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REXANO R.E.X.A.N.O. Zuzana Kukol
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Why is Zuzana Kukol of REXANO trying to discredit Big Cat Rescue?
Zuzana Kukol AKA Zuzanna Kukol part of the 6th generation Fercos Brothers circus act residing in Pahrump, NV
"The private ownership of ALL Animals should be protected and legal in the USA. Just say NO! to anti animal ownership laws!" Zuzana Kukol
Zuzana Kukol
Tigers9@cox.net
REXANO
205 N. Stephanie Street
Suite D # 131
(mail box service only called Affordable Mail)
Home address is near Betsy Lane in Pahrump, NV
co-founder of REXANO the acronym for Responsible Exotic Animal Owners, which is a contradiction in terms
Phone: 702.419.5011 (cell phone)
[thrive_2step id='11362′]Trigger goes here[/thrive_2step]
The term "responsible exotic animal owner" is an oxymoron. Responsible people do not endanger their communities while forcing wild animals to suffer lives of deprivation and boredom for their own amusement.The following is a partial listing (755) of incidents in the U.S. involving captive exotic cats since 1990. The U.S. incidents have resulted in the deaths of 23 humans, 16 adults and 5 children, the additional mauling of 259 more adults and children, 273 escapes, the killing of 146 big cats, and 133 confiscations. There have also been 288 big cat incidents outside the U.S. that have resulted in the deaths of 96 humans and the mauling of 152 humans by captive big cats. These figures only represent the headlines that Big Cat Rescue has been able to track. Because there is no reporting agency that keeps such records the actual numbers are certainly much higher. http://bigcatrescue.org/big-cat-attacks
Reporters often ask, "Who keeps big cats as pets?" and their question is usually a request for contact information so that they can interview the people and get photos of them with their hands in the cages, or worse yet, rolling about on the ground with lions, tigers and other creatures designed to hunt and kill animals far more powerful than humans. It gets attention to publish such photos and that sells papers and ad space, but it also helps perpetuate the false notion that man can control such magnificent beasts. It is a romantic notion that attracts even the most intellectual in our society when we see such images splashed across the page.
As is often the case, the media is looking for eye candy and bizarre tales to titillate the public because the public is often deemed too dull to really understand matters of substance. It is a self perpetuating prophecy then that reporting entertainment and calling it news creates a society that is apathetic toward real news because it isn't considered main stream, and thus is often labeled as being the work of zealots with some imagined, anti cultural agenda.
Regardless of the topic, there will always be exceptions to the rules, but in the case of people who possess wild animals those exceptions are so rare that they even further emphasize the commonality of the rest. The traits are so apparent in the manner of the person and the nature of their handiwork, whether it be a web site, a blog or the way that they exploit the wildlife in their possession that even the most gullible can see through the transparent veneer.
What is almost universally shared by those who keep wild animals as pets, or props and even most of those who operate private zoos and sanctuaries is that they are uneducated, poor, hot tempered, attention seekers.
With a world of information at our fingertips, ignorance still passes from generation to generation because in some cases there is an expectation of the child that they can never do better than their parents. A child raised in an environment of domestic violence and expected entitlement without work is likely to grow up into an adult with the same attitudes and behavior. Thus it comes as no surprise that generation after generation of "tiger tamers" continue to try and support themselves from their trade even long after the public has decided that these are unacceptable ways to treat any animal.
Considering these personal traits it also makes clear the necessity of having something that makes them feel good about themselves. In the case of those who make pets of wild animals, there is a universal need on their part to portray themselves as having a bond with the wild that other "mere mortals" cannot achieve. They will always tell you that they have a special gift or training that sets them apart, so that THEY can pet the tiger, but YOU cannot. They call themselves "Educators" and drag their wild animals around from flea market to fair ground, espousing the reasons that OTHER people (the mere mortals) should not attempt to have these as pets, because only THEY are special enough to have such a pet. Roy Horn would surely have uttered the same sentiments just minutes before his tiger, Montecore, nearly killed him on stage in Las Vegas.
