went without problems,
facility
Move from Jackson
went without problems,
facility’s director says
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
JACKSON — Joan Byron-Marasek’s tigers arrived safe and sound in San Antonio, Texas, by the evening on Nov. 13.
On Nov. 11, the 24 Bengal tigers had been taken from their home at Byron-Marasek’s Tigers Only Preservation Society and moved to the Wild Animal Orphanage (WAO) in San Antonio.
Acting with the authority of the state Department of Environmental Protection, the tigers were taken from Byron-Marasek’s Route 537 compound to Texas by Carol Asvestas, director of the WAO.
The tigers were transported by truck with Asvestas and 14 members of her staff, including a veterinarian, and personnel from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, as well as members of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a private, nonprofit conservation organization.
Asvestas estimated that the move cost $350,000.
She said that figure included everything from the cost of hotel rooms for the all of the necessary staff to the construction of a 24-pen quarantine compound needed to house the New Jersey tigers.
Asvestas said New Jersey gave the WAO $120,000 toward the costs she will incur in taking the tigers.
The IFAW, based in Massachusetts, provided a like amount of funding.
She said the rest of the funding will be raised through donations and grants, which is how the WAO is sustained. The WAO is already home to 99 "big cats," including 44 tigers.
Speaking to the Tri-Town News this week, Asvestas said the loading and transport of Byron-Marasek’s tigers went "like clockwork." She said it took 10 hours to load all of the tigers onto the transport trailers and six hours to unload them once they had reached Texas.
Asvestas said one tiger left New Jersey in a severe state of emaciation. She said the animal seemed to have a neurological impairment. Speaking with a Tri-Town News reporter on Nov. 16, Asvestas said published reports that indicated she was considering euthanizing the young male were incorrect. Asvestas told the newspaper she never said she thought she would have to do that.
She said the ill tiger "went to town on some meat" once it arrived at her compound and has since done a complete turnaround. She said all of the Jackson tigers are eating well and their future health seems assured.
She said four of Byron-Marasek’s 24 tigers were sedated for the move. She said blood work and other tests indicated those four animals had coccidiosis, an intestinal parasite that Asvestas said comes from a "contaminated environment."
Asvestas, a former veterinary nurse, said that when coccidiosis is present in even a few animals confined the way the 24 tigers were on Byron-Marasek’s 12-acre property, it is a given that all the others have it as well.
Asvestas said blood work on all 24 tigers showed liver and kidney results which she said were symptomatic of improper nourishment. She said all 24 tigers are responding well to medication and have been given a healthy prognosis by a veterinarian.
Byron-Marasek had kept tigers on her property since the mid-1970s. In January 1999, authorities shot and killed a tiger that was found wandering near the compound at Route 537 and Allyson Road.
Although the state never proved that tiger came from Byron-Marasek’s Tigers Only Preservation Society, state investigators examined her property and eventually decided not to renew the permit she had to keep the animals. It was ordered that the tigers be moved from the premises.
Byron-Marasek’s legal battle stretched over the ensuing years as she fought to keep the tigers. That battle appeared to end on Nov. 11 when the tigers were taken to Texas.
According to Marty McHugh, a Division of Fish and Wildlife spokesman, the state will be looking at ways to recoup the $120,000 that was spent to move the tigers.
The IFAW’s Chris Cutter said that at present there are 11 states that have no laws governing the care and keeping of exotic pets such as tigers. Cutter said there is legislation before the U.S. House of Representatives that would prohibit the sale and transport of exotic animals across state lines.
Cutter said it is estimated there are 10,000 "big cats" in captivity in the United States; double the number present in their natural habitats. He said that until the proposed legislation is passed and tighter federal controls are put on the import and sale of exotic pets, the public remains at risk and the animals suffer.
"Keeping a tiger in your back yard is like keeping a kitten in a suitcase," Cutter said.