The Lethal Library

36. The Liger King: Fieber's Notorious Wildlife Empire

• The Lethal Library • Episode 36

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Welcome to the Lethal Library. Dani and Stephanie uncover a story so wild, it practically roars. Journey with us as we explore the bizarre case of Robert Fieber and Dottie Martin, whose passion for exotic animals spiraled into a chaotic ordeal. When police raided their dilapidated game ranch, they found more than just a zoo gone wrong. Big cats on the loose, courtroom dramas, and a small town plunged into pandemonium - this episode has it all. What happens when obsession meets negligence and the stakes are literally life and death? Tune in for a true-crime tale where Idaho becomes the unlikely stage for a drama of epic, untamed proportions. This is one you won’t want to miss!

Contact The Lethal Library at TheLethalLibrary@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok!

Dani:

All right, we ready?

Stephanie:

Let's go. I've been watching too much

Dani:

football.

Stephanie:

Yeah. And Jared saying it a hundred times, I'm sure. Does he say that a

Dani:

lot? No, I say that more really? Yeah. I'm all, let's go boys and like. He, he's more of the fuck. No way. I know. He is more like fucking dumb ass.

Stephanie:

Hang on to the ball. That's what he says all the time. So, yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, everyone, welcome back to the Lethal Library. I'm Stephanie. I'm Danny, and we are a True Crime podcast based out of Idaho. we like to cover cases out of Idaho and in the Pacific Northwest. and I'm told we have a particularly interesting case today. So, Danny, what is on the table? Well,

Dani:

there was murder involved.

Stephanie:

No way.

Dani:

There was Okay, but not, uh, this isn't our typical. podcast. So you're in for. I think it's gonna be a little treat. so let me just take it. We love a good story, so I know that that's, it's gonna

Stephanie:

have this, so

Dani:

that that's where we're at. So, I ran into this while researching, several months ago. I ran into an article about this while researching another case, and I was like, well, why the hell is this? And so I just kind of put it in my notes and I wanted to go take a peek at it, and I'm like, let's do an episode about it.'cause it is, there's a, there's a lot going on in here and, and, It's an Idaho so part of the culture, we wanna

Stephanie:

know about the things and the happenings here.

Dani:

The happenings.

Stephanie:

Yes. And from what I've gleaned from it is it sounds like there might be some scandal in here, which we love to talk about. The salacious and scandal scandalous. So let's go if that's your thing. It sounds like this might be the episode.

Dani:

And also my favorite thing with just, you know. People being stupid.

Stephanie:

Yes, we can. That's a running theme. We can't let that go. We just cannot let it go when people are stupid and you know, everyone does stupid things. But as you've heard, some of these things are legendary type stupid. So let's get into it.

Dani:

On September 13th, 1984, just outside of Newport, Oregon, police and animal control officials rolled up to an 80 acre game ranch. With 20 vehicles armed and ready, what they found behind the fences looked less like a zoo and more like a nightmare lions, tigers, wolfs, even a jaguar. Hundreds of exotic animals kept in cages, fouled with filth, some so starved that their ribs were showing through their skin. At the center of it all was one man. Robert Thomas Fieber, a self-styled animal lover who insisted he would rather starve than hurt his creatures. But investigators saw something very different. What began that day as a raid in coastal Oregon would set off years of court battles, animal escapes, and one of the most infamous cases of animal neglect in the Northwest. This is Astoria Fieber. His partner, Dottie Martin. And the disastrous rise and fall of Lir Town, LIR Town.

Stephanie:

I'm already so intrigued. Sounds like a little dash or more of Tiger King esque style. All the way over here.

Dani:

It's Idaho's version. Yes,

Stephanie:

because, you know, wasn't, wasn't Tiger King in like Florida or something? Somewhere Southern.

Dani:

Yeah.

Stephanie:

I, so, which is like

Dani:

a whole nother country to us, like so far away.

Stephanie:

Florida. Well, and Florida really is its own thing. And I feel like Idaho in some ways just has the different facets of other states that it brings in. And I could see a little bit of a Florida thing type happening here. Some of the wildest shit comes outta here. People don't hear about it though.'cause they don't remember. It's a state. They're like, oh, Iowa, sure,

Dani:

I'm gonna Google. Uh. It was Oklahoma, which again is like another country. Okay. We got the Okay. Oklahoma. So yeah, Idaho's very own. Very own. Wow.

Stephanie:

I'm

Dani:

Liger

Stephanie:

King, if you will. I want, I want them to meet. I can already tell this person's gonna be a character. They should have a little meet and greet.

Dani:

He, yeah. Let's get into it. Yes. Okay. On September 13th, 1984, just outside of Newport, Oregon, the Oregon State Police raided an exotic game ranch and arrested its owner. A Humane Society official described the ranch as being in quote, very deplorable conditions

Stephanie:

deplorable.

Dani:

The man at the center of it all was Robert Thomas, Fieber 46 years old. He was charged with cruelty to animals, failure to maintain adequate cages and shelter, and not having a holding permit for an exotic animal.

Stephanie:

Mm-hmm.

Dani:

Fieber himself claimed that he had 150 animals on the property. Are you ready?

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Dani:

Including 14 lions, three Bengal tigers, a cougar. A Bobcat and six buffalo.

Stephanie:

A lot of cats, and six buffalo. I'm sure there was other types in here, but usually from what I've seen on not only Tiger King, but what was the other one with the chimpanzee, usually they kind of stick to one modality, like chimp. Crazy,

Dani:

right? Like

Stephanie:

just chimps and all types of monkeys? No,

Dani:

he

Stephanie:

or just cat.

Dani:

No,

Stephanie:

he was Dilin and Dalin.

Dani:

Dilin and Dalin for sure. but when the state police got inside the compound, what they saw told a different story. They counted 20 lions, four bengal tigers, 10 wolves, the jaguar, and two cougars among a plethora of other animals. All types didn't discriminate. Nope. About 20 vehicles with armed officers showed up to secure the ranch. Fieber had owned the property since 1970 and it had been open to the public until 1981. So he invited people to come in. Yeah. but I think it was run down and he was getting some, maybe some public outcry. Yep, yep. And so he shut it down.

Stephanie:

And that's scary.'cause all those animals, imagine having 20 dogs. That's a lot of food. Now you say 20 lions. Oh, I'm

Dani:

gonna tell you about the amount of food and I'm, I'm telling you animal lovers, this is gonna. It's gonna hurt your heart. And we are

Stephanie:

animal lovers too, so I knew as soon as you kind of introduced it that there was gonna be some tough things in here as well. But yeah, if you, where's the money to feed?

Dani:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. After the raid, he posted a$19,000 bail and was released. Police locked the gates to the 80 acre property. No one was allowed in. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife delivered water to the animals and the veterinarians came in to examine them. Speaking to the Oregonian, Fieber said that he was particularly concerned about two young white lions on the property because they needed to be fed every 90 minutes. These cubs were rare and valuable, and he admitted he was depending on them to turn his financial situation around.

Stephanie:

Oh, so this is just like when they were selling the little chimps and selling the little tigers to people. That's a huge market and it brings in a ton of money. And then it encourages folks that have animals like this to breed and breed and breed and breed, which just like a puppy mill. Mm-hmm. That's not,

Dani:

it's not the way to go kids. Yeah.

Stephanie:

Turning your animals into, you know, being responsible for breeding and. Supporting everything leads to some pretty shitty stuff.

Dani:

Fieber insisted that he had raised most of the animals himself. His father Ray defended him saying Bob wouldn't hurt an animal under any condition. He'd starve himself first. He treats his animals better than most people treat their kids, but the Humane Society told a different story.

Stephanie:

Hmm.

Dani:

Eric Skat, one of their officials called the conditions quote, among the most deplorable I've ever seen animals in. He said that drinking water was filthy contaminated with fecal matter and mosquito larvae.

Stephanie:

Mm-hmm.

Dani:

And you were, you were right. Complaints about the ranch had been coming in for some time, and eventually an undercover agent was sent in to gather evidence. It's

Stephanie:

Oh, I bet. Because I mean, can you imagine somewhere, somewhere that's kind of advertising themselves as like a zoo or like an interactive place. You wanna take the kids there, you see a bunch of starving animals walking around in their own shit, and you're like, great Now, now we're all traumatized. Timmy's traumatized, and now we're concerned for these animals.