If you meet an exotic pet owner without a boa around their neck, or a tiger on a chain, within two minutes they have pulled out a dog-eared photo album of all of their pictures of them restraining animals that would never allow a human near them if they had the choice. In their eyes it is an immediate way to even the playing field and let others know that they are equals, if not superior. The overwhelming need to do so is a manifestation of the great lack of self esteem they feel but dare not admit, even to themselves. The mood elevating drugs (legal and illegal) and the alcohol are the only ways they can deaden themselves to the pain that cannot be remedied no matter how much they talk about their wild animal connection.
Abusing their animals and their families cannot give them a lasting sense of power. That is why they are often unmarried and estranged from their families. Their families can break free from them, but the animals are kept chained and caged, the way they might well have kept the people in their lives were it not an offense that could land them in jail. Men who could not attract a woman in any other way will often find that women will do anything to please including cleaning his cages, his house and his underwear and giving him the affection that no woman of any self confidence would.
On the flip side of this gender role is the woman who relies on a back yard full of tigers to attract the attention of young men who come seeking a way to prove their manhood by subduing a wild animal that would kill him in an instant were the two to meet in a natural situation. It is the same unquenchable desire to feel empowered without paying the price of self introspection and change and could be likened to the gambler's quest for easy money without work.
By the early 1990's science was beginning to discover the extent to which animals exhibited intelligence and emotion. Anyone who has ever had a pet cat or dog could tell you that they are intelligent and that they feel loneliness, anger, resentment, embarrassment, joy and a host of emotions, but it took science hundreds of years to catch up. Keeping wild animals captive began to be considered cruel and self serving as people became aware of the fact that the tiger in the cage could experience the pain of being held against his will. It became fashionable then for exotic pet owners to call themselves "educators" and some even manage to give an educational spiel but it doesn't matter how good the message may be; if you are standing there with a cougar on a leash, no one is hearing the message. They are just thinking how cool it would be if they could have a cougar on a leash. The litmus test is the fact that these people were not doing conservation education before they needed that label to justify their behavior and the minute they can't use the animal as a prop they wouldn't choose to be in the education business.
The roadside zoo operators and pseudo sanctuarians are, in many cases, just a more organized version of the exotic pet owner and have found ways to get the public to support their delusions of grandeur. They portray themselves as rescuers and martyrs for their cause. When they are poor and filthy and uneducated they can tell themselves and others that it is because they are so altruistic that all of their time and energy is being sacrificed for the good of the animals they have saved. They quickly learn that high profile rescues and having cute babies around bring in donations. They claim to breed the animals to save them from extinction, when none of the animals in these collections are really involved in any conservation breeding programs. They claim to be educating the public to save habitat and the planet by taking their cats out to parking lots in circus wagons and setting up a donation jar. Some do a better job of fooling the public than others and the media often plays into their hands, but the only real purpose they serve is their own self aggrandizement and a way to pay their bills without having to get a real job.
This becomes abundantly clear when they have rescued dozens, or hundreds of animals and found that it is a reverse pyramid scheme that is ultimately doomed to collapse. While babies and new rescues generate money, they also add to the mouths that ultimately need to be fed. In some sanctuaries there is a practice of rescuing animals, for whom they have no space, and them forcing these animals to live in overcrowded groups. This is especially heinous in the case of big cats who are solitary by nature and hard wired to kill each other if they come in contact. That fact plays into the hands of these most abusive personalities. In some pseudo sanctuaries certain animals, deemed "too dangerous" are killed for no apparent reason than to make room for more rescues.
These exploiters can rescue far more cats if the cats kill each other and for that reason these places are often closed to the public. If the fighting and killing becomes known to the public it is rationalized by the sanctuarian who protests that it is the cat's fault if they won't get along, claiming that they did their part to rescue the animal and if it insists on getting killed, then it is the animal's lack of gratitude at fault. The same irrational reasoning is used to excuse why they do not provide medical care for the animals by caustically replying to you, as if you were the idiot, that these animals don't get medical care in the wild. The same excuse is used for not providing contraception and the side benefit they get from that is that the cubs produced are often food for the rest of the animals in the group and if they need a new baby for photo ops or for media attention there is always one to use. In order to cover their misdeeds the policies in these kinds of places are to not give the animals names, under the guise of avoiding anthropomorphism, but the real reason is because there are virtually no state or federal laws that require positive identification of the animals and not having a name makes it even harder to track what has happened to an animal after it was "rescued."
