Here's a problem you don't see in every neighborhood: An animal trainer and her sister are trying to get Ventura County to give them a conditional use permit to create a facility to keep five white Siberian tigers on their 19-acre property in Malibu (a weird piece that's in Ventura). They are also hoping to get approval to take the tigers on and off the grounds so that they can be in movies. Surprise: Their ritzy neighbors aren't having it, and have taken to appearing at public hearings for the permit wearing anti-tiger apparel and spouting facts and figures about the dangers of tigers, says CBS LA. "We calculated it – a tiger would be at our house within 20 seconds, if it were to get out of the perimeter cage," a neighbor told a crowd yesterday; that man and his wife also kept their kids out of school so they could be at the hearing and no one would forget to think of the children.
But the tigers would be totally and completely safe, caged, under the watchful eye of at least once staff member with a gun, and surrounded by an eight-foot perimeter fence, argue the trainers, who have clearly never seen Jurassic Park. To take the tigers to shoots, an SUV or truck would drive through a series of gates, "with each gate closing before the next would open, into the fenced arena where the tigers would be moved into a cage loaded into the vehicle. The tigers would remain locked in the cage and vehicle until delivered to the job site."
The neighborhood's anti-tiger campaign has had time to gain steam; this issue first riled the residents up last year when the initial permit (just for a training facility, not for going to and from movie shoots) was being discussed. No less an authority on animal assaults than The Birds star Tippi Hedren, who runs an animal preserve, spoke against the transport plan (but is fine with the facility).
· Residents In Exclusive Malibu Neighborhood Fight To Keep Tigers From Moving In [CBS LA]
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