MAHONING COURT Sanctuary owners tangle over future of lion cub

The cub is still in Mahoning County. The hearing will resume next week.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Common Pleas Court got a taste of the Big Apple and Hollywood in an eight-hour hearing Thursday to decide whether Boomerang spends this winter in Berlin Township or in Southern California.
Boomerang is an African lion cub being kept at Noah's Lost Ark on Bedell Road, a sanctuary for abused and neglected exotic animals. He was taken there Oct. 12 by Al Guart, a reporter from the New York Post who was doing a story on how easy it is to buy exotic animals.
The cub is caught in a legal tug of war between Douglas and Ellen Whitehouse, who own and operate Noah's Lost Ark, and William Long, who says he owns the lion and wants to move it from Berlin Township to Shambala, an exotic animal sanctuary in California. Long is a resident of Upper Arlington, a suburb of Columbus.
Shambala is owned and operated by Tippi Hedren, a former fashion model and movie actress. Hedren and Guart were among the witnesses who testified Thursday.
Magistrate Gene Fehr said the hearing will resume Monday, when Long's attorney is scheduled to call another half-dozen witnesses. Fehr was not sure whether he will make a ruling Monday or take the matter under advisement.
The chain of events
The issue is whether Long is the legal owner of the cub, or whether ownership was relinquished when the animal was dropped off at Noah's Lost Ark.
Guart, an investigative reporter, said he set out to do a story on exotic animals in the wake of two high-profile tiger attacks. He wanted to show how easy it is to buy such an animal and keep it as a pet, he said.
Guart enlisted the aid of Long, who contributed toward the $1,000 cost to buy the cub from a man in Wapakoneta, a town in western Ohio. He said Long also signed documents making him the cub's official owner.
Guart said he contacted Hedren to see whether she would take the animal into her sanctuary before he bought one.
"We wanted to be responsible for this cub and make sure that it would be in the best place that it could be," Guart said, noting that Hedren agreed to accept any animal Guart bought.
Guart said he did not expect to buy such a young cub -- Boomerang was only 8 days old -- and was concerned about its health in making the trip to the West Coast. He called an animal rights activist, who suggested taking the cub to Noah's Lost Ark as a temporary measure.
Guart said he intended for the cub to stay at Noah's only until it was old enough to travel, and then be moved to Shambala. He said Ellen Whitehouse refused to give back the animal, though, and threatened to have him arrested if he tried to leave with Boomerang.
Whitehouse testified that she believed the cub was ill when it arrived at her sanctuary. Because of its apparent weakness and its young age, she feared the cub would die if she gave it back to Guart.
She said Guart showed her the paperwork listing Long as the cat's owner, although Long was not present when the cub was taken to Noah's. Whitehouse said Guart handed her the cub and said, "Here, take him," which she interpreted to mean he was giving her the cub.
She added that the sanctuary has received about $17,000 in contributions from the public since Boomerang arrived.
Hedren's testimony
Hedren, who spent an hour on the witness stand, said she believes the cub would be better off in California, where the climate is milder and there is a young tiger cub with whom Boomerang could interact.
She agreed to accept the cub because she supported Guart's attempt to publicize how easy it is for unqualified people to obtain exotic animals and keep them as pets.
bjackson@vindy.com