Bits and Bites from Around the World > Handler killed by tiger in Oklahoma; Supreme Court issues stay of cull for 399 ostriches in B.C.

 

Animal handler linked to Joe Exotic killed by tiger at Oklahoma preserve

Animal handler Ryan Easley, 37, was fatally mauled by a tiger as onlookers watched during the end of a big cat show at a preserve in southeastern Oklahoma, Choctaw Police Department confirmed.

The incident happened at the Growler Pines Tiger Preserve in Hugo, Okla., on Sept. 20. While inside a large enclosure with the animal, the tiger suddenly attacked, biting and shaking Easley, according to Choctaw County Sheriff Terry Park.

“It was a big tiger,” Park told The Associated Press. “This particular one, he’d had for quite some time.”

Park said that Easley’s wife and young daughter were present when the attack occurred.

Deputies and emergency medical workers responded to the scene and pronounced Easley dead, Park said.

In a statement posted to Facebook, The Growler Pines Tiger Preserve called the incident “a painful reminder of both the beauty and unpredictability of the natural world.”

“Ryan understood those risks — not out of recklessness but out of love. The animals under his care were not just animals to him, but beings he formed a connection with — one rooted in respect, daily care and love,” the post added.

The preserve noted that all tours and encounters will be cancelled until further notice.

Easley’s family started a GoFundMe campaign to help in “honoring Ryan’s legacy of devotion, compassion, and love.”

“Ryan’s impact cannot be overstated. His dedication, his sacrifice, and his love for his work were unmatched. Anyone who met him could feel his passion—not only for the animals and his work—but even more so for his family,” the page read.

The GoFundMe campaign has raised more than US$37,000 of its goal of $40,000 from more than 260 donations as of Wednesday afternoon.

Easley had acquired some of the tigers at the preserve from Tiger King star Joe Exotic, Park told The New York Times.

In a statement posted to X, Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, said that he had known Easley for many years and said he once built a compound at his zoo in Wynnewood more than a decade ago to house Easley’s tigers during the winter.

“No one can blame the tiger for what happened. We all take risk in what we do and we don’t need further laws to ban tigers because of this because you can get killed doing just about anything,” Maldonado-Passage wrote.

“So with all my respect as a human R.I.P. Ryan Easley. You died doing what you loved,” he added.

Maldonado-Passage is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence after he was convicted on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder-for-hire for the plot to kill animal welfare activist Carole Baskin, who appeared in the Netflix docuseries.

3:06

‘Tiger King’ star Joe Exotic re-sentenced to 21 years in federal prison

Animal rights group PETA said that Easley was “an associate of Joseph Maldonado.”

“Easley had acquired tigers from Joe Exotic and fellow Tiger King villain Bhagavan “Doc” Antle for his business, ShowMe Tigers, and for years had hauled them around the country, forced them to perform in cruel circuses—including Shrine and Carden Circuses—and kept them trapped in cages for hours when they weren’t performing,” the group said in a statement.

Debbie Metzler, PETA Foundation senior director of captive wildlife, said that it’s “never safe for humans to interact directly with apex predators.

Earlier this month, a longtime zookeeper in Thailand was mauled to death by a pack of lions in front of tourists at Safari World Bangkok.

The fatal attack took place on Sept. 10 at about 11 a.m. local time when an employee stepped out of his vehicle. He was mauled for about 15 minutes, according to Thai News Agency.

Sadudee Punpugdee, wildlife protection director of the Department of National Parks, told AFP that the employee, identified as Jian Rangkarassamee, 58, was “a zoo staff member who usually fed the lions.”

The staff member was “mauled by six or seven of the big cats when he stepped out of his car,” Punpugdee added.

Supreme Court Grants BC Ostrich Farm Interim Stay of Cull: Farm’s Lawyer

Karen Espersen, co-owner of Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., celebrates with her family after learning that the Supreme Court of Canada granted an interim stay order on Sept. 24, 2025, delaying the culling of the farm’s entire herd of some 400 ostriches. The Canadian Press/Aaron Hemens

A B.C. ostrich farm facing a cull order has been awarded an emergency interim stay by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The news comes in advance of a planned slaughter of the flock of 399 ostriches at Universal Ostrich Farms by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) due to avian flu concerns.

The Sept. 24 stay suspends enforcement of the CFIA’s “stamping-out policy” until either the farm’s application for leave to appeal is denied or, if granted, until the matter is completely resolved, according to a copy of the stay provided to The Epoch Times by the farm’s lawyer, Umar Sheikh.

Sheikh says that the CFIA will remain on the property, keeping control of the ostriches until a decision is reached, and that the agency has until Oct. 3 to respond to the application.

