West Coast Game Park Safari Police seize all animals from West Coast Game Park Safari

I appear to be the only ZooChatter to have ever visited this place (August 2015) and there are 55 photos in the gallery and all are from me.

Here is my review from my Snowleopard's 2015 Road Trip thread:

West Coast Game Park Safari:

West Coast Game Park Safari is a non-AZA accredited zoo located in Bandon, Oregon, and it is a ghastly establishment. The first thing that visitors see as they step in from the 101 Highway roaring by is a metal cage for a couple of Chimpanzees, along with two even smaller metal cages for Ring-Tailed Lemurs. I should have demanded my $18.50 back right then and there! Walking further into the tiny zoo it is possible to find many more chain-link enclosures of slightly larger sizes featuring a range of animals and a total of 9 cat species.

This zoo’s claim to fame is “America’s Largest Wild Animal Petting Park” and while I was there during my brief visit to this hellhole I heard an announcement that “our baby tiger is now ready to be petted” and everyone but me flocked to the gazebo area. I eventually made my way over and sure enough a young tiger on a metal chain was being bottle-fed by a staff member while visitors lined up behind it and petted the animal a few times before moving on. The two positives that I can take from the sight was that little kids can now go back to school in September and tell all of their friends that they touched a real tiger; also, the zoo did not charge for handling the animal or for taking photos as was the case at Timbavati Wildlife Park a year ago. After approximately 15 minutes the tiger was led away and earlier I had witnessed a very similar interaction with a baby American black bear, which I personally think was getting a bit too big to allow members of the public to touch. I suppose that if I had stuck around long enough I would have also seen a baby Canadian Lynx and a young Serval (they were next on the list) but due to the fact that there was not a decent exhibit in the place I hit the road for a long 5 hours to my final zoo of this trip.

Species List (32 total): African Lion, Bengal Tiger, African Leopard (at least 2 black ones out of the 4 leopards), Cougar, Canadian Lynx, Eurasian Lynx, Bobcat, Caracal, Serval, American Black Bear, Chimpanzee, Hamadryas Baboon, Ring-Tailed Lemur, Binturong, Coati, Red Fox, Striped Skunk, Groundhog, Capybara, Grant’s Zebra, Common Waterbuck, Blackbuck, Reindeer, Rocky Mountain Elk, American Bison, Dromedary, Collared Peccary, Jacob Sheep, Alpaca, Emu, Ostrich and African Spurred Tortoise.

Here was the cage that held two chimps during my visit:

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while looking online to news updates a few more notes to add to this topic:
  • along with animals, during the raid police found drugs, guns, and $1.6 million
  • as well as the kinkajou, and camel that had to be etuhanized, the police found a dead tiger in a freezer
  • the animals food was discovered to have rat droppings
  • Four big cats, one male and one female serval, and two male Eurasian lynxes, were relocated to Wildcat Ridge Sanctuary in Scotts Mills.
  • Fifteen big cats were taken to The Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minnesota.
 
brown bear 555 said:
while looking online to news updates a few more notes to add to this topic:
  • along with animals, during the raid police found drugs, guns, and $1.6 million
  • as well as the kinkajou, and camel that had to be etuhanized, the police found a dead tiger in a freezer
  • the animals food was discovered to have rat droppings
  • Four big cats, one male and one female serval, and two male Eurasian lynxes, were relocated to Wildcat Ridge Sanctuary in Scotts Mills.
  • Fifteen big cats were taken to The Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minnesota.
Click to expand...
So, it would appear that it was a front for criminal activities, no doubt laundering illicit income through the gate takings. The animals were only a means to an end.
 
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