exotic animals in "safari"

It doesn't look like a 'little' barn to me.
It looks much like the winter barn systems at most zoos, or large commercial farms.

I would suspect that most housed inside for the winter were smaller animals, animals not large enough or too speciallized to winter outside (birds, reptiles, small primates and the like).

Most large exotics winter outside just fine.

That's because people simply don't know what they're getting into when they get anything other than the standard dog or cat. A friend online, who works at a zoo, says they get exotics dropped off there all the time, because people don't know how to properly care for them, and that includes, BIG exotics, like bears and tigers, as well as birds and such.

My computer is too slow to pull up the video, but this story is very sad. That poor man just seems to be in shock at what happened.

Here is L.A. a tiger that someone owned escaped and no one knew where it came from. It was wandering around in a wooded area between suburban houses and a big highway. Eventually it was shot by some authority. After it was shot, the owner confessed to having a wild animal without a permit.

Another time someone abandoned a crocodile in a urban lake. No one knew how to capture a crocodile so the lake became off-limits for awhile. A man with an airboat from Florida came and tried to capture the crocodile, but he failed. Finally an animal authority group was able to catch him and now he is in the L.A. Zoo.

A wallaby also got lost when the owner was moving and started just wandering around a surbuban neighborhood. People called an animal authority and it was caught. The owner found out where her missing wallaby was from news stories and it was returned to her.

It seems people abandon or "lose" exotic animals quite often.

I doubt these animals were in a little barn, but may have been in a building for the night, this is for their safety. Many places do this, even zoos. Most will move the animals out of exhibit into a building for the night. Want to know why all these animals are showing up? True, some just because a person did not do the proper research before getting such an animal. But, the real reason is many people are losing their rights to keep these animals. A ban law gets passed, without any grandfather clause. Which means, even though someone may have been taking excellent care of their animals, now that the ban law gets passed, they must get rid of it. This is wrong!! In my state, we were faced with such a ban law. Lucky for us, for now that is, we were able to educate our legislators and we stopped this law. Many here on TCS were a great help as well But, with the extreme animal rights groups, I am sure we will be faced with another ban law. The law I was facing was so bad, that if I could not get rid of my cats, they would have been killed at my expense!!!! By the way, this law was written and supported by the animal rights group API (Animal Protection Institute). It was supported by other AR groups as well. Yep, that animal rights way of thinking. Better off dead than living with people who love them and care for them properly. As for that place by you that allows you to pet tigers, where is it and what is the name of the place? Are they adult tigers or cubs? If they are a cub over 3 or 6 months of age (I have to look up the exact age), it is ILLEGAL for them to allow you to pet that tiger!! If they are USDA licensed that is, which they need to be, if the are exhibiting to the public.
Not true. As stated, most people lose their right to keep their animals do to these stupid ban laws. At times, these so called "dumped or abandoned exotics" are placed there by the AR groups trying to get their agenda passed. Yes, just as with anything, there are some irresponible owners. They need to be educated before making a choice to live with an exotic animal. As for the tiger in California. Had the owner been allowed to own that animal, they wouldn't have needed to go into hiding for fear of getting into trouble.(California is a ban state) It should be pointed out here too, that no one was injured or killed by that tiger and no pets were injured or killed by that tiger. In fact, that tiger had nothing to eat during it's entire time it ran loose. Yes, the owner was stupid. They should have come foward. If any of my big cats would get loose, I would report it, so that if the animal was spotted, I would know where to go to catch him/her. I would also be willing to be fined, for the escape and animal at large, if it was my fault, that the cat got out. (However, this should be true for ALL animal owners, not just exotic animal owners) It is my right to keep these cats, but it is my duty to make sure they do not run free. Of course, I do not live in a city either, where a big cat like a tiger should never be kept. Now, if my enclosure should be damaged by an extremist animal rights person, then I am not responsible for that escape. The person who caused the damage is.
As for these animals killed in that fire, it is a tragedy. I wonder how the fire started. I know they said it was an accident, but when something like this happens, it makes me think of the AR. They have been known to do things like this. But from what I understand, there was no sign of foul play here.

There is an exotic animal auction near me and it is amazing to see people walking around with lion or bear cubs. People buy them for their kids and they walk around showing them off. I am just thinking, what are you going to do when this animal is full grown, dangerous, you can't afford all the meat/food it needs to survive on, not to mention it outgrew the dog kennel you had it in and now is aggressive because you don't know how to handle it anymore...?

Of course there are some wonderful exotic owners out there. AmbertheBobcat is one of them. I am sure there are plenty of wonderful exotic owners for all the dozens of bad ones who just want something cool to show off.

Are you talking about Mt Hope auction? The rules have since changed a little. In order to buy these animals, you must now have a USDA license. This is good, because it prevents just anyone from buying one of these animals. Jen, thank you so much for the kind words too
Carmelo came from Mt Hope. I did like the breeder who was selling him, they did not want to just sell to anyone.