The farm has faced multiple legal defeats in its attempts to stop the cull, arguing that the birds are now healthy and scientifically valuable. Both the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal have rejected the farm’s arguments.

Katie Pasitney, the daughter of one of the farm’s co-owners, expressed her relief for the reprieve in a Sept. 24 video posted to social media.

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“They’re safe today. I want to thank all of you for your continued love and support,” Pasitney said, addressing supporters. “No threats, no violence. Remember this is not what we stand for here at Universal Ostrich Farms. And I just want to say thank you.”

Meanwhile, fire broke out overnight among a wall of hay bales set up in an ostrich pen by the CFIA on Sept. 23 in advance of the cull. Workers could be seen spraying charred areas of hay with water as smoke billowed from the three-metre-high enclosure on the morning of Sept. 24.

Universal Ostrich Farms co-owner Dave Bilinski told reporters that farm owners would never start a fire nor condone it, and that the farm has its own fire response system because of concerns of peat and grass fires on the property.

The hay bale wall was built on Sept. 23 as the CFIA began preparations to slaughter the flock of ostriches, who have been subject to a cull order since last December when PCR tests showed two cases of avian influenza among 69 birds who died last year.

Tractor trailer trucks moved in with the hay shortly after the Sept. 23 arrests of Pasitney and her mother, the farm’s co-owner Karen Espersen, when the two refused to leave the ostrich pen that day. Both were later released.

RCMP did not immediately respond to requests for details of the overnight fire.

Farm at Centre of Growing Controversy

The farm has generated a large following on social media, with supporters worldwide, and some have gathered at the site itself, near Edgewood in southeastern B.C., to support the owners in their attempts to prevent the destruction of the herd.

The CFIA said that the flock carries a dangerous form of H5N1 and that culling complies with the World Organization for Animal Health’s “stamping out” policy.

“Allowing a domestic poultry flock known to be exposed to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to remain alive allows a potential source of the virus to persist,” the agency said in a June 25 statement.

Pasitney says the birds have been symptom-free for 253 days and have developed herd immunity.

Supporters, including UBC professor Steven Pelech, argue that the ostriches could yield valuable medical research. High-profile members and allies of the Trump administration have urged Canada to rescind the cull order, including administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz, American billionaire John Catsimatidis, and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report. 

Bits and Bites from Around the World > Woman taunts tiger in zoo; Woman injured after orcas attack yacht off Spain; 4 y/o smashes 3500 y/o jar in museum

 

Let me guess... She was either on drugs, or pitifully stupid...

Woman who climbed into zoo tiger enclosure charged with trespassing

By Sarah Do Couto  Global News

Posted August 28, 2024 9:47 am

 2 min read

Over a week after she was filmed hopping a fence to taunt a tiger at a New Jersey zoo, a 24-year-old woman has been charged with trespassing.

In a statement released Monday, the Bridgeton Police Department said the woman entered a restricted area adjacent to the Bengal tiger’s enclosure at the Cohanzick Zoo. She reached her hand into the cage before quickly pulling it back when the animal reacted aggressively.

The woman, identified as Zyair J. Dennis, was charged with defiant trespassing on Friday.

Police said Dennis also entered the restricted area of a bear enclosure during her visit to the Cohanzick Zoo on Aug. 18. Authorities said “there was similar video depicting the same scenario” near the fence to the bear cage.

In footage from the incident involving the zoo’s tiger, the animal is seen pacing back and forth while Dennis stands on the other side of a wire fence. When the woman pushes her hand through the fence links, the tiger surges forward and onto the barrier at the provocation.

To get to the position in front of the tiger enclosure, Dennis passed a sign warning guests not to approach.

Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong....

Woman injured after orcas ram another boat off Spain’s coast

By Kathryn Mannie  Global News

Posted August 27, 2024 11:49 am

 4 min read

A pod of orcas rammed a sailboat and bit off chunks of the ship’s rudder off the coast of northwestern Spain, prompting a bungled rescue mission that resulted in the one of the boaters being seriously injured.

The incident was the latest example of orcas attacking boats around the Iberian peninsula, a phenomenon that scientists noticed a steep uptick in around 2020. Hundreds of attacks have been reported since, logged by the Atlantic Orca Working Group, which studies the Iberian orcas. It’s unclear why the orcas are attacking ships, but theories range from vengeance against humans to hunting practice for young killer whales.

The latest attack occurred Sunday near the coast of Galicia, when two Belgian nationals sailing through the Bay of Biscay were set upon by a pod of orcas. Similar to other attacks, the killer whales rammed the ship’s rudder, leaving the vessel immobilized.