These operations invariably implode. When they do, the owners move away, abandon the animals, and tell themselves and the world that they have done their part and must retire because it has taken all they had, which was nothing to begin with. They will dramatically sweep a hand to their brow and announce that they are dying and that it is time someone else stepped up and took over. When they walk away from all of the animals that they so professed to love, they do so with no feelings of remorse because they are more affected by their sense of entitlement than to anything that resembles responsibility. They move to a new place, change their name and do it all over again.
The exotic animal "rescuers" are often the most vocal in opposition to ending the exotic pet trade. They rant incessantly about how greater restrictions on wildlife trafficking will mean that they have to euthanize all of their animals when that has never been true. Where laws have passed in the US banning the trade in wild animals there have always been grandfather clauses that allow the private owners to keep their animals until they die and there have always been exceptions made to organizations, such as accredited zoos and sanctuaries, but the ones screaming the loudest have no interest in meeting a higher standard. They use the opportunity as a platform for disseminating false information and blaming people who truly care about animals for all of their woes.
Even those "sanctuarians" who do not publicly speak out against more protective laws do virtually nothing to assist in their passage. Some may pay lip service to the activity but it doesn't take long to figure out that they know nothing of the pending legislation in their state nor at a federal level. They love to cite the IRS as their reason to not get involved, implying or stating that charities cannot participate in any way, but that isn't true. They frequently excuse their behavior by saying that they "don't like politics" or will say they are too busy with their mission to get involved. That makes as much sense as feverishly bailing out an overflowing bathtub and saying you are too busy or too averse to knobs to turn off the water. The fact of the matter is that they define themselves by being perceived as saviors and if there were no wild animals to save they would lose their only redeeming feature.
Keeping wild animals, especially exotic cats, came into vogue in the sixties, largely due to television shows that portrayed a person as being special if they had such a pet or relationship. Television programming created the illusion of a world where people could live with lions, tigers, bears, dolphins and all manner of wild animals. Our society, long removed from any real experience with nature, longed to believe that it was not only possible, but that the animals preferred captivity to living free. Ask almost any woman who has a back yard full of lions what her first memory of that attraction was and she will often cite "Born Free" as being that "life changing moment." They conveniently forget the fact that Elsa died very shortly after being abandoned by the people who raised her as a pet and then returned her to the wild with no pride and no hunting skills.
We now have nearly half a century of data on the subject of people who keep wild animals captive and yet until the time that you read these words you probably never saw an in depth investigation into the troubled and delusional minds of those who are the captors. And that begs an even more important question…"why not?"
Not to minimize its deleterious effects on the person practicing it, but consider how much attention has been focused on women who vomit after every meal to stay thin. Oddly, the initial instigator is one and the same in that television portrays the perfect women as being gaunt to the point of it being an unrealistic achievement barring bulimia or some latter stage disease. You can't check out in a grocery store line without seeing headlines about celebrities weight struggles, and yet, to my knowledge, no one was ever so fat or so thin that an innocent bystander was killed or mauled by coming in close contact with people who are diagnosed as being obsessed with their appearance. Just since 1990 there have been more than 755 incidents involving captive big cats in the U.S. So why is it that you rarely hear more than a passing comment about the mental instability of most wild animal owners?
It is that shared illusion that keeps the majority from wanting to wake from the dream. We hear about a man keeping a tiger and an alligator in his Harlem apartment and we say that he "just wasn't thinking." We hear of a woman with 50 tigers in her back yard and no way to feed them and say she "just wasn't thinking." We watch as the lifeless body of a tiger who was shot to death for escaping is hauled away and say the person responsible "just wasn't thinking." Cruelty is not the result of "just not thinking." The fact of the matter is that WE just aren't thinking, and we are choosing not to think about the plight of the animals because our own participation in their abuse is something we are unwilling to face or change.
