COLUMBUS – State officials removed five tigers from a Marion County property on Monday after the owner failed to complete the necessary steps to legally keep the animals.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
The tigers, taken from Mike Stapleton of the Paws & Claws Animal Sanctuary on Gillette Road near Waldo, were transferred to the state’s temporary holding facility for exotic animals in Reynoldsburg, where they will remain for at least two weeks while the state identifies a new home for them.
State Agriculture Director David T. Daniels sent quarantine orders in June to Stapleton and other exotic-animal owners who had not complied with requirements of a state law banning the ownership and sale of certain animals without a special permit. The state had warned the owners they did not have the necessary permits and cages to operate state-approved animal sanctuaries.
Erica Hawkins, spokeswoman for the state Agriculture Department, said state officials have been trying to get Stapleton to complete the permitting process for about 18 months. Hawkins says Stapleton had tried unsuccessfully to get an accreditation to exempt him under state requirements on exotic animal ownership.
“There were a number of pieces that were missing,” she said. “He never really made any significant progress. It just got to the point that it’s just not fair to the people who did make all the upgrades, get the insurance and do everything they are supposed to do.”
Stapleton told The Marion Star earlier this year that he had been working with the department to bring his facility into compliance.
State officials went to Stapleton on Monday to give him a last chance before obtaining a search warrant and seizure order, but, Hawkins said, Stapleton agreed to hand over the animals voluntarily.