Dani:

You know, they have puppy companies here locally where you can go, oh yeah. And see the puppies. Not a huge fan, but also can you imagine going to what you're thinking? You're going to go show your kids some puppies and you show up and they're starved and rolling around in shit and disgusting and it stinks. Ooh, yeah,

Stephanie:

nope. Not gonna work

Dani:

that, that's same investigation. It also uncovered 23 small Mary Joanna plants on the property. Oh. They

Stephanie:

were

Dani:

dabbling

Stephanie:

in the devil's lettuce as well. And in Idaho?

Dani:

Well, we're still in Oregon. Oh, okay. But it was still, it was not

Stephanie:

legal though. No, it's not legal.

Dani:

Okay.

Stephanie:

You

Dani:

might as well have been growing meth.

Stephanie:

Growing meth straight from the vine.

Dani:

Yep. Picking it off the tree

Stephanie:

fresh.

Dani:

Fieber himself acknowledged that money was tight. Quote. I've got a lot of years money and guts tied up in this. I know I can turn it around now that I have my white lions. He told reporters

Stephanie:

special breed.

Dani:

He admitted that his financial problems had led to neglect, including cutting back on how much chicken he was feeding the lions. He said that. He had even been unable to pay his electric bill and the power to the ranch had been shut off two weeks before the raid.

Stephanie:

Do you know if it had been off that entire time? Because then even if you do have any, if you're feeding meat, which you have to for these animals where all your freezer, fridge, stock gone, water 80

Dani:

acres, uh, they're on a well,

Stephanie:

yeah. No water, no food. Oh, this is dire.

Dani:

To raise cash, he was cutting lumber on his property, which took up so much of his time that he couldn't keep up with cleaning the cages. This is a shit show, just waiting there literally, it's just a natural spring that had supplied water to some of the animals had dried up weeks before and he had been hauling water in from elsewhere. His 18-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter were helping him run the place.

Stephanie:

Is that it for employees?

Dani:

That's what I could gather.

Stephanie:

even if you had finances and water and electricity for all of these animals and you've got yourself and, and some kids, two kids, maybe dad's helping out every now and then Ray Oof.

Dani:

Officials noted that a large elk on the property was in especially poor condition, quote, just skin hanging on a rack of bones.

Stephanie:

Oh no.

Dani:

They decided not to move. The elk fearing and wasn't healthy enough to be transported. Other large animals were also left in place. Fish and Wildlife supervisor Thomas Drynan remarked that there were no laws in Oregon prohibiting people from keeping exotic animals like this. Fieber had once been licensed to exhibit and sell exotic animals. But in 1982, he surrendered that license to avoid prosecution for failing to meet state standards. Yikes. He hadn't applied again until May of 1984, but the permit was denied because the ranch still didn't meet requirements.

Stephanie:

And so I just want to, from what I've gathered so far,'cause I mean, obviously it sounds like the few weeks before the raid. Made this probably much, much worse. But there's history of this going on for years.'cause I was like, well gosh, how does any animal fare two weeks with no food and water? What's that gonna look like? Mm-hmm. You know? And unable to clean cages. But from what you're telling me this, it's not like this all just spiraled at the last minute.

Dani:

No, it wasn't a spiral. On September 17th, he appeared in court facing 16 charges. Eight were for animal cruelty, one was for manufacturing the marriage jawana. Mm-hmm. Others were for keeping a bobcat and a raccoon without permits. It's not the lions, but you can't have a raccoon. Okay.

Stephanie:

Some of that, it's just wild how laws work in. It is different states.

Dani:

he also, one of the charges was for maintaining substandard pins. The filth Lincoln County District Attorney Yuli Stapleton, said as many as 40 additional charges. Might follow. They're on the sky. They're

Stephanie:

like, we've got tons of other stuff. We just to sort this all out is been a lot. This is what we got so far. Hold my beer. Here we

Dani:

go.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Dani:

Fieber pled innocent to a total of 23 charges, ranging from cruelty to animals to holding wildlife without permit. All of these were misdemeanors except the ANA charge. He done fucked up. On top of that, he faced 30 violations of Oregon administrative rules for not maintaining food and water supplies. Those carried fines, but no gel time. Mm-hmm. So he is, he is looking at, I mean, I know these were all misdemeanors except for the pot stuff. But I mean, that's a lot of charges

Stephanie:

and a lot of fines to where, so it seems like although it wasn't illegal, they did have regulations if you had these kind of animals, which, yeah. You can't keep an animal

Dani:

and and starve it to death. Okay. Yeah. That's not how it works.

Stephanie:

Can't be. And especially if you're a known place like a zoo where they're like, I wonder what's going on up at that zoo. That closed down a few years ago.

Dani:

Eventually, prosecutors and the defense struck a plea deal. The case was reduced to six charges. The marijuana charge was dropped to a misdemeanor. Mm. Good.

Stephanie:

Actually.'cause that's the one that would've probably hurt the most.

Dani:

Yeah. And, okay. You ready for all these fines?

Stephanie:

Yes.

Dani:

Fieber was fined$232.

Stephanie:

Oh.

Dani:

He was fined. Yeah.

Stephanie:

And listen, my opinion about crimes with a fine is you're just saying people rich enough can always do the crime, but especially in this knowing how egregious it was and that he had like 40 or 30 violations that were these admin type of violations. I'm not about kicking someone when they're down, but. If there's no jail time, what's the penalty? You know? So

Dani:

they do get him a little bit. So listen, this is what he ends up with. So he was fined$232. he was fined$115 on four counts of neglect involving a jaguar, a bobcat, a raccoon, and three lying cubs. Those animals were forfeited along with a sick elk.

Stephanie:

Hmm. Okay, so a little bit more of a consequence with the forfeiture.

Dani:

And I just, I kind of feel like the raccoon was probably just a pet.

Stephanie:

Right, right. You're not, I mean, listen, you're

Dani:

not making babies and selling raccoons, but

Stephanie:

I've wanted a raccoon as a pet. They're just so cute. They're little hands washing the food, eating

Dani:

the fish.

Stephanie:

Oh

Dani:

my gosh. Do you know that one of my aunt's friends had a raccoon as a pet, and and his name was Rocky and I loved him and I loved going over and seeing him.

Stephanie:

I would too. See, this is where though I am appreciative that I have some like impulse control.'cause I feel like I could very easily become the next chimp crazy because they're just, listen guys, we all love animals. They're so fucking cute. thank God I just have a slight Amazon addiction to some online shopping here or there. Because gosh, if I had gotten in like the chimp game or the raccoon game. I'd be the, who knows where you would be? Raccoon queen. I'd have a whole gang of raccoons just committing crimes for me across the city. Oh, what a dream. Anyway,

Dani:

The sixth charge involved was failing to provide adequate food and sanitation for a wolf pup. Fieber was placed on unsupervised probation for five years with the condition that officials be allowed to inspect the ranch regularly. Okay? And he was ordered to pay up to$2,000 for the cost of the case and animal care.

Stephanie:

Right, because they, they had to take over while he was arrested and be like, well, and

Dani:

they wouldn't allow him back in for a hot minute. Yeah. Because they're like,

Stephanie:

it's a crime scene kind of. So yeah,

Dani:

it really was. So, but he was allowed to reclaim the rest of the animals. He picked up eight cubs, seven lions, and a tiger. He later told reporters it took 200 pounds of meat each day to feed the big cats. 200 pounds a day. Let's do$7 pound hamburger. That's a lot of money. By the way, I was just so pissed off when I went to go buy hamburgers for a barbecue hamburger for the barbecue this weekend. I was like, it's not even good. It wasn't even good hamburger. It wasn't the 93 7, which, okay, people can get an argument with me. I mean, really 85 15 is probably the best for burgers.'cause it's more fatty. Yeah. But 85, 15, no$7 a pound.

Stephanie:

It's, it's ridiculous. Even places like Chef Store, you still gotta even watch them for their clearance stuff.'cause sometimes you can get just a screaming deal on meat or. Like roast or pork loin or stuff like that. Even on like the super steel, like where restaurants are swooping in and you might have to fight someone for a selection of meat. Even then it's like this still feels like I'm just getting it at regular price from five years ago or something.

Dani:

I can buy two, two pounds of chicken breast or one pound of burger. When did that happen? Yeah,

Stephanie:

I don't remember that. Chicken breast used

Dani:

to be like. Ooh, I only eat white, only breast meat. And it was kind of bougie like

Stephanie:

it was. Yeah. Everything else was like, it's a garbage cut.

