![]() ![]() It would become the site of perhaps his mightiest battle. Soon after, Drysdale moved to Grand Bend, Ont., a tourist town on the southeastern shores of Lake Huron. That was the same year that Ringtail was shut down after being declared a health hazard. Wainfleet enacted an exotic animal bylaw in 2018. ![]() On another occasion, Drysdale was bitten on both forearms by his lion. In one instance, a local politician was ambushed by a lemur named Lawson. The Niagara Region Public Health reports, obtained by Zoocheck Canada via access to information requests, referenced a range of animals, including a donkey, a type of South American raccoon, a lynx and marmosets. He first came to the group's attention in 2014 when he and his first wife, Joni Cook, were operating Ringtail Ranch and Rescue, a zoo in Wainfleet, Ont., in the Niagara region.īetween 20, Wainfleet officials documented 17 instances of biting and scratching at the zoo. Julie Woodyer, campaigns director for Zoocheck Canada, said the organization's purpose is to protect wild animals and has been following the controversies around Drysdale's facilities for years. "It starts with townships, and then there's a group that call themselves Zoocheck."ĭrysdale reserves special animosity for Zoocheck, which he accuses of stirring up fear in each of the municipalities where he's lived. But at the behest of concerned residents, one after another, the communities enacted bans on exotic animals. Instead, it's up to municipalities to enact bylaws to prohibit specific species.Īnimal rights advocates say this has resulted in a patchwork of laws that can often fail to protect animals against mistreatment.Īt first, none of the towns Drysdale moved to had a bylaw. Ontario has no laws governing who can own exotic animals. A dilemma for municipalitiesĭrysdale's efforts have exposed a serious dilemma for municipal officials: How to keep fearful residents safe while navigating an individual's right to keep wild animals. ![]() It would also ignite the latest in a series of bitter battles with Ontario municipalities over exotic animal bylaws. I wouldn't care about a lemur, but maybe they're dangerous, I have no idea."ĭrysdale's plan for Highland Big Cat Adventures would be his third such endeavour in less than a decade. Mitchell immediately feared the worst: "Lion escape. He wanted to open a roadside zoo with his collection of animals, including 10 big cats: eight lions and two tigers. The man was Mark Drysdale, an exotic animal owner who had recently purchased land in Maynooth, located in the municipality of Hastings Highlands about 265 kilometres northeast of Toronto. "It was like … what? Can you start a zoo?" Mitchell, an artist who had moved from Toronto a few years earlier, was gobsmacked. "And people were telling me, 'Did you hear about the guy … he's going to start a zoo.' " "He brought his tiger to the parking lot, or a lion or something," Mitchell said. Mitchell recalled hearing that the man said, "These are for my kitties."īut the "kitties" he was referring to were not house cats. ![]() Someone had just bought out all the chicken at the local No Frills, one of the area's only major grocery stores. Roy Mitchell remembers the moment he learned his rural Ontario community had acquired a new resident.Ī rumour was spreading through the tiny town of Maynooth in the fall of 2020. ![]()
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