We are a generation who was raised with zoos and circuses and even our religions proclaimed man to be master of all beasts, with little or nothing said about the command to be good stewards. We want to believe that our goodness is so palpable that even the most ferocious of animals would give up their freedom just to live in our homes. Even those who do not currently live that way often will say, "if I won the lottery, I'd have a pet tiger" as if to say that money is all that keeps them from indulging such fantasy. When we see that cute baby animal being cuddled on some talk show we choose to NOT think about where the animal's mother is, or how it came to be that he was taken from her to be used this way. When we pay to see a film about tiger brothers, even when we know that more than 30 tigers were used in the film, we choose to NOT think about where those animal will be a year from now.
If we acknowledge great suffering and choose to look the other way, how can we reconcile our conscience? When the answers are so easy and cost us little more than a few letters and phone calls to our legislators, and yet we are unwilling to do even that small thing to alleviate the suffering of tens of thousands of wild animals who are languishing in cages, possessed by a class of people who would be criminals if they treated people the way they treat their "beloved pets" how can we feel good about ourselves? Sometimes the truth hurts, but no one suffers more than the exotic animals when the only thing they have; their desire to live free, is taken from them.
The purpose here is not to insult or cast blame, but to demystify the nature of the typical exotic cat owner. I believe that we are all on a path to our higher self and that even the worst of the abusers will one day look inside and redirect their actions. Until that time comes the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. still ring true, "Legislation cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.
Zuzana Kukol is the VP of the Feline Conservation Federation (fka the Long Island Ocelot Club) FCF's Big Cat Policy as of 5/19/08 is stated on their site to be:
"The Feline Conservation Federation (FCF) supports responsible ownership of all 38 currently recognized species of non-domestic feline" that means lions, tigers and all the rest.
On the Fercos Brothers website is a link to:
Dora Does Dollywood, Pebbles and Bam Bam (Zuzana's big cats) stay home… (Read the short story by Zuzana Kukol)
Zuzana's posts (tigers9) on a snake forum
Pics of tong/snake hadling needed
by tigers9 on March 29, 2008
Does anybody have a picture(s) of a proper way to handle venomous snake with tongs? Longer tongs are better for my project, I need it for another YouTube Rexano's ReptileHahaven Channel video.
If you do send it to me please to rexano1@yahoo.com
and tell me if u want to be anonymous, if not, tell me what name to use in credits at the end,
RE: Pics of tong/snake hadling needed
by FSB on March 29, 2008
Dear Rexano –
The proper way to use tongs or a hook or anything else to handle venomous snakes is to have someone who is absolutely experienced and knowledgeable using them! In other words, it isn't the tool that matters, it's who's using it, and tongs aren't always the most appropriate tool for a given situation anyway (in fact, I use a hook far more often than tongs). You don't want to be like the guy who wanted to learn to play the violin, so he went to a concert in order to "see how it's done." When his friend asked later if he had had any success in learning how to play, the man replied: "Next time I plan to sit a little closer." You really can't learn to handle venomous snakes (or play the violin) simply by seeing someone else do it.
Well, I disagree that tool doesn't matter, but that is a different topic.
This is what I am doing, very short instructional video for YouTube about/for folks like me who live with wild rattlers and why sometimes we shouldn't kill them but try to relocate them instead with tongs.
So I want the ABCs for idiots like me, how to get the snake and move it away from your house , safely, instead of killing it. I have 2 tong pics so far, would be nice to have more, kind of showing NON expert home owners living in AZ or NV how to properly catch the snake and move it instead of waiting 3 hours for animal control to show up since we live far away and often there is no time to wait.
Some of you might hate me on this forum, but over the years I had close calls with wild rattlers being in strike position 2 feet from my exotic pets and I had to kill them to save my stupid pets who would have gotten bitten teasing the poor snake, in these instances I had to kill the snake because I had no tong or ways to move it away and it was matter of seconds I had to act.
Since then I bought long tong.
I did few second of footage here in NV few days ago, Monday after Easter, with wild panamint that startled me when I was cleaning cages as I didn't realize they were our of hibernation already,so I run in the house as snake was not threatening my pets,so I had time, so I have my own wild footage video I took and pic of this snake in tong, we relocated it,I just want more pics of the proper tong use, that is all, I am not asking for pics because I want to teach idiots how to play with snakes, I want it to save few wild snakes and pets lives and my own too.