Dani:

No hamburger is garbage cut. What is happening here anyway?

Stephanie:

Yeah, we're not talking a steak. It's a hamburger. It's hamburger meat.

Dani:

So fee to make money. Continued logging and began taking the cats into town for people to take photos with them. Hmm. But by this point, he was already considering leaving Oregon behind.

Stephanie:

He's got too much of a reputation at this point, and they're gonna be there checking it out. I don't know how he was survive. Clearly he wasn't surviving well, but like, like you said, the logging took up too much time. The photos is a good little, I, I don't know if I'd call it a grift, but a good way that a lot of these people make money. Remember they have like the chimps going into classrooms and stuff. Taking'em to these little like conferences. The Tiger

Dani:

King was taking'em to the fucking mall.

Stephanie:

Yeah,

Dani:

let's go.

Stephanie:

No, a hundred percent. So it's a good way and one of the somewhat more ethical ways other than like black market breeding that you could, you might have an actual enrichment program that teaches kids, you know?

Dani:

So I didn't find that. I just found pictures. Oh yeah. So, no, I bet. in January of 1985, neighbors spotted two female lions on top of their cages. They had an escaped through an area of the enclosure covered with plexiglass and reinforced with chain link fencing.

Stephanie:

So better than the chicken wire that Creech had. At least there's that.

Dani:

So. Yeah, we're gonna get into further on down some details about these cage, how much duct tape we were using. Yes, exactly. Okay. Had a feeling duct tape was gonna come into play at some point. one lion was herded back in, but the other had to be tranquilized, which is so sad when they have to do that. I, I think it'd be traumatizing for them to be herded. I've, I've. I have herded, is that a word? Herded to be herd animals and, oh,

Stephanie:

herded herd. I thought you meant, is that herd herded like out instead of herded? Like I herded them into a right. Yeah.

Dani:

it's very stressful. Yeah. For me and the animals. You. Yeah. You know

Stephanie:

what? Now that you say that, if, if someone's gotta wheel me off to the psych ward, if they could just train me, I might opt for that.

Dani:

Right?

Stephanie:

Because Yeah. Of otherwise, instead of You wanna

Dani:

be chased around by the

Stephanie:

I don't,

Dani:

I don't listen stuff. I have no, just when I had pigs, I would have them get out. Uh, pigs are not a herding animal like cows. If you get one of them to come, like more of them will come if they kind of mm-hmm. I'm going this way. Pigs are like, go fuck yourself. Everybody scatter. That's what they do. Scatter. She can't catch all of us pretty much. it's traumatizing. It's hard. They're stressed out. I'm stressed out. Look, if I could just give'em a little bowl of food, I don't wanna shoot nothing with a tranquil oyster can, but I'm just saying they could just pass out and I could put them where they need to be. Yeah. And it's not just. Get out the forklift about me owning animals. How do you do it? The forklift? Like me. Oh, you should try chasing a 30 pound piglet. Six of them in the snow. I'm not doing it in the dark. I'm not doing it. I did it in fields. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Uh, so they are, first of all, it'd be like dropping a wallet to lose these animals. I mean, right. I'm not. Yeah, I wasn't raising these pigs for companionship. Okay. Yeah. I loved them though. I loved the mamas, but I mean, we were raising these Elle to four H kids, you know, we'd have the babies and get'em to a certain way and then mm-hmm. Like they would come get'em once they're weaned and boy. Losing those pigs out in the middle of winter. That's like your paycheck. Yeah. Uh, so it's like dropping your wallet and then being stressed out

Stephanie:

and Well, and you also, like, if they're escaping in the middle of nowhere in the snow

Dani:

and you don't want them to, they would freeze. Yeah. So then you also have, and I mean, it's a whole, there's a lot of emotions and going, losing a, a litter of piggies, uh, that just got out. So, and you're also worried about people getting in car, like tr. Oh my God, what did I just see? You're slamming on their brakes and accidentally, I mean, especially when it's snowing. I mean, there's a lot of things going on anyways. Yes. Like you said, if you're gonna haul me off, tranquilize me. Yeah, let's go.

Stephanie:

I'll take a nap about it and hopefully wake up somewhere more comfy.

Dani:

So this whole incident pushed Oregon lawmakers to act that year. the state passed a law requiring owners of exotic animals to obtain permits from the Department of Agriculture and to cover public cost if their animals escaped.

Stephanie:

And that's a good idea, regardless.'cause we saw in Chimp crazy the chimp getting out and ro roaming about the town shutting down traffic. Thankfully it didn't hurt anyone on that little escapade, but that's a big danger. Mm-hmm. If I'm going downtown to go shopping, I'm not expecting an animal that can literally rip my face off to just be out and about'cause it happened, right? Yeah. I mean, that's happened to people. So, and sometimes unprompted, so it's a danger that I didn't think I was stepping into. And yeah, um. I just need to find some fucking black shoes for work. I got the will to get out of my house and do an errand, and now there is a literal animal that could kill me that no one can control. No one can get control of this animal because this isn't like, you know, stopping a robber, like they've got their tasers and stuff for that. You're not gonna tase a chimp. The chimp's gonna laugh at you.

Dani:

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie:

Be like, that's funny.

Dani:

The thought of that just terrifies me, so, yeah. Fieber, tried to hang on, and August, he reopened the ranch for a drive through tours. Mm-hmm. Charging$4 per vehicle. He had cleaned up the property, repaired fences, and built new pins for his cougar. Donations of materials and food, including dead horses and cows to feed the cats, helped'em get the gates open again, which, look, if you've ever owned large animals, they do die. And then you, you're literally, I've paid somebody to come. There's companies

Stephanie:

that make

Dani:

a lot of money

Stephanie:

on this. They,

Dani:

I, I have to pay for them to come pick it up and they're gonna resell it and make more money. Yeah. They're gonna make like collagen or something like that. Yeah.

Stephanie:

I literally talked to a company a few weeks ago that that was their business model is. We come pick up your large dead animal. Mm-hmm. And I think they didn't charge anything, but they got to reap all the benefits of I was fucking

Dani:

charged. Welcome to the country. Drive around to see if, I'm sorry. Dead horse at the top of the driveway. Yeah. It's waiting for pickup. Yeah. I never, I never had a horse but a cow. Yep. Mm-hmm. A cow, just four legs up bloated at the end of the driveway. It sucked.'cause. I hearted my animals. I was very big into husbandry and how I took care of them. And, but sometimes, look, I'm just, sometimes animals are stupid and they do stupid things. Mm-hmm. And then they die. Uh, you'd like to reason with them be like, Hey listen, don't overeat and get bloated. Okay. Especially in the evening.'cause I'm going to bed and then I wake up and you're bloated. Did I tell you about the time I saved a calf from Bloat?

Stephanie:

No,

Dani:

I didn't tell you the story. How do you do that? I feel like I've, okay. Maybe you

Stephanie:

have,

Dani:

we'll see. But I'm gonna tell it again anyway. Yes. Tell me. Okay. So I was out, bought a jersey drop calf from a dairy. They're like$5. They're steers. but I, I enjoyed them. I enjoyed raising them and, They take a long time to grow.

Stephanie:

They're$5.

Dani:

These drop calves, they're like a week old because at a dairy, they don't, they pull those mamas from the cow. Mm-hmm. The, the milking cows. And then they feed them. And if they're, they're little heifers, they're gonna keep them and throw'em back into their, what are they gonna do with the, what are they gonna do with a male, uh, milking cow?

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Dani:

Nothing. Right. So you can pick'em up and you can still eat'em. You can grain'em out and eat'em. They just take a long time to grow. Not ideal meat, but it's cheap meat if you can. Sure. Get'em to go. So I sat there and feeding, and I saw this jersey laying over on his side and it's belly big as like you could pop him literally freaking out. I called the vet and I was new, by the way. Everything I learned. I, I had to raise the animals on a farm. I read on the internet. I had no business, but I was doing, she

Stephanie:

didn't, she didn't, wasn't raised on a farm. No. Was not.

Dani:

No, but I loved it. I enjoyed it. So call the vet Cow has blow. What do I do? I shit you not this old vet. I said, can you come out? Can't come out. I'm on another call. It's like just blow you think? And I said, well, yeah, looks like it. I mean, we're looking, if you've ever seen a cow, they literally

Stephanie:

look like, they're like the blueberry on Cha. Charlie Damnit. Willy Wonka

Dani:

Rouass.

