Truck Stop Tiger Permit Pulled

By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press
GROSSE TETE, La. -- Leonard Foster peered into the cage holding the 550-pound tiger at the Tiger Truck Stop in Louisiana and snapped one photo after another in awe.

"He's so big. He's wonderful," exclaimed Foster, a 47-year-old trucker from Atlanta.

Foster might just be lucky to see the tiger when he did. If a state district judge's ruling stands, this tiger named Tony may not be at the truck stop much longer. And gone will be one of the biggest curiosities for truckers and motorists coming off a nearby interstate into the south Louisiana community of Grosse Tete.

Judge Mike Caldwell ruled Wednesday in favor of a motion by the Animal Legal Defense Fund to force the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to revoke the permit that allows Tiger Truck Stop Inc. and its owner, Michael Sandlin, to keep the tiger at the business.

For years, the Siberian-Bengal mix has been a draw for gawking motorists who patronize this truck stop, buying food, gassing up and sticking around to get a picture with Tony. Since he was 11 weeks old, Tony has been at the truck stop, bottle fed as a cub.

Sandlin and the truck stop company argue that moving the tiger now would be cruel.

But Caldwell disagreed. His ruling also would bar Wildlife and Fisheries from issuing a new permit to keep Tony at the stop. He ruled that the agency failed to abide by its own rules in issuing the permit, rules that state tigers must be owned by an individual. The corporation that owns the truck stop is listed as the tiger's owner.

Caldwell had issued a similar ruling in May. But in August, an appeals court ruled Caldwell had to hold another hearing to collect input from Tiger Truck Stop Inc. and Sandlin.

Sandlin's attorney, Steve LeBlanc, pointed out in court that seven other tigers beside Tony have been kept at the truck stop in the past 22 years and none ever escaped.

The truck stop is neatly kept, flowers blooming outside, on a quiet road away from the interstate. The cage has a grassy area, a large water tank for Tony to swim in, hanging tire and other toys - even shade and an air-conditioned den.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund contends it's dangerous holding a big tiger at a business. It recalled last month's episode when an owner of exotic wildlife in Ohio released wild animals before taking his life.

"Louisiana has a law designed to protect people from animals like this," said Lisa Franzetta, a defense fund spokeswoman.

Wildlife and Fisheries has rules requiring the owner of such an animal to live on the premises. But Sandlin's home is about five miles away, even though an employee lives at the stop and the business is staffed around the clock every day of the year.

Sandlin said all employees have taken the state hunter safety course, there's a written plan to handle an escape and a "kill gun" and a tranquilizer gun are kept at the stop.

The 3,600-square-foot cage is surrounded by a 10-foot chain link fence topped with barbed wire, set back several feet.

"I've seen the exhibit and I think the tiger is safe from the public and the public is safe from him," said Rick Dietz, general curator at Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. "That does not rule out operator error, but that could happen anywhere."

But on this sunny afternoon, the tiger paced languidly and none watching cited safety concerns.
One man ate fried chicken nearby. Another sought a picture of himself and the tiger behind him.

"I don't worry about it being unsafe," said Ricky Arnold, a local who brought his 3-year-old son. "He's got that big old cage and nothing has happened all these years."

The defense fund has argued the enclosure is substandard and the arrangement unsuitable.
"It's just common sense that a tiger doesn't belong in a truck stop," Franzetta said.

Sandlin notes the pen and the tiger are inspected annually by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Neither he nor Wildlife and Fisheries have decided if they will appeal Wednesday's ruling. Sandlin said he was more inclined to sue authorities to force them to issue another permit.

"I've done everything they ever told me to do," he said, tears brimming in his eyes. "There is no reason to say I can't keep my tiger. He is my pet, not just an advertising gimmick."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/truck-stop-tiger_n_1073640.html?ref=weird-news

Verified cougar in Louisiana (via Chad Arment)

Verified Cougar Sighting in Vernon Parish, Louisiana
August 31, 2011

In this age of trail cams and cell phone cameras, it's getting more difficult for Bigfoot or any other wild creature to roam the earth undocumented. Mountain lions – particularly young males searching for a place to call their own – keep showing up in photographic evidence, such as this one that comes to us from Louisiana.