The video will get done, I just wanted input/help from here, that is all.
Fact is I live with Mohave and panamint rattlers and there are others like me, since I am not moving from NV, I have to learn to deal with it.
Think of my situation as doing CPR or closing/squeezing the ripped vein until paramedics arrive, move the snake away from my pets with tongs, as i am NOT using my bare hands.
by stopgetinpopped on March 29, 2008
Just leave it be…I'm sure it's not going to 'attack' you or your exotics. It may defend itself…rightfully so. I would spend time snake proofing your exotic enclosures and leave the snakes to their own devices and lives. This is part of responsible ownership of all pets. Either teach your animals to leave the snakes alone..which is easily done. Or design enclosures that protect your pets from the native environment. I'm sure they have sunshades to protect them from the sun, protecting them from the native wildlife falls under the same responsible ownership tag.
Some things don't need to be taught on YouTube. This is one of them.
If you really need to protect you or your pets from the monstrous Mojave or Speckled…Use a large push broom and sweep it 2 feet so you have more than the dramatically stated 'seconds to act' time frame…or just leave it alone…that would be nice.
RE: Pics of tong/snake hadling needed Reply
by tigers9 on March 29, 2008 Mail this to a friend!
To Stopgettingpopped:
I am all ears how to snake proof my outdoor cat cages when I live in the middle of the NV desert 1 hour east of Death Valley. My 10 acres has hot wire at the bottom, but snakes can get under. And most of what is behind my fence is BLM land with rocky mountainous/canyon terrain and channels from flash floods many years ago.
I am also all ears how to teach a big (or any ) cat not to play with moving objects.
And yes, there were quite a few instances with my smaller cats where I found lower half of dry rattlesnake in the cage, I can only guess what happened with the rest of the snake's body, so far cats are winning, but I don't want to take any chances.
by Cro on March 29, 2008
Z, I am a bit concerned that you want to show folks how to use tongs to move nusiance rattlesnakes, and that most folks do not own tongs.
Why not make a video of how easy it is to turn a plastic or metal garbidge can on its side, then use a broomb to push, coax the snake into the garbidge can, then to tilt the can back upright, then put the lid on it, and duct tape it shut. Then drag it into the shade, and call someone who will re-locate the snake from your property. Almost anyone can accomplish that. And it does not require the purchase of a $60.00 pair of tongs, that many folks will not be willing to do ????
Best Regards JohnZ
Near: Address:
Betty Ave Pahrump, NV 89060
Careless cat keepers
Nye County seeks to impose rules on big pet owners as the region keeps growing
By Abigail Goldman
Las Vegas Sun January 28, 2007
Gert "Abby" Hedengran got the hell out of California. He and his wife, purveyors of an exotic animal sanctuary, lost a Siberian tiger in the suburbs of San Diego and then allegedly told authorities they didn't own the 350-pound feline, which roamed for three weeks before it was shot. RIP Tuffy.
Facing federal litigation, the Hedengrans and their menagerie – 21 exotic cats in all, including two more tigers and three lions – ran right to Pahrump.
But the Nevada town where Gert Hedengran sought solace in 2005 didn't exactly extend a welcoming hand to the big-cat collector.
Hedengran got death threats. All around him, Pahrump residents debate the practicalities of keeping big cats – or dogs with wolf blood, pythons or any exotic animals – as pets.
This argument over exotics captures something of Pahrump's future. The small town, set in one of the country's most desolate counties, shoulders explosive growth. The result is a mounting tension between longtime residents, who sought freedom in the remote, and new-to-town retirees and discount-rent snipers, who inadvertently import a cosmopolitan sensibility.
It's a sign that times are changing in Nye County – a Wild West tamed and ever tamer.
Hedengran, whose attorney insists he's mum to the press, may unwittingly advance the cause against exotic animal owners. Nye County officials have long entertained imposing more stringent regulations on exotic pet ownership. Unfortunately for Hedengran, he's an immediate and shining example of careless cat ownership.
