Residents are ramping up their fight against a proposed tiger sanctuary, unleashing an online petition opposing an application to house up to five rare white Bengal tigers in west Malibu.
The petition, started on Change.org, highlights potential dangers of housing the tigers in captivity near residential areas.
“Wild tigers are a threat to our safety and serenity. Captive tigers often escape during transport, cleaning or feeding, or during natural disasters. When they do escape, tigers follow their natural instincts, maiming and killing,” the petition states.
Residents in the Deer Creek Road area off Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County are furious about an application by Wild Ones, LLC to house between two and five rare white Bengal tigers on 19 acres at 1107 Pacific View Road. The tigers would be used for filming purposes in the entertainment industry.
Property owners Irena Hauser and Sophia Kryszek seek a conditional use permit to build three animal enclosures and an arena, enclosed by an eight-foot-high, 2,338-foot perimeter fence that would encompass 7.16 acres on the property. The project description says the enclosures will be an eight-foot high chain-link fence with chain-link roofs. The arena chain-link will be 16-feet high and will be 556-feet long, containing 0.31 acres.
“We are professional trainers with over 15 years of experience and we have never, nor would we ever, put anyone in a position we did not know was safe and secure,” Hauser and Kryszek wrote in an email to The Malibu Times last week.
As of Saturday, the petition had garnered 259 signatures, more than half of the 500-signature goal.