Cougars are both feared and marveled at, so we thought you might like to read this report...

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) has received photographic evidence of the presence of a cougar in Vernon Parish.

A private citizen sent LDWF a trail camera picture taken Aug. 13, 2011. LDWF Large Carnivore Program Manager Maria Davidson and biologist Brandon Wear conducted a site investigation that confirmed the authenticity of the photograph.

"It is quite possible for this animal to be captured on other trail cameras placed at deer bait sites," Davidson said. "Deer are the primary prey item for cougars; therefore, they are drawn to areas where deer congregate."

It is unlikely this cougar will remain in any one area longer than it would take to consume a kill. Cougars do not prefer to eat spoiled meat and will move on as soon as the Louisiana heat and humidity take its toll on the kill.

"It is impossible to determine if the animal in the photograph is a wild, free-ranging cougar, or an escaped captive," Davidson added. "Although it is illegal to own a cougar in Louisiana, it is possible that there are some illegally held 'pets' in the state."

LDWF has documented several occurrences since 2002. The first cougar sighting was in 2002 by an employee at Lake Fausse Point State Park. That sighting was later confirmed with DNA analysis from scat found at the site. Three trail camera photos were taken of a cougar in Winn, Vernon and Allen parishes in 2008. Subsequently on Nov. 30, 2008, a cougar was shot and killed in a neighborhood by Bossier City Police Department.

The mountain lion, cougar, panther or puma are names that all refer to the same animal. Their color ranges from lighter tan to brownish grey. The only species of big cats that occur as black are the jaguar and leopard. Jaguars are native to South America and leopards are native to Africa. Both species can occur as spotted or black, although in both cases the spotted variety is much more common. Although LDWF receives numerous calls about black panthers, there has never been a documented case of a black cougar anywhere in North America.

The vast majority of these reports received by LDWF cannot be verified due to the very nature of a sighting. Many of the calls are determined to be cases of mistaken identity, with dog tracks making up the majority of the evidence submitted by those reporting cougar sightings. Other animals commonly mistaken for cougars are bobcats and house cats, usually seen from a distance or in varying shades of light.

The significant lack of physical evidence indicates that Louisiana does not have an established, breeding population of cougars. In states that have verified small populations of cougars, physical evidence can readily be found in the form of tracks, cached deer kills, scat and road kills.

The recent sightings of cougars in Louisiana are believed to be young animals dispersing from existing populations. An expanding population in Texas can produce dispersing individual cougars that move into suitable habitat in Louisiana. Young males are known to disperse from their birthplace and travel hundreds of miles seeking their own territories.

Cougars that occur in Louisiana are protected under state and federal law. Penalties for taking a cougar in Louisiana may include up to one year in jail and/or a $100,000 fine. Anyone with any information regarding the taking of a cougar should call the Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-442-2511.. Callers may remain anonymous and may receive a cash reward.

http://outdoornews.com/news/article_88cd008e-d3dd-11e0-b214-001cc4c002e0.html

First Arkansas, now dead birds fall out of the sky in Louisiana

Just a few days after 5,000 blackbirds fell dead from the sky over Arkansas it has happened again, this time in Louisiana.

About 500 red-winged blackbirds dropped dead on to a stretch of road in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Scientists are trying to establish if the event is linked to the one 480km (300 miles) to the north in Beebe, Arkansas.

Last week, about 83,000 dead and dying drum fish washed up along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River, west of Beebe.

Carcasses from both events are being sent to experts for tests. One theory is that the birds were spooked by New Year fireworks.

This is not the first mystery involving dead birds, in March of this year hundreds of dead starlings crash landed on a a street in Somerset.

A nearby resident said: ‘It was like something out of a horror film – like Hitchcock’s The Birds.'


Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/851819-first-arkansas-now-dead-birds-fall-out-of-the-sky-in-louisiana#ixzz1AANZlLpQ

First Arkansas, now dead birds fall out of the sky in Louisiana

Just a few days after 5,000 blackbirds fell dead from the sky over Arkansas it has happened again, this time in Louisiana.