Zuzana Kukol, who lives on the outskirts of Pahrump with a tiger named Pepper, a lion named Bam-Bam, a bobcat named Jasmine and an ocelot named Isis, puts it simply: "They wanted to do all these regulations before Abby came to town. Abby just gave them a reason to bring it up again.
"But how are regulations going to keep idiots from doing stupid things?"
According to the criminal complaint filed against him, Hedengran was relocating his Temecula, Calif., animal sanctuary to Moorpark, about 130 miles away, when Tuffy and a Siberian lynx escaped in early 2005.
The lynx was quickly tranquilized and captured on someone's front porch. Hedengran told California game wardens he didn't immediately notice the animal was missing. He told the authorities nothing of Tuffy.
Soon, the tiger sightings started.
By Feb. 4 of that year, a game warden confirmed from a paw-print trail that an exotic cat was on the loose. Hedengran still said nothing.
By Feb. 11, wardens were asking Hedengran whether all his animals were accounted for. Hedengran said they were.
By Feb. 16, Hedengran was summoned to an area ranch to examine some large paw prints. He was spotted intentionally dragging his boot through the tracks. The following day, Hedengran was seen pacing the ranch with a tranquilizer gun.
On Feb. 23, Tuffy was shot by a federal trapper near a school and park. Experts identified the animal by its stripes – fur fingerprinting. "The tiger appeared to have not eaten for several days," the complaint reads, "perhaps not since its escape."
Hedengran pleaded guilty in California courts earlier this month to felony obstruction of justice and making false statements. He is awaiting sentencing in April and faces more than a year in prison.
In the meantime, Hedengran and his wife are caring for their pets in Pahrump, where animal control officials report the couple is abiding by exotic animal regulations. Of course, Nye County animal control officer Debbie Pemberton openly admits, "at this point in time, we basically have no regulations."
At least not yet. With the backing of county brass, Pemberton began drafting an animal control ordinance last year. The ordinance sought the establishment of several regulations, though none so controversial as those addressing exotic animals.
Of particular irritation was the proposal that exotic pet owners should carry a minimum of $1 million in liability insurance and that anyone living within a one-mile radius of such animals should be formally informed. There would be annual fees and twice-annual inspections.
Outrage from animal owners prompted Nye County commissioners to quash the ordinance as worded in October. But the battle has just begun.
Nye County is over 18,000 square miles in size and has more than 40,000 residents, the vast majority clustered around Pahrump. Census estimates suggest the county grew by almost 25 percent between 2000 and 2005, and city planning committee member Mark Kimball is quick to note that another 20,000 homes have been approved for development.
"Twenty years ago, anybody who wanted to do anything could probably go to Pahrump. Almost anything. If you wanted to hide, you could go to Pahrump," Kimball said. "As the town gets larger and larger, you are going to need, in my judgment, reasonable guidelines for reasonable activity.
"It's just not reasonable anymore to assume you can do what you want to do."
After last year's exotic ordinance outcry, Kimball started an ad hoc animal advisory board that now meets regularly. By spring, the board plans to propose a new set of animal regulations.
For exotic owners like Kukol, a lanky Czech tiger trainer, Pemberton's ordinance set an unsavory precedent.
To Kukol, the $1 million insurance requirement is a tacit attempt to force exotic owners into relinquishing their animals. No one could afford the premiums, she says.
And informing everybody within a one-mile radius? That's the stuff of pedophiles, she says, not pet owners.
Kukol is allergic to cats, and can't keep tabbies in the house. Outside, her allergies aren't irritated by her tigers.
"Tigers are better than dogs," she says. "They don't bark."
There were 17 attacks by big cats in the U.S. in 2005, according to the Captive Wild Animal Protection Coalition. That tally, the group's most recent annual total, includes Pahrump resident Sandy Allman, who lost a finger after she was bitten by a leopard belonging to former Nye County animal control chief Karl Mitchell. He was imprisoned on theft charges and cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
The coalition estimates that there are 10,000 to 20,000 privately owned big cats in the U.S.
"I mean, you just cannot live your life on what if. You cannot ban something because something might happen," Kukol says. "Punish for deeds, not for breeds and species."
For Pahrump officials, however, might is more than enough.
