Ligertown Under Probe Over License
A federal report claims a couple operating a ramshackle game farm here sold lions and hybrid ligers without a required license.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is investigating Robert Fieber and Dotti Martin. Their Ligertown Game Farm was raided and closed after 19 escaped lions were killed in September. Numerous wolf hybrids also were removed.
“Our investigation is to determine if we can demonstrate that they were engaged in covert activity such as dealing or exhibiting without a license,” said USDA Inspector Robert Gibbens, a veterinarian at the agency’s office in Sacramento, Calif. “At this point, we are putting together what we have to show he (Fieber) was engaged in activities covered under the Animal Welfare Act.”
Bannock County Prosecutor Mark Hiedeman has charged the couple with 107 misdemeanor criminal counts related to unsanitary conditions at the private compound. The county also filed felony charges involving improper use of prescription drugs, but dropped them when Hiedeman concluded it would be difficult to prove the allegations.
USDA officials also want to bring civil charges against the Ligertown operators for animal-health and facilities violations. But agency investigators must show federal jurisdiction by proving Fieber and Martin were dealing or exhibiting animals without a license.
“If we can show they were indeed trading in animals, then we will seek to prosecute them under a civil administrative law process,” said Ron DeHaven, USDA Western sector supervisor of regulatory enforcement and animal care.
The couple’s attorney, Bannock County public defender Kim Claussen, could not be reached Friday for comment. He has said his clients did not violate any laws in collecting the exotic cats they viewed as pets.
Ligertown never has been open to the public, although Fieber and Martin periodically gave curious neighbors and passers-by tours of the chicken coops and sheds that were home to 45 lions and lion-tiger crossbred ligers.
A Sept. 23 animal-care report prepared by Gibbens after inspecting the game farm states that “several documents were found which demonstrate that (Fieber and Martin) operated as a dealer of lions and ligers numerous times since establishing Ligertown in Lava Hot Springs.”
The report, obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune, lists at least 10 areas of noncompliance with federal code.
Some involve a lack of veterinary care, poor feeding and watering of the animals, bad food storage and waste disposal, and improper facilities for the animals.
MEMO: IDAHO HEADLINE: Probe asks whether Ligertown needed license