By kathy baratta
Staff Writer
JACKSON — State Superior Court Judge Eugene Serpentelli, sitting in Toms River, has ordered Joan Byron-Marasek’s tigers to be moved to Texas within the next six weeks.
Whether that will happen is not certain.
Byron-Marasek is the owner-operator of the Tigers Only Preservation Society (TOPS), a 12-acre compound on Route 537 near Allyson Road. State officials have reported that there are presently 24 tigers on the property. Byron-Marasek has lived there for more than 25 years. The property is adjacent to Millstone Township and about 1 mile from the Freehold Town-ship border on Route 537.
She was in court on Oct. 25 to make one final attempt at preventing Serpentelli from ordering that the tigers be transferred to the Wild Animal Orphanage, San Antonio, Texas. Calling the facility inadequate, Byron-Marasek has remained opposed to the Wild Animal Orphanage since it was first suggested as the new home for her tigers.
Serpentelli did not grant a request to reopen the hearing and ordered the tigers moved.
Byron-Marasek has the right to appeal that decision.
Neither Byron-Marasek or her attorney, Darren Gelber, could be reached for comment.
The order of removal of Byron-Mara-sek’s tigers from her property followed the January 1999 killing by police of a tiger found wandering in the vicinity of the compound.
Following that incident and many state investigations of the TOPS property that followed, the state denied Byron-Marasek a permit renewal for the compound and ordered that the tigers be moved from the premises.
Byron-Marasek has been fighting the order since that time.
On Oct. 11, Byron-Marasek’s husband, Jan Marasek, 70, was mauled by one of the tigers. He was hospitalized for several days with head and arm injuries before returning home.