that would increase our safety levels while working around them. Because these animals do not fear people, they make no attempt to hide from us and in fact rush to meet us at the cage wires. This can be particularly dangerous during feeding time.