New bylaw makes it illegal to own a lion in Grand Bend, Ont.

Town councillors passed a sweeping exotic animal bylaw on Monday night, making it illegal to own lions and tigers only a few days after a couple announced plans to open a private zoo and animal sanctuary inside a residential area of Grand Bend, Ont. 

Roaring Cat Retreat, a private zoo and animal sanctuary that specializes in big cats, is preparing to open in June. 

The owners, Mark Drysdale and Tammy Nyyssonen, bought the former grounds of Pineridge Zoo, a private facility that operated in Grand Bend for 40 years. 

• Mayor looking at 'options' as big cat sanctuary sets sights on Grand Bend

Neighbours in the subdivision recently learned of the couple's plans and raised concerns about public safety. 

'Tremendous amount of feedback from the public'

"We had a tremendous amount of feedback from the public and fear for their safety in the area," said Lambton Shores mayor Bill Weber Tuesday.

The new bylaw bans the ownership of a wide range of exotic animals, including big cats, such as lions and tigers, primates, bears, elephants, alligators, crocodiles, any snake over three metres in length and all types of venomous animals and spiders. 

Weber said the reason town council moved so quickly was in part because of public feedback, but also because of concerns levied by residents over Drysdale's past operation, Ringtail Ranch and Rescue. 

"You can Google and find out anything," he said. "That's what prompted us to take these concerns seriously. Council acted very responsively. Going forward, we have the tools in place to provide public safety." 

17 animal bites over 5 years

Drysdale's proposal for Roaring Cat Retreat in Grand Bend, Ont., comes less than a year after his previous operation, Ringtail Ranch and Rescue, closed its doors.

Drysdale once operated the facility in Wainfleet, Ont. with his ex-wife Joni Cook. Drysdale said the couple parted ways after years of pressure by town officials, public health authorities and law enforcement to close the facility. 

"We just couldn't put up with it," Drysdale said. "They did everything they could to block us and then it just became not worth it." 

Drysdale said at one point, police even showed up at his property armed with carbines after someone falsely reported he had improperly castrated a bull. 

"You wouldn't believe what we've been through," he said. 

Niagara Region health authorities ordered Ringtail Ranch closed to the public in 2016 after a number of reports of animal bites at the facility.

Under provincial law, any time a human being is bitten by an animal, it must be reported to local health authorities, so they can investigate the possibility of rabies transmission. 

Peter Jekel, who is the manager of vector borne diseases with Niagara Region Public Health, said Ringtail Ranch and Rescue had 17 reports of animal bites between 2013 and 2018. 

Girl attacked by lynx through cage

"For us, that's a lot of bites to be investigating," he said, noting that in each case, the exotic animal must be confined in a laboratory setting for observation to see if it exhibits visible signs of rabies.

If the animal survives, Jekel said, the animal is then returned to its owner. 

Among the list of animals that bit humans at Ringtail Ranch and Rescue are monkeys, foxes, horses, a lynx, a lion, a lemur, donkeys and a coati, a type of South American raccoon. 

In the case of the lynx, media reports at the time said the girl suffered a suspected concussion after she was attacked through the cage by the big cat. 

Drysdale said the girl was dropped off by her parents at his Wainfleet facility without informing him she was unsupervised. 

"The girl went up to the lynx cage and pulled so hard she pulled the nails out," he said. "So the lynx scratched her." 

Illegal to own pit bulls, but not lions or tigers

Even after public health ordered a ban on public animal exhibitions at Ringtail Ranch in 2016, the bites continued.

Jekel said that volunteers who worked for Drysdale were being bitten by the animals on his property right up until 2018, the same year Ringtail Ranch and Rescue closed.

Jekel said Ontario has no regulations when it comes to exotic animals, especially when it comes to public health. 

"One of the difficulties with these animals is there is no registered rabies vaccine," he said. "So that's another bit of concern when these animals do start biting." 

Jekel notes that at no point was Drysdale ever fined by health authorities for non-compliance with the law. 

"No matter how small the scratch was, we would report it," Drysdale said. "These are people's lives." 

No public safety standards

Critics however argue Ontario's animal laws are too weak. While it's illegal to own a pit bull, there are no laws governing the ownership of dangerous predators such as lions, tigers and spitting cobras, nor are there any legal standards for training or the facilities used to house such animals.  

This shows how problematic it is in Ontario," said Rob Laidlaw, the executive director of Zoocheck Canada, an agency that advocates for wildlife in captivity. 

"Most people don't know this, but there are no public safety standards for these types of facilities."

Laidlaw said that Ontario's animal laws are so weak, Drysdale was able to simply move from Wainfleet to Grand Bend, where he was able to start setting up a similar operation, no questions asked.  

"That shouldn't be allowed to happen. We need some kind of up-front licensing to make sure that this sort of bumping around of the problem from one municipality to another doesn't occur in the future," he said.