Police raid Oregon safari park amid stories of ravenous lions and useless tiger left for months

A useless tiger, left in a freezer for months. Starving lions and leopards. Animals death with out clinical consideration. One full-time staffer feeding over 300 animals. According to police and USDA inspection stories, that’s the scenario at Oregon’s West Coast Game Park Safari.

State police served more than one seek warrants on the south Oregon assets on Thursday as a part of a “lengthy” felony investigation. The park is a regional enchantment, with over 450 animals throughout 75 species, and has been in operation since 1969. USDA stories in recent times have famous constant violations.

An 18 March USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection record cited 9 explicit violations, seven of that have been repeat violations.

Concerns ranged from animal dealing with and visitor protection – “there is no readily identifiable facility attendant present throughout the zoo in areas where between 50 and 100 combined sheep, goats, llama and deer roam free with and have contact with and are hand fed by the public” – to veterinary cary – “an older lioness, and older lion, and a black African leopard were observed with decreased muscle mass, with hips, ribs, and spine prominently displayed under the skin”.

A 1 April USDA record discovered 4 repeat violations, together with fence top for unhealthy animals now not assembly minimal necessities, rodent feces in animal meals, and that the similar big-game cats cited two weeks prior within the March record had nonetheless now not been noticed through the power veterinarian.

Violations from prior years come with permitting visitors to puppy a jaguar and a endure big enough to offer a risk to the general public, and the accidental maiming and killing of a endure so that you could kill every other endure.

The investigation is ongoing, and is being performed throughout 8 state businesses. Criminal fees have not begun to be filed. More data is anticipated to be launched on Friday, and police are encouraging guests to steer clear of the power.