An exotic feline at large in Nye County could take several expensive weeks to track down, most likely by helicopter, Pemberton says.
"Because we are very rural, you get a cat that gets out, you have some kid on his motorcycle riding in the desert, what the cat does, we don't know," she said. "But if that cat gets ahold of him, we do know that it's not going to be anything we want to experience."
There are four known big-cat owners in Pahrump, and possibly a fifth, a recluse whose feline husbandry can't be confirmed.
Brian Turner owns a leopard and two cougars. His Runnin' Wild nature center is licensed to serve as a temporary holding facility for rescued exotic animals, typically wolves. Turner is against the proposed exotic animal ordinance.
More bluntly, he's against Pahrump.
"There is this Draconian idea burgeoning within the planning commission to create these restrictions and regulations," he said. "I'm not looking forward to anything that's coming out of this, and frankly, I wish I could just leave Pahrump altogether."
Turner can't leave because he has sunk his savings into the nature center, which doesn't turn much of a profit.
"Out here the only business is European tourists who might come by in the winter, on their way to somewhere else," he said.
The cost of keeping exotic animals could skyrocket if Nye County's ad hoc animal control board proposes additional caging requirements, annual licensing fees and expensive insurance policies.
Rick J. Lindsay, president of Evolution Insurance Brokers, one of the country's only exotic animal insurers, estimates that a $1 million animal liability package would cost at least $5,000 to $7,000 annually. Roughly 30 percent of the approximately 2,000 exotic animal owners Lindsay insures keep big cats, though for cost reasons, most private owners go without insurance.
"It's all manageable risk if you do it right," he said. "The problem is when their wealth goes south. That is where the risk really skyrockets."
Money was certainly a problem for Hedengran. An Indiana exotics breeder who sold a $75,000 "white lioness" named Sitara to Hedengran is suing him for failure to make payments on the pet.
Richard Maier, a California real estate broker who has known Hedengran for more than 40 years, says Hedengran lived off charitable donations to his nonprofit Tiger Creek Foundation. Maier said he loaned Hedengran more than $100,000 in 2002 to help the hemorrhaging foundation out of the red and still hasn't seen any repayment. Maier has stopped speaking to Hedengran.
"He discovered the foundation was a good way to get money from people," Maier said. "Abby's a very intelligent, very manipulative con artist. There is no other way to put it."
Two years ago, rumors started that tigers at Hedengran's Pahrump property had gotten loose and were running amok. The Nye County sheriff's department responded to the report, and a helicopter was dispatched. Because Hedengran had submitted his animals for an official tally, the law enforcement officers were eventually able to confirm the zoo was secure. (At last count, Hedengran had four tigers, two lions, one snow leopard, three caracals, three servals and nine lynxes.)
Fiascoes like these solidify Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo's support of the proposed animal regulations, and his disdain for people who want to keep their pets private.
"A lot of the people that are bucking the system are people that for a long time have been getting a free ride," he said. "They're not taking these animals seriously, and they're not taking their responsibility seriously."
Kukol counters that extinction – both of exotic animals and Pahrump freedoms – is a threat worth fighting against. In a letter to the editor of Pahrump's daily paper, Kukol levied a battle cry: "I am sick and tired of the people who, like me, move here from urbanized areas but then, unlike me, try to change it to be like the old 'home,' " she wrote. "I have a bit of advice for these folks: If you are against freedom, guns, exotic animals, prostitution and gambling, do not move here. Leave and go home. Please, leave us alone so we can enjoy one of the few islands of freedom and peace in an otherwise overregulated world."
"Kukol, who is blond and has the body of a stripper, shows herself swimming in a brilliant turquoise pool, her head held erect, her hair dry and neat, and her teeth bared in a wide, pure white smile. The white tiger swimming beside her looks as flawless and expensive as a porcelain tchotchke in a casino gift shop."
http://www.rakemag.com/reporting/features/cat-scratch-fever?page=0%2C1
Check for yourself to see if Zuzana Kukol's facility meets the sanctuary standards for an accredited animal refuge.
Report to Feds Report to State Agency Tell the Press
By TheirVoice|2016-01-28T16:43:35-05:00January 21st, 2016|0 Comments
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