Stephanie:

I think it's Verruca Salt. Is it Lucas Hall? It's one of those gals. Who's the other one? God dammit. I feel like we just talked about the violet,

Dani:

violet

Stephanie:

Bo regard.

Dani:

Yes. Anyways. No, she's the blue bubble gum.

Stephanie:

Yes. And it turns her into a big, okay,

Dani:

that's it. It's Violet. So they look like that. Like you could, it looks like you should be able to tie their legs with a string and like float'em. Okay. So I called the, anyway, called the vet and he's like, I can't come out. And he's like, so listen, this is what you do. You put, you find their hip bone and go one. Palm length over one hand, length over, and one hand length down. And you stab them in the stomach with a knife.

Stephanie:

What? And you have not told this to me'cause I would've remembered this. I thought that. I thought you were gonna be like, now basically pile drive them in the stomach and squeeze a fart out or something.'cause that would even seem more, and then I said,

Dani:

sir, my hand or your hand. Right. Yeah.

Stephanie:

Like I what? I'm gonna stab something I'm not supposed to stab here.

Dani:

I said I, and he goes, it doesn't matter. Eyeball it. I was like, I cannot do that. I would struggle to do that. I could not do that. And then because I am a problem solver,

Stephanie:

what did you do?

Dani:

I said, well, I have some 16 gauge needles here for. The, uh, pigs.

Stephanie:

I think that sounds much nicer.

Dani:

I said, could I pull the cap off of a syringe and stab it in the stomach with a needle?

Stephanie:

It'll take longer deflate, but it

Dani:

pretty much is what he said. Fucking two hour, Steph sh

Stephanie:

See, and as a cow, I find that more relaxing. Like stab, like you could go too crazy with that.

Dani:

Like, what do you mean what's, I didn't even get into what size of knife I was. Just like my hand length, like I

Stephanie:

am, we're talking like, that would probably be like a two inch incision with a regular size, like

Dani:

no, look, you literally stabbed them. So, uh, the needle was probably about three inches long that I'm stabbing it and I deflated a cow. That's what I did. I deflated a cow, called over the neighbor kid when I felt like he was deflated enough and we rocked him and rocked him and rocked him and got him up on his feet. And I was winning. I saved a cow.

Stephanie:

And you didn't have to like, actually, I mean, you still have to put the needle in, but that's a different act than a stab. Thank you. Because a needle is meant to, and if, oh man. Yeah, I would struggle actually doing a stab.

Dani:

How do we get here anyway?

Stephanie:

I dead cow how we got it. I hope you guys like it, just the convo because I'm learning so much. Danny and I chat all the time and that I haven't heard this one before. Yeah. One

Dani:

time I deflated a cow.

Stephanie:

That could be a two truth and a lie

Dani:

for sure. Ever deflated

Stephanie:

a cow?

Dani:

Okay,

Stephanie:

so you were at the drive through where he was charging$4.

Dani:

but within a week. Officials shut him down again, citing violations of the Animal Welfare Act

Stephanie:

and sneaky being like, well, if you just saw it from your car, doesn't look that bad. If you get up close, it might look

Dani:

bad. Well, he, listen, he was arrested for violating probation after failing an inspection by the US Department of Agriculture. That was the big deal. Mm-hmm. Because you agreed. Remember that part where you said we could come do inspections? Yeah, we can Here. Yeah, you would keep it up. Do you remember that part? Yeah. You're not doing that and even though you built a couple of new pens and are trying to make it shiny and new and you got some help and you're trying to get money coming in, you're still not passing inspections, bro.

Stephanie:

Yeah, I can appreciate the trying,'cause it does sound like he probably improved it quite a bit, but it was in dire, deplorable. Mm-hmm. So even a few cages being clean or. The front looking shiny enough to have a drive by tour. It's a big, large, it's 80 acres, right? So what's in the

Dani:

back acres? Yeah. Yeah. A judge ordered him to reduce the number of animals on the property, and by 1986 was deep in legal and financial trouble.

Stephanie:

Yeah. Well, and once you start saying that they have to get rid of animals'cause he got off kind of easy, only having to forfeit a few. But a lot of these are almost hoarder situations. Mm-hmm. Where,

Dani:

and I do think a lot of it, listen, I think a lot of it for this guy was financial. Mm-hmm. I do. And you're gonna see this, I. I honestly don't think he was trying to harm animals. Right. But His pocketbook was not. Deep enough to support the amount of animals he had. And so then I think it was kind of an addiction with having, I think he loved these animals. Yes, me too. But he just, the lines were blurry for him. so it made it messy. And we're gonna see some work.

Stephanie:

Well, yeah. And when you're, when you're going through something like that. I'm sure these people feel like, well, I'm the only one that knows how to take care for these animals. I've raised them. Yeah, since a baby, you have a connection. And there probably was a time where his business was doing pretty well,

Dani:

and then the delusion it

Stephanie:

escalated. We're gonna turn this into an empire, it's gonna be a huge zoo. And then you're like, oh my God,

Dani:

wait, this, they eat 200 pounds of meat a day

Stephanie:

every 90 minutes

Dani:

for the Cubs. Yeah. What the fuck? So he was in that deep legal and financial trouble. But he was still in and out of court trying to keep his animals.

Stephanie:

Mm-hmm.

Dani:

But the ranch itself was facing foreclosure, not good. And his ex-wife was pursuing him for unpaid child support. Oh. See, now you,

Stephanie:

you're never gonna crawl out. No. Because if you're making any. It's easier when you have your own business.'cause you can, yeah, you can hide some stuff, move things around. But she's

Dani:

on'em. She's like, you know what, I'm just gonna jump on this bandwagon. You're fucking everything up. That summer he decided he had had enough of Oregon. Mm-hmm. In July, he moved 18 animals to an area near Grangeville, Idaho. About 75 miles southeast of Lewiston.

Stephanie:

So this is North Idaho. For those of you we're panhandle right. Uh, kind of, I mean,

Dani:

I almost said golly,

Stephanie:

golly golly, folks.

Dani:

Um, so Lewiston, Lewiston is panhandle. I just don't feel like Grangeville iss really panhandle though.

Stephanie:

Mid, mid handle, I don't know what you

Dani:

call it. Yeah, let's go. Mid handle. We're naming mid handle, we're naming shit like, uh. The Gulf of America. We're just naming shit now. We're calling it what we want. You're not the boss of me, the Plains of Grangeville. It really is pretty up there. Actually. It is. It's a nice pride. The PAL area and stuff up there. It's really nice. I'm like, Idaho is beautiful. We have all, I would say 80, all the different,

Stephanie:

80% of places are beautiful. We have our barren lands where it's just like, yeah, but it's pretty.

Dani:

It didn't take long for problems to start there though.

Stephanie:

Oh, shocker. Because just moving doesn't cure your financial and lethal pallets and

Dani:

chicken wire. Well, he what?

Stephanie:

I'm bringing

Dani:

my pallets and chicken wire with me. I don't, he's

Stephanie:

still on probation, isn't he? He don't

Dani:

give a fuck. Oh, I don't

Stephanie:

think you're supposed to leave. He don't

Dani:

give a fuck. So he's like, anyway. A clear. Yeah. He goes, I gotta go. Bye. Uh, a Clearwater County farmer, James Boff reported that he had been forced to shoot and kill one of Fe's lions.

Stephanie:

Oh.

Dani:

After it came close to attacking a horse.

Stephanie:

Can you imagine being in a rural location in Idaho in the eighties, just on a farm where my neighbor, really, no one knows what Idaho is? You haven't seen anyone that's not a mile away for a few weeks. You've just been working and a lion is in Idaho roaming, trying to kill. Can you fucking imagine the cops wouldn't have believed you? They would've thought you were high on mushroom. Bessie, bring my gun. Hey Adam. I think we're, I think there's a

Dani:

goddamn

Stephanie:

lion out here.

Dani:

Nine one One's like putting the them on mute,

Stephanie:

being like,

Dani:

Hey, outta James and

Stephanie:

Bessie's place, they're saying there's a lion out there decking their horse. Do we

Dani:

call Chip? Tell'em to go out there, see if they're, see if they're growing that marijuana. They've

Stephanie:

got, they've gotta be on the marijuana. I heard about that. Devil's lettuce hallucinating. Can

Dani:

you fucking imagine? Uh, another rancher blamed the death of a cow on the same lion.

