The Idaho Legislature has started working on a proposed new law that a sponsor says would prevent another Ligertown incident.
The House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday approved introduction of legislation to regulate the importation and keeping of exotic dangerous animals."It is designed to take care of the Ligertown situation we had over at Lava Hot Springs in September," said sponsoring Rep. Dave Bivens, R-Meridian.
In late September, 19 African lions were shot after some of them escaped from Ligertown, a ramshackle collection of pens and cages just outside Lava Hot Springs.
Later, authorities removed lions and lion-tiger hybrids along with more than 40 wolf-dog hybrids.
Owners Dotti Martin and Robert Fieber face misdemeanor charges surrounding the squalid conditions the animals were kept in. A jury trial was scheduled in Pocatello this week but was postponed until March 11.
An 11-page bill would put the state Department of Agriculture, its Division of Animal Industries and the Fish and Game Department in charge of supervising the importation, transportation, sale and possession of dangerous animals.
Bivens told the committee the measure is patterned after a Georgia law. It includes licensing for animals the state considers exotic, deleterious or inherently dangerous.
Bivens said the Georgia law attempts to list every species that might be covered, but the Idaho proposal has mostly broad categories. Animals considered dangerous include venomous reptiles, African lions, tigers, crossbred tigers, mountain lions and wolves.
Bivens, who was a rancher and then a lobbyist for the Idaho Farm Bureau before being elected to the Legislature, said Idaho has laws tightly regulating the importation of farm animals such as cows and horses but nothing on dangerous animals.
"It's becoming a problem with wild animals known to be held in unsecure places and not being handled well," he said.
Bivens said the Boise-based Idaho Animal Care and Control Committee has been working for years on the legislation, and he has an inch-thick file of complaints on how wild animals were being treated. He said the need for a new law accelerated because of Ligertown.
"Many wild animals can be a threat to human life and a threat to livestock," he said.
The bill proposes stiff penalties for people who fail to get state permits or maintain suitable living conditions for animals.
If the bill becomes law, the fines for repeat offenses could reach $9,000 with up to one year in jail. The measure gives animal owners until 1997 to obtain liability insurance.
A companion bill imposes tougher penalties for those conducting dog or cock fighting.