The bulldozed remains of the Ligertown game compound at Lava Hot Springs have been burned and jail terms ordered for the couple that operated the ramshackle collection of pens and cages.
Bannock County workers on Thursday sprayed 500 gallons of diesel fuel on a pile of rubble that once was a game refuge that housed more than 40 African lions, lion-tiger hybrids and wolf hybrids.Sheriff's deputies and county officials threw flares onto the pile, starting a fire that struggled against strong winds and snow.
Meanwhile, in Pocatello, Magistrate Mark Beebe sentenced owners Robert Fieber and Dotti Martin on Friday after they were convicted of 13 misdemeanors centered around the way the animals were treated.
Two of the counts were dismissed Friday, but Beebe ordered Fieber to serve a year in the Bannock County Jail, followed by 71/2 years probation. Martin is to serve six months, followed by the same probation.
They were ordered to report to jail on Tuesday.
Bannock County Commission Chairman Tom Katsilometes helped light the fire that destroyed the debris at Lava Hot Springs. "This isn't something we really wanted to do, but it's something that had to happen for the protection of people who live in this area," Katsilometes said. "The property was condemned, and there wasn't a choice in this situation."
County Road Superintendent Bill Aller had hoped the pile, which contained 22,000 cubic yards of material, would burn quickly and hotly. But snow slowed things.
County officials condemned the compound last fall after 19 African lions were fatally shot because some of them escaped. Cleanup began Wednesday when county crews demolished the shantytown with bulldozers and backhoes. Nothing escaped, not even juniper trees.
Katsilometes said the ashes, wire fences and whatever else is left after the fire will be buried at a landfill. The ground is to be seeded with natural grasses and other vegetation.
Bruce Hansen, who lives next to Ligertown, couldn't be happier. He owns 10 acres east of Ligertown and said he wants to build a house there.
"I watched this grow from day one as it ballooned up. It just got bigger and bigger and worse and worse," Hansen said.
Hansen is a Lava Hot Springs councilman who voted for a new city ordinance that bans residents from having exotic animals in the town or within a mile of city limits.
Residents won't even be able to get a permit to keep such livestock. "They're just banned," Hansen said.
Hansen testified at the sentencing hearing that he found many of his chickens, goats, turkeys and geese dead on his property and shot a Ligertown wolf that crossed the pasture.