About 500 red-winged blackbirds dropped dead on to a stretch of road in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Scientists are trying to establish if the event is linked to the one 480km (300 miles) to the north in Beebe, Arkansas.

Last week, about 83,000 dead and dying drum fish washed up along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River, west of Beebe.

Carcasses from both events are being sent to experts for tests. One theory is that the birds were spooked by New Year fireworks.

This is not the first mystery involving dead birds, in March of this year hundreds of dead starlings crash landed on a a street in Somerset.

A nearby resident said: ‘It was like something out of a horror film – like Hitchcock’s The Birds.'


Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/851819-first-arkansas-now-dead-birds-fall-out-of-the-sky-in-louisiana#ixzz1AANZlLpQ

Massive fish kill reported in Louisiana - Unbelievable images

What you see above isn't a rural gravel road. It's a Louisiana waterway, its surface completely covered with dead sea life -- a mishmash of species of fish, crabs, stingray and eel. New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV reports that even a whale was found dead in the area, a stretch of coastal Louisiana hit hard this summer by oil from BP's busted Gulf well.


Fish kills are fairly common along the Gulf Coast, particularly during the summer in the area near the mouth of the Mississippi, the site of this kill. The area is rife with dead zones -- stretches where sudden oxygen depletion can cause widespread death. But those kills tend to be limited to a single species of fish, rather than the broad sort of die-off involved in this kill.

And therein lies the concern of Gulf residents, who suspect this may be yet another side effect of the catastrophic BP oil spill.

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser sounded the alarm bells Monday, distributing the photos here to the local media. Nungesser said that no testing is currently planned to determine how the kill may relate to the BP oil disaster, but he pleaded with officials from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to investigate.

"We can't continue to see these fish kills,'' Nungesser said in a statement. "We need some additional tests to find out why these fish are dying in large numbers. If it is low oxygen, we need to identify the cause."

Dead zones are increasingly common in the world's oceans. But they're particularly so off Louisiana, because nutrient-rich water and sediment from the nation's agricultural runoff travels downriver and is dumped into the Gulf.

Various species of single-celled plantlike organisms flourish in waters enriched with chemical nutrients -- organisms that go on to vastly deplete the oxygen in the water they inhabit.

Many scientists have feared that an influx of oil-eating microbes would lead to more Gulf Coast dead zones, since the microbes use large amounts of oxygen when they consume the oil particles produced by chemical dispersants.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100914/od_yblog_upshot/massive-fish-kill-reported-in-louisiana

Massive fish kill reported in Louisiana - Unbelievable images

What you see above isn't a rural gravel road. It's a Louisiana waterway, its surface completely covered with dead sea life -- a mishmash of species of fish, crabs, stingray and eel. New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV reports that even a whale was found dead in the area, a stretch of coastal Louisiana hit hard this summer by oil from BP's busted Gulf well.


Fish kills are fairly common along the Gulf Coast, particularly during the summer in the area near the mouth of the Mississippi, the site of this kill. The area is rife with dead zones -- stretches where sudden oxygen depletion can cause widespread death. But those kills tend to be limited to a single species of fish, rather than the broad sort of die-off involved in this kill.

And therein lies the concern of Gulf residents, who suspect this may be yet another side effect of the catastrophic BP oil spill.

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser sounded the alarm bells Monday, distributing the photos here to the local media. Nungesser said that no testing is currently planned to determine how the kill may relate to the BP oil disaster, but he pleaded with officials from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to investigate.

"We can't continue to see these fish kills,'' Nungesser said in a statement. "We need some additional tests to find out why these fish are dying in large numbers. If it is low oxygen, we need to identify the cause."

Dead zones are increasingly common in the world's oceans. But they're particularly so off Louisiana, because nutrient-rich water and sediment from the nation's agricultural runoff travels downriver and is dumped into the Gulf.

Various species of single-celled plantlike organisms flourish in waters enriched with chemical nutrients -- organisms that go on to vastly deplete the oxygen in the water they inhabit.

Many scientists have feared that an influx of oil-eating microbes would lead to more Gulf Coast dead zones, since the microbes use large amounts of oxygen when they consume the oil particles produced by chemical dispersants.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100914/od_yblog_upshot/massive-fish-kill-reported-in-louisiana