2:36Cases of orcas attacking boats on the rise

The man and woman on board called the Spanish maritime rescue service for help around 4 p.m. and authorities deployed a rescue tugboat to their location, Reuters reports. During the towing manoeuvre, the woman seriously injured her hand and needed to be evacuated by helicopter to the hospital.

The couple on board spoke to Belgian news outlet HLN and provided more details about their ordeal.

Wim Vandenhende, 43, and Dana Huens, 36, said they were sailing home from Greece in their yacht, the Amidala, when a pod of orcas began pushing and shoving their rudder.

“My steering wheel suddenly started making very strange movements,” Vandenhende said. “I also felt that the boat was being pushed.”

“When I looked to the side, I suddenly saw an orca surface next to our boat,” he added. “If I had stuck out my hand, I could have just touched it.”

Vandenhende tried to steer away from the animals to no avail. He felt about three or four more blows against the rudder and after that, the steering device was left useless.

“Without a rudder,” Vandenhende said, “the only thing we did was turn in circles.”

View image in full screen

In an image from a video provided by The Ocean Race, an orca moves along a rudder of the Team JAJO entry in The Ocean Race on Thursday, June 22, 2023, as the boat approached the Strait of Gibraltar. A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race, part of a growing trend of sometimes aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas. No one was injured. The Ocean Race via AP

The couple knew that orcas had been ramming boats in the area and had already discussed their plan of what to do in the event of an attack. They called the Spanish maritime rescue service, which immediately responded.

It took about an hour for the rescue tugboat to reach them. When they arrived, rescuers threw over a tow line to attach to the couple’s boat, but Huens’ hand got caught between the tow line and the ship. Her hand was crushed.

“A rescue helicopter was called in, which took my wife with it,” Vandenhende said. “I stayed on the sailboat, which was towed to a harbour. Due to the wind and the rough sea, the towing lines broke twice.”

The maritime rescue service told Reuters that the operation was hampered by adverse weather, with winds up to 65 km/h and waves up to three metres tall. It took about five hours to tow the damaged sailboat back to port.

The orca attack left the Amidala with extensive damage, though thankfully it didn’t take on water, Vandenhende told HLN.

“The damage is considerable,” he said. “Pieces have been bitten out of the rudder.”

Would that be like biting the tail of a shark to the whales?

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Why would a 3500 y/o jar be left unsecured where a child could get access to it?....

Museum mishap: 4-year-old boy accidentally

shatters 3,500-year-old jar

By Sarah Do Couto  Global News

Posted August 28, 2024 8:05 am

 2 min read

A rare Bronze Age jar was accidentally smashed to pieces at a museum in Israel when a curious four-year-old boy got too close while inspecting the 3,500-year-old artifact.

The Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel said the jar was created between 2200 and 1500 BC. It was likely used to carry or store substances like wine or olive oil during an era predating biblical royalty King David and King Solomon.

As part of the museum’s mission to display ancient artifacts in a manner accessible to all, the crockery was not housed in glass or behind a protective barrier.

The father of the young boy told the Guardian his son was curious about the jar’s contents from where it was on display near the museum’s entrance. During their visit this week, the four-year-old reached for the priceless jar and it “tipped over and fell,” he said.

View image in full screen

The 3,500-year-old jar was broken by a curious four-year-old boy visiting the museum with his family in August 2024. Hecht Museum

“My initial reaction was denial,” the father, Alex, admitted.

He said the sight of the broken jar made the young boy cry. As the family stared at the broken pieces, Alex said he felt shocked and angry over his son’s actions. He’d been certain the destruction of the jar would come with legal or financial repercussions for his family, or at the very least, get them banned from the museum.

Instead, the father said museum officials “invited us to visit again.” They were also offered a guided tour of the building.

Inbal Rivlin, director of Hecht Museum, said the boy broke the vase accidentally, and the situation is being dealt with as such.

“There are instances where display items are intentionally damaged, and such cases are treated with great severity, including involving the police. In this case, however, this was not the situation,” she said. “The jar was accidentally damaged by a young child visiting the museum, and the response will be accordingly.”

Rivlin said conservationists are working to piece the jar back together and restore its original shape. When the jar is fixed and returned to its place in the museum’s display, it will likely remain without a protective barrier.

“The museum believes that there is a special charm in experiencing an archaeological find without any obstructions,” Rivlin explained. “And despite the rare incident with the jar, the Hecht Museum will continue this tradition.”

The Israeli news outlet Ynet said the jar was found in excavations in Samaria, the central region of Israel, and has been on display at the museum for 35 years.

The pottery was considered a rare archaeological find because it was intact, unlike most similar jars, which are discovered already broken in pieces.