Stephanie:

Oh. So the lion's just been sneaking out like a young teenager.

Dani:

Wolfie actually. Oh shit.

Stephanie:

Having a grand old time. I love this place. I love it. Nice for wave of great. Yes. I get to hunt. I feel like I'm in the Sahara like this is. It's in my living, my

Dani:

blood. I am, I'm gonna go party tonight, so I'm, fuck you guys. Can't get outta your cages. Uh, Fieber insisted. The animal, a lion is named Gato Original, Ugh. Uh, was gentle and so tame. He could walk her without a leash. Is that technically walking? But should you ever, is that technically walking? Because like if I walk my dog. I'm it, I don't consider it a walk if it's not on a le, like,

Stephanie:

well, I do, but especially Harry and Gordy, if you needed to physically restrain the dog, you probably could. If, if a lion is walking with you without a leash and not going far, it's only because it feels like it in that moment. It's not because of any of your discipline or anything. It hasn't found me like cats like, go fuck yourself. Like, yes, I'm walking. You're walking by me. But if you think you're the one in control here, I've got a bitch flap to tell you otherwise. Hey

Dani:

Bob. I know, I know you think you got this, but uh. I'm just being nice to you. Okay.

Stephanie:

Listen, you mostly gimme food sometimes. So

Dani:

mostly, sometimes

Stephanie:

if I, if I can create a sense of trust that allows me to hunt on these beautiful Idaho lands, let's

Dani:

go. I'm gonna

Stephanie:

tell you.

Dani:

Yes. And apparently, unlike Africa, there are cows in fences for me. So. Yeah. They can't go fucking nowhere. I'm gonna get them. These bitches suck at running. Oh shit. You know they're not chasing a gazelle. No. The cows get, the cows get to the edge of the fence and he is like, gotcha, fucker. Yeah. The cow's never seen him before. They're like, that's a weird looking dog. Okay. Okay. Should I back up? Okay. Super furry though. Like we're walking fast. We're walking fast. Oh fuck. There's a fence and they're in their light trot running for their lives. Poor things. But Gato was the mother of his prized white lion clubs that he wanted, so she was special. When asked how she escaped, he admitted she simply walked over the eight foot fence. Oh. Simply, oh, he promised to put roofs on the enclosures.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Dani:

Were you not watching any fucking, I don't know. They had National Geographic.

Stephanie:

If you know, if you are raising these animals, you know the capacity that they have eight feet, I feel like my doberman could almost like, at least get up on a fence and clear that

Dani:

my, I've had dogs that could clear a six foot fence. Yes. Easy.

Stephanie:

What in the fuck?

Dani:

And they were not wild. Fucking 200 predators, pound tigers that need to leap and jump in the desert. Yeah. Agile as fuck to eat and not starve. They were just stupid and wanted to get out of the fence.

Stephanie:

Unbelievable. Oh, gato.

Dani:

Oh,

Stephanie:

got to have a little, I mean. It does make me a little happy that Gato got to live out their original What? That's what they're supposed to be doing. That Gato had a great time. Right? Not the cows though.

Dani:

Not the cows so much. Well back in Oregon. Authorities issued a warrant after he failed to appear at a probation hearing. Uh oh. He left behind 17 lions, three tigers, three wolves, three bison, and a large herd of deer. A whole herd was his own personal deer. They were special deer. I don't know if I wrote it down in here. I gotta remember, they were different deer. They weren't your average Oregon coast deer. Okay. They were like a native No, I, something was special about'em. Maybe they were a, it might come up. I can't remember if I wrote it down or not. So be patient. But that's, that's one of those things where I do believe that the intent was pure at the beginning. But if you're gonna abandon that many animals mm-hmm. Take the money and run. It's what was doing. For sure. Yeah. And escaping the new laws. And you're willing, so you say you're willing to starve, but you're not willing to. Dad said he was willing to starve. Yeah. So what, what, what is the real thing? Like how has it escalated? And clearly it's escalated to a point where if they were doing terrible with you, being able to feed them sometimes, you know, as an animal owner that they're gonna do worse without, Meanwhile, in Idaho, he lost three more cats. Two adult lions died from unknown causes. And an 11 month old lion was so ill a veterinarian, had to put it down. The same vet took in a three month old Bengal tiger. And two, two week old African tigers. He just can't keep well, and most vets aren't normally in the, an exotic animal trading business. What are they doing with these? It was difficult for me to find a large animal vet for my little farm there, like an equine and, yeah. Yeah. No, you are finding pet veterinarians, dogs, cats, large animal is difficult. Even a specialty animal. And so if there's an emergency, you're really fucked. Well, Idaho Fish and Game Warmed warned that the makeshift cages and fatty food scraps being used for the feed mounted to cruelty. Ooh. Fieber was also four months behind on his rent, and he eventually moved nine cats to a friend's ranch in Idaho Falls, and eventually he ended up in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. So for those that aren't from Idaho, where's Idaho Falls? And where's Lava Hot Springs? It is very eastern south, not panhandle. We're ta we're in the pan. The town is named Lava Springs. They went to the desert. Mm-hmm. It's very deserty. It's high desert, sagebrush. We're not talking the pine trees and mountains and creeks and streams that most people might think of. When you think of Idaho, it's desert. There's no fucking trees unless there's s water sagebrush. It's, it's for those who have driven to Vegas from surrounding states that maybe some hills. So yeah, it's, it's the dessert. Um, fun. Let me just, fun fact,

Stephanie:

okay.

Dani:

Napoleon Dynamite. Yes, that's what we're talking about. You've seen that movie, so you're gonna have some agriculture stuff going on. Yeah. But if the ground hasn't been plowed, tilled and getting fed by a canal, it is not garash. It's not grown. Nothing. It is garash. So, also, well I'll come back to that later. Put a pin in it. We're gonna circle back the rest of the organ animals were rehomed. Some even ending up with a Barnum and Bailey Circus. Which as we know, is just a great life for those animals. I mean, probably at least they're probably getting Fed, fed, because I'm sure that that is a closely watched organization. Yeah. At least closer than a random quote unquote zoo. But game farm, I just, for me, game is not tigers and lions and bears. Oh my. No, it's not. but you know, they have, we have, we have buffalo ranches here. Yeah. We have elk ranches here. Jeffrey Star has a buffalo meat ranch in Montana now. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. I'm, I can get down. I understand that they're native to those areas. Yes. What the fuck are you doing with lions and tiger? Why is a jaguar here? Thank you. Why would a Jaguar be here? And all by himself or herself. Yeah. What the fuck are you doing with what kind of maniacal breeding? Oh, I bet you he had some names to come up with that if he could get'em to breed. Anyway, So when Fieber, moved to Lava Hot Springs. Yeah. He had a partner, Dottie Martin. I've been waiting to hear about Dottie. Yeah. So him and Dottie were Buddha and I think she, I think she was also involved a little bit in Oregon, but her never, her name never kind of came up in articles and stuff. Okay. I think it was a long time partner of his. Sure. but those lava, in 1994 Lava Springs ERs began complaining, when a wolf hybrid from Fieber and Martin's property killed dozens of chickens, turkeys, goats, and other livestock. This isn't a free range hunting situation in Idaho. We have free range for cattle, which for, it's very surprising to people to know that in free range areas, if a cow's on the road and you hit it, you're in trouble.'cause there's signs. And so you'll be liable. Yeah. And it doesn't matter if they're standing literally in the middle of a highway. It does not matter. But it isn't free range. Predator of your predator pet is allowed. I can't go out and shoot the cow. You can have your dog go kill a cow and you certainly cannot have your pet lions go Gala. A gal. Yes. They should not be gallivanting. No, no. Gallivanting. So, yes. the, the free range laws are pretty, it's pretty. Well, you would think, oh my god, a cow got out and I hid it and I destroyed my car. It's their fault. No, it's not. It is not. It's not. They're allowed to be there. and they are buttholes about it. There's, I literally, they will stare you down. No, in. Yes they will. Kyle's like, I'm, excuse me, bitch, what are you gonna do? They know it's free rage. They know. They're like, I wish you would hit me. Go. Go ahead. I personally know in depth of a case where a couple was driving a Cambridge council area Sure. Hit a cow and there was a big thing. Ooh, I should do that fucking case. I think you might've mentioned this one on another case where they went to the owner or something. Well, they hit, the cow totaled their car. The farmer's insurance was not, the rancher's insurance was not paying for their car. It was all on them. but that letter to a whole nother thing with the co gun drawn Yes, yes. You have mentioned this. Okay. And I'd be very interested to know that case. I should do that case. I can't believe that. I think it was salacious. Yeah, it was huge. Yes, it was a big deal. A dispute over hitting the cow, the things that happened in Idaho. But one neighbor, Colleen Hansen, shot the animal herself. Oh. These guys were breeding fucking wolf hybrids, and they were going to court, listen, I didn't get into this, but they were going to court with the state of Idaho over certain characteristics. There was like eight characteristics of what was considered a wolf, or not a wolf or a dog. So they were hybrids and they were going through all of this, why poor Colleen's goats were getting fucking cho up. Well, and listen, even if it's a regular dog, if it's a Labrador that's coming onto your property and killing your chickens mm-hmm. In Idaho, for the most part, can shoot it. You can shoot it. Yep. It's on your property. Yep. You either have to find a way to keep your dog in electric fence or actual fence or whatever. So, yeah, Colleen shot that, shot. That wolf hybrid. Yup. Uh, and when Idaho Fish and Game inspected the five acre lot, they discovered at least 44 wolves or wolf hybrids. That's too many of anything. Many dehydrated and in import condition. And so not only do you have way too many, but you're putting them in a desperate state where, because you're in the fucking desert, A, the fucking desert. B as a human, if you were being starved and thought you could go to a neighbor's house and snatch up a chicken or eggs or something, are you not gonna make that? Like this is a wild animal. Harry gets outta the backyard and he's not even fucking starved or nothing. Well, and he thinks he's six foot tall. He probably thinks he's a hybrid wolf. He's like, now I'm on the prowl in my habitat. 16 pounds. And just so you guys can get, can know Harry, he's like the typical and listen, I'm gonna say this with love, but the other, I'm not even gonna fucking judge you.'cause I probably felt probably white dog with the little tear stains sometimes. He's, and he's got a great, I even used the whitening shampoo. I don't, I don't even think he has a good personality. I mean, I like him just'cause I, I like little sassy dogs, but he is fucking sassy. We saved his fucking, anyways, it's a long story. Literally saved the fucking dog from death. And this is how he pays me back. Anyway. he gets out for no reason. maybe the gate didn't shut all the way. Someone left it open. Maybe dad left it open. Taking out the trash. Yeah. Those things. Yeah. But he's surely not starving in the fucking desert. No. And so you take a wild animal and starve it. They, it's in their nature to get out. Well, here we go. Oh God. On September 20th, 1995, this situation exploded. Several big cats escape from the compound Fieber and Martin now call Liger Town. I'm sorry, very bold. No, why do you want a notoriety name plate town? you know who loves Ligers? Who? Napoleon Dynamite. Oh, he does. He likes to draw them. Yep. Yep. They're his favorite animals. And you know what? He, Preston is only 50 miles away from this area. That's where it was filmed. Yeah. So, so definitely. Okay. I'm glad that Napoleon Dynamite really went with Idaho's. There's not a lot of culture here, but they, they found, they found a little bit, they found the culture. Oh, wonderful. So the liger king couple themselves were attacked by, at least one of the animals have suffered injuries. Well, they had several get out. What are you gonna do against these lions and tiger if you've got females? They literally have a genetic instinction to hunt together. this is what they don't really have to be taught. They just have it. You should see the pictures of these guys in the press. Their arms are all bandaged up. They're like, we love our cats. Which I feel like some regular cat owners have those type of cats where they're like, my cat beats me up and I, they're literally on a stretcher. Yeah. I love my cats. I should have saved those pictures for you. Oh my fucking girl. Oof. the escape sent the small town into chaos. And when I say small town, it was like 500 people or something ridiculous. Like little. I write that down. the elementary school closed the next day after, like, we're not having fire drills, shooter drills. We're having lions, tigers, and bears drills. Oh my, what the fuck? Could you imagine getting that?'cause this was a phone call at the time. We gotta shut down the school because of the, because of the lions and tigers. What? excuse me. What the fuck? I'm like, they're, they're smoking that marijuana at the school. I know it. That devils lettuce. I know it. 50 sheriff's deputies from surrounding counties. SWAT teams, Idaho Fish and Game, and Idaho State Police swarmed the area. Oh, they called in everyone Because this is one of the most unique and crazy, no one knows what to do. We don't have a protocol for this. I'm glad they at least called in. Like, we don't know what we need. We just need people. We need it all. And then residents were warned they should probably keep their pets inside. Yeah. Don't let, and children, yeah. That Julie and Timmy shouldn't be out playing in the neighborhood, in the driveway right now. In the end, 15 African lions and tigers were killed. So 15 escaped. Do you think? Yeah. that's like almost all of them. Well, they were having more babies, so this is gonna come up. Okay. So it could have, it could have been an exponential increase in the, okay. I love this name. Are you ready? Yes. Lava Hot Springs. Mayor New Low. Newt low promise that low. Can you go? Uh, yeah. So Newt said quote, we'll do everything we can to prosecute these people to the full extent of the law. They're done, but they are very litig, litigious. Litigious. Am I? Yes. No, that's right. Yay. I'm winning. They know their rights. They're not good citizens and they don't want to cooperate. That sounded very Idahoan. Mm-hmm. Not being a good neighbor. Clearly your 15 cats are out. We had to get little Timmy and Shirley in the house. They couldn't even have their play date with their neighbors. So part of the big deal, and I might end up repeating myself, but in my story, but part of the big deal is fucking Fieber and Martin would not tell them how many cats they had. So you got, they couldn't go in and fucking count. You know, we're missing over, okay, we've killed 15. Are there any more out there? Can you imagine? Like, okay, we've killed 15, but tell me how many cats do you have? And they're like, eh, that's so I can understand why they were, the message was so much even though it happened, there's nothing that's gonna change that it happened. But are you going to be part of the solution or part of the problem? Absolutely not gonna be a part of the solution. No. Zero. None. A hundred percent the problem. Maybe there's a thousand, I don't know. Dunno, maybe. Maybe the, maybe the population of cats in this town exceeds people. Yeah. Wouldn't you like to know? That's part of the problem. Fucking weird. 20 to 30 more big cats remain inside the compound. Oh, damn. Yeah. So they've been going crazy. They've been humping. The Humane Society flew in officials by helicopter and removed five bottle fed lion cubs. As they worked, three adult lions were seen perched on top of one of the buildings. Could you just imagine? No. It was so fucking scary. So one of the things, and I'm gonna talk a little, they were literally going into a lion's den, if you will. They've taken over to check and find what they could, how they could help. I mean, they're trying to, one, they're trying to make sure that animals aren't being neglected, and these animals need food, need water. So you're trying to do the responsible thing, but then you're also like, oh, we got snipers on the fucking roof. Pretty much. Pretty fucking much. Okay. the makeshift cages told a larger story. They were built out of chain link fencing pallets used as gates. Plywood carpet, cardboard, and corrugated metal. Sorry, I just gotta rewind to the cardboard. And carpet's a very durable keeper in her for a large cat or dog. Mm-hmm. Predator. Yes. We all know that carpet's the end all for cats. They're like, nah, not my thing. And they literally make cat scratches outta it. I thought, okay. Wait, you said carpet. I thought you said cardboard. No. Carpet and cardboard. Both terrible. Both terrible. It's a play thing for them. That's what their scratching posts are made out of. Exactly. They love to tear it up. It's like an invitation to tear it up. You might as well just sprinkled some fucking catnip on it. Well, and I'm sorry. Even, even the best taped cardboard boxes, even without a sharp object. You are not keeping me outta that bitch when I get a fucking shipment. You're not. If I can't find a sharp object, I'm opening it. If I can do it, man. Literally the world's predator hunter. Fastest, most agile there. This is a fucking joke, Danny. I am. The pens were filthy of full of feces, chicken parts and bones. The officials said that cages had not been cleaned in a long time and there was no drinking water available. that's why they said, we gotta get up out of this bitch. They were ting, they're desperate. They were revolting. They are striking, protesting. They've unionized at this point. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like, fuck this bitch. We're thirsty. We're hungry. Roo, anyone. And when you see the pictures. There's literally large animal like cow femurs and stuff just laying because they're getting like the free mm-hmm. When Fieber and Martin tried to enter the compound to feed some of the cubs, they were stopped. It's now a crime scene. Yeah. And, and Fieber demanded, what the hell's the crime? That got no answer. I'm just seeing like the head on the forehead. Oh my. Wrapped in fucking two pounds of gauze. Yeah. seriously, all of his pictures, he was in gauze. reports later indicate the couple, often let the cats roam freely. Even inside their manufactured home for fun time, it's enrichment activities. So you know how some of those double eyes have a slider off of the back bedroom? Yeah, just let'em in. They had a patio, it was enclosed. Maybe they even had a hot tub and one of the cats stayed in there. Little little dip and little come in the house, okay, it's time to go to bed. I don't wanna die while I sleep. So you go outside on your little patio. See, and this is where people reach the chimp crazy. They not understanding that even if you've raised an animal and trained, you've got a circus animal, zoo animal. Or even if you're on an ethical, sanctuary type place. This is an animal that has the ability to, and doesn't need a reason to. It doesn't have to be a logical reason. What are you gonna put him on the witness stand and be like, well, was this premeditated? Or no? This is literally an animal. Something can happen, their paw might hurt, and they might bitch slap the shit outta you. Well, neighbor Bruce Hansen had been the one two first report, the escape. He saw a lion stalking his livestock and shot it. Can you fucking imagine? Bruce said, absolutely the fuck not well. And Colleen, his wife, had already fucking shot a wolf. I'd be fucking li Um, a deputy that responded, killed another lion nearby, and a third was shot. After it attacked, it attacked, Bert Martin. So they're lucky that it got shot because it was about to fucking tell them how they felt about not having food and water for a while. Y'all. The sheriff's office explained they didn't have the resources or training to tranquilize the animals because even now we might have better connections to like fish and game for like a bear, you know, whatever. But this is back. You can't just be texting someone who works at the zoo. You can't do that. And the amount of animals that were, they didn't know They probably didn't even have enough tranquilizer or in stock.

Stephanie:

Mm-hmm.

Dani:

Well, emergency service and it's in a town of 500 is like, well what if we have to tranquilize 13 lions? The budget doesn't account for that. No, they're not. Stockpiling. Lion and tiger tranquilizing. Yeah, we're looking at sidewalks. They could have had enough for just the ligers. I'm just kidding. Maybe they could have had something for one, like a bear or something. Sure. zoo Montana Director, Dr. Bill Tarson, came to help. He said, quote, I, I've never seen animals kept in these kind of conditions. It's sad. He said, well, constructed zoos have an escape. Once in a while, the way this place was built, there should have been an escape here every day, and it sounds like there may have been. Hold my beer. Yes. Infrared helicopters were used to track lions outside the compound. At least a dozen were shot inside. One male lion was found dead in his cage being eaten by others. How terrible This is like House of Horrors Terrible on September 26th. 27 African lions and tigers were removed to a wildlife park in southern California. The Wildlife Way Station run by Martine Collette, Colette said, quote, this is unconscionable. This is one of the worst situations I have ever seen. How these people could put these animals in such a horrible environment and in such danger. I don't know. The deputies here didn't kill these lions. The people that kept him here did that. Yeah, this is all over. Terrible. The county declared the property uninhabitable and posted signs forbidding anyone to live there. Health officials began investigating possible public health violations. Well, and I wanna know how the,'cause this was a rental. Okay. They had to know something. It, it's not a, let me, there's gonna be something. It's not a rental, but it's a drama. They were renting in, uh, outside of Lewiston, oh, four months behind. And then that's when they're like, oh, shit. Gotta go, gotta get outta here. Okay, well, they bust a move, right? Yes. Fieber was pissed. He said at the authorities, he said, quote, they're murderers and they ought to be hung. We are terrorized because we have exotic animals. We been given the finger by neighbors harassed. You name it, I'm totally fed up. I'm so damn bitter. This is the United States of America, not Nazi Germany. I hate when people try to like, bring that into a completely irrelevant, I, oh dude, your animals were starving, being kept in cardboard. And really it was a lot of. In the pictures, I didn't see a lot of cardboard that was reported. What I saw were pallets and chicken wire and metal roofing, like pallet gates. It's not hard to disassemble a pallet. No. And pallet walls reinforced with chicken wire and no. So Dottie Martin added quote, we realized the place was a housekeeping disaster,

Stephanie:

but the

Dani:

animals were well fed and cleaning help was on the way. We've minded our own business. We've tried to be good citizens. We just want to be left to alone. Okay, let me just give a round of applause for the PR turnaround. A housekeeping, we, we've had some issues with housekeeping. Sure. We'll allow. That doesn't mean animals rolling in shit and like having, I'm sure infections and everything that goes along with that. And then she said, what else was the rest of that after the housekeeping? Uh, they were well fed. We've minded our own business. We tried to be good citizens. We just wanna be left alone. Um, so does fucking Colleen and her chickens. Yeah. She, she does not want a wolf eating her fucking goat. You've minded your business too much. You've narrowed your scope too much. You're like, if my animals are out killing my neighbors, I'm, I'm not, I'm not paying any attention. That's not my business. I'm minding mine. No, you mind yours. You should mind yours and keep your shit on your own lawn. Ma'am. On September 28th, 109 misdemeanor charges were filed. Goodness gracious. Okay. 84 counts of animal cruelty. 16 counts of public nuisance. Mm-hmm. Three zoning violations, two counts of possessing ketamine. Oh, One count of the marriage. Joanna possession. They like their grass, bro. You can't be doing it here though. You gotta, Idaho is a special, well, you couldn't be doing it anywhere at this time, but, but Idaho was ready to literally give you 25 years for it. one count of drug paraphernalia. Probably for that bong. You had big old bong and two counts of possessing protected wildlife. Okay, that's not the wildlife. You think. What is it? Is it another raccoon? They're like, everything else is fine. But that raccoon, you crossed the line. That was good. I think it's in here. If not, I'll tell you. that same day that all those charges were dropped on him, another lion was spotted just 500 feet from the elementary school. It was shot and wounded by a local resident and then later killed by authorities. And of course, the school was closed Again, can't you can't have the lions around the school because it's, because these motherfuckers wouldn't tell how many they had either they didn't know or they weren't telling, and I'm betting on they should have an estimate. They weren't telling. Yeah. It sounds like they were, they wanted to save as many as they could and thought that they'd just come back to mommy and daddy's house and no one would know. Mm-hmm. These are cats. Wow. They're, they're completely able to just go on for a very long time independently, so good luck with that. Those poor fucking kids. Mm-hmm. Uh, you don't have school today, Timmy? Not a snow day, no. Definitely not a snow day. A lion day. so there's the lions and tiger. And bears could come meet ya. So you can't go. They're very close. What the fuck? 500 feet from the elementary school. Can you imagine? How tragic. And they're still acting like it's not a big fucking deal. That's less than two football fields away. Mm-hmm. And they're fast, large. They're known for that. Yeah. That's literally their brand. In October, felony charges were added for administering ketamine and xylazine without proper authority. A sheriff's report described the conditions as beyond belief, nails and screws, protruded from the boards and pallets, the cages wreaked of disease, ridden water. And some animals required immediate medical attention. I'm sure there was infection. You know, that smell of where you just know. Yeah, I bet that smell. Oh, well, and one of the big things, this was on the PBS, this documentary, that I watched Idaho PBS documentary. I love PBS. they, some of the people, the authorities and neighbors were like, the cat piss you could smell so bad. So take your little fucking 10 or 12 pound fat ass cat that sprays once in your house that at pisses in your house. Once it ain't, and you gotta tear off the 40 gallons. You gotta tear off the carpet. It's never going away per cat. Well imagine how many cats, how many gallons of piss? I didn't think of that. Yeah, but I bet it was just, yeah. So they were saying how fucking disgusting it was. I did not think of that. Oh no. So I mean, and you can't really clean up piss on a dirt thing. Right. But so, but the feces were everywhere. They needed large spaces. Yeah. And these guys were in an enclosed. Cages somewhat enclosed. They're like, well, we got'em in their plate bin. Yeah, the pack play, our portable play bin, play our pack and play. We put'em in the pack and play. Is the pack and play not acceptable now? Oh, okay. I'm a bad parent now. when Magistrate Heart warned Martin that she could lose her hunting, fishing, and trapping privileges for three years, if convicted of possessing a protected species, she laughed and said, losing those privileges was no punishment at all. Oh. I'm not sure I might repeat myself. So, the protected species, they found, parts of a great horned owl on their property. Oh, no. So whether they, I really don't think Fieber and Martin killed the owl. but it doesn't look good for him. The tiger might have. They might have picked up, look, these guy, the authorities were after these guys and you're gonna see like every little fucking thing. They were, they were done, they were trying to get'em on anything. And unfortunately they had to really dig deep because most these were all misdemeanor charges except for the little bit of pot they found. So when they're going through and they said, oh really? You got a couple of al feathers here? Go fuck yourself. We're charging you because you can't even, you can't even have al feathers. Mm-hmm. So I'm not sure of how much was there. I don't, oh God. It might be later in the story, but I'm not even sure how much of this owl they found. I don't think these guys were poaching owls, to feed their cats or anything like that. I think that there might have been some feathers or, and there might have been a mishap. an owl literally could have got trapped in one of those fucking palaces and died. Yeah. And it's just sitting there and they're like, yeah, got you on this one fucker. And the cats would've been stoked about it. And in Idaho, I will say that, like, not even the endangered bird species, I don't, I can't think of the word off the top of my head, but the predator type birds, like falcons owls, like there's birds of prey. Yes. Thank you. Birds of prey. There is a huge community in Idaho for protecting tracking, going for their environment. Idaho Power has their own like birds of prey, person and team, because of course birds like to build nest in power poles and lines. Mm-hmm. birds of prey in Idaho is huge. So, and we have a huge birds of prey. Area. Yeah. Just, uh, south of, of Boise. Beautiful out there. Mm-hmm. Uh, people go and watch. I mean, one of the highlights of elementary school was going out there and looking at birds. They have birds, a breeze center, and there's photographers and bird, watchers and hobbyists. And so again, it's another one of those things where they stepped on another Idahoan nerve. I'm sure they stepped on a lot of Oregonian nerves that we don't know about, but they really for, for when, by the time they got here, they were already escalated to Max on the misbehavior with everything. So Idaho was just offended and wanted to act.'cause like you said, they tried to find every little thing and they did. Oh. it doesn't sound like it was hard. It sounds like it was a even more of a shit show. You want another little side story? I do. Okay. I was trying to, that's why I picked up my phone'cause I wanted to tell you this. Okay. So I think I might've told this story before, but I'm gonna, so we had the farm, I was working in town. Austin called me and said, mom, there is an owl in the chicken coop and it's killed like three chickens. Have I told you this? No. And I was like, well get it the fuck out hurting the chickens. Get it to, he said, and it probably doesn't wanna be in there after that point. And I said, well get it out. And he said, mom, it's big. Yeah, it's talons are huge. It could claw my eyes out. Ready to slicey dice. I listen. I've seen the barnells out there. They're about eight inches tall. They're white, they're cute. Mm-hmm. You are like, gimme this owl, we're gonna be friends. Just fucking man up. he is probably 15 man up and get that owl out. Get it outta there. But I decided because owls, there's a lot of owl species that are protected here. I'm at work, can't leave.'cause this is back like circa the day where you can't leave for circa the day. You're not being able to leave work. No for this you'll get fired. they don't give a fuck if your chickens don't killed, you don't have an excuse for owl in the chicken coop. So I sent my 15-year-old out there to get this owl out called fishing game and said, Hey, how an owl I a chicken coop? I don't know what it looks like'cause we only had a house phone. At this time. Mm-hmm. There's no celly. I mean, I had a cell, the kid didn't have a cellie. and I called fish and game and they're like, that's not an owl. It's probably a chicken hawk. Okay. I didn't even know that was a real fucking thing. I googled it. I googled the scariest fucking picture ever. I was like, claws out. I'm like, oh my God. I just sent my fucking 15-year-old and a 20 by 20 pin to go play with a fucking chicken hawk panic. Immediately sets in, calling, calling, calling. He's not answering because he's doing what mama told him because he's fighting a chicken hok. Get the fucking hell out. Luckily my friend was driving. I called my friend on her cell phone. She was on her way home. She stopped my son, middle of summer dressed head to fucking toe. Not one piece of his body. Was showing. He went in there with full armor and I respect Austin for this masks, Carhartt, muckers gloves, sunglasses. He got his rain boots on. I love the protective eyewear sunglasses. He went in there and he covered it with a clear, like a 20 or 30 gallon like tote container. Sure. The clear ones. Oh like a, like you went with a spider with a cup. Yeah, I like that. But on a larger scale and he put a cinder block on it when I got home, it was a great horned owl and those are big. It was fucking huge. Their eyes are like two inches big, like they can see your soul and it was hissing and you could see it'cause it's in the clear plastic. Which way? Badass That he, yeah. Picked the plastic one out like outta the heart. You can see it. Yeah. Very cool. What? So we scooted it out. I'm not kidding you. The wingspan on these motherfuckers is like 6 5, 6 feet. Huge. But we scooted it to the edge and got it out. But anyways, fish and game didn't give two fucks about my owl. terrifying though. Big owls. Owls are so cool regardless. But the big one, he was so cool. They're shocking. Shocking how big they are, dude. And that they fly so silently a big one. He was like two feet tall. You think they should sound like a chopper? Like No, nothing. He was silent out of the chicken coup assassins. Okay, go ahead. Don't fuck with Al in Idaho. I wasn't expecting to tell this many farm stories tonight. Oh, I love it. Cheers. I haven't heard these. I'm like, I probably told you like, no, I haven't heard this. Okay, back to the story. The county. So planning office declared their mobile home unfit for occupancy. Okay, this is disgusting. Doors and halls were blocked with solid waste. Windows were covered with plywood and there was no sanitary water. See, and this is where you com. I was already completely lost and obviously saying how terrible this shit is. But if when you cannot open doors and hallways are blocked from feces, there's, you've lost the fucking plot. Sorry, go on Danny. The couple would have to repair the mobile home or be demolished. They gave him 90 days. And with a mobile home, I mean, renovations on a mobile home aren't particularly. Cost effective and effect effective regardless. You may as well torch the motherfucker. They just needed to go clean it up. Really? They needed to get water running to it. They need to, they needed to clean the blocked hallways and doorways. Yes. You can't shut a door because there is such a mass of feces. Yeah. I cannot, well they, they didn't particularly say feces. I think it, I'm not a, I don't know if that was there or not. Probably. I mean, I'm thinking an episode of Hoarders, they don't even know what's in there. There's probably some big cat shit in there. but also there could be good animal. He has also, can you get rid of the pizza boxes? Oh, they didn't have pizza there. I promise. Whatever it is. They might had one joint. Yeah. They might have had that bar that served burgers and fries. And also a guy who said, I can make pizza. Mm-hmm. That it was not delivery. No. And it wasn't de journos. No. It was the guy at the bar. It was crackhead Frankie, who worked at a pizza place. Fuck yeah. For two years back in the, yeah. He's like, I can fucking do this. Let's go. Okay. Sidetracked. Okay. that November, the felony charges were dropped after a veterinarian witness admitted. He wasn't sure how many vials of sedatives he had authorized. Remember the ketamine and the mm-hmm. Zyl. Xylazine. Thank you. but federal investigators began looking into whether the pair had been illegally selling lions and tigers. I'll get ya, Margaret and Harvey Davis, who had sold the pair, the lagger town property, described their own ordeal. The couple had agreed to a wraparound mortgage. Never, ever do this. Kids don't do a wraparound ever, ever, ever. But when Fieber filed for bankruptcy in 1987, the Davises were left battling banks for years. So this is what happened. These guys had a mortgage on a property. They, they sold the property to Fieber and Martin. Sure. Still having a mortgage with the bank. So when Fieber filed bankruptcy, he knows shit no longer making payments to the bank. They're responsible, but ultimately the Davis says it responsible for it. Oh, and they had already purchased it at their home. They can't have a Yeah. And they were they, anyways, yeah. So they were paying, trying to like, how can, who could afford one mortgage, let alone two? Geez.

Stephanie:

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Dani:

Margaret Davis said they lived off a, lived off of us for two years.

Stephanie:

Mm-hmm.

Dani:

They were struggling trying to figure it out. Oh, and by the way, Harvey Davis was a sheriff or something, one of those little towns out there. So these are reputable people. They got conned. Yeah