community wrestles with pet tiger dilemma
By Richard Watts, Victoria Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, September 03, 2008

HIGHLANDS, B.C. -- Suzy the tiger relaxed in her new home in this suburb west of Victoria Wednesday, forcing a showdown with municipal officials determined to uphold a new bylaw prohibiting such animals.

Dave Bennett, Suzy's new keeper, said in an interview she spent most of the day relaxing in her new $15,000 compound built on his Millstream Avenue property after an uneventful transfer the night before.

"She did a couple of laps around the pen, lay down by the fence and started purring," said Bennett, who refinishes classic cars for a living.

Suzy the tiger relaxes in her new enclosure on a property in Highlands, B.C. west of Victoria Wednesday.
Debra Brash - Victoria Times Colonist

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Font:****But his new animal chum, a two-year-old, about 150-kilogram tigress, is already raising alarm bells at the municipality. Officials are considering options and recommendations to take to council Thursday.

"Clearly there has been a violation of a municipal bylaw," said Highlands chief administrator Chris Coates.

But "it's not a situation where you can easily go in and take action," said Coates. "There has to be a whole bunch of people around who can deal with the animal."

Late last month, Highlands councillors, after learning of Bennett's tiger plans, scrambled to give four very quick readings to a bylaw banning a large variety of animals including hippos, walruses and tigers.

The municipality had no choice since the province has yet to enact any regulations of its own, despite the passage last spring of enabling legislation.

Already the arrival of the tiger has riled some of Bennett's neighbours, many of whom have children.

Dave Harris, father of a 12-year-old son, said the risks associated with any potential escape demand action.

What if the tiger escapes and hasn't been fed recently, wondered Harris. "Is its instinct to knock over your garbage can or is it going to want to kill something?"

Suzy has spent much of her life near Lake Cowichan at a private exotic-animal sanctuary called Primate Estates. The owner, Jamie Bell, has said Suzy was bred by film people in Vancouver.

Originally she was destined for a private zoo in northern B.C., and Bell said she agreed to house her temporarily. But the private-zoo option fell through and Bell ended up holding the tiger.

Now she has been forced to give Suzy up for personal reasons. Besides Bennett, the only people who expressed interest wanted to kill her for her pelt and her body parts, used in folk medicine.

Even zoos lost interest after learning Suzy's genetics. A cross between a Siberian and a Bengal tiger, she is unfit for captive-breeding programs.

A sanctuary in Colorado, however, designed for animals orphaned by organizations such as circuses, has agreed to take Suzy. But Bennett and Bell have expressed reluctance to turn her over.

Sara Dubois, SPCA manager of wildlife services, said her agency believes it's the best thing for Suzy.

"The best scenario is for her to live out her life in a sanctuary."

Dubois said tigers like Suzy, bred in North America for entertainment, as pets or roadside attractions, now outnumber tigers in the wild. And many end up poorly housed and poorly kept.