Ligertown Site To Be Auctioned

The Ligertown site in southeastern Idaho, where 19 lions were shot after a number escaped in September 1995, goes on the auction block next month.

The Bannock County Commission on Monday set July 23 for sale of the five-acre parcel on Fish Creek Summit east of Lava Hot Springs.

Bidding will start at $44,439.

When authorities moved into the ramshackle compound, they found 27 more lions and 50 wolf-hybrids that were relocated to refuges.

Owners Robert Fieber and Dotti Martin, who had been involved in another questionable private wild animal preserve on the West Coast, were convicted on nine counts of animal cruelty in 1996, but the case remains under appeal. They now live in Oregon and have been notified of the impending auction.

County road and bridge department workers burned the Ligertown structures to the ground and took the ashes to the county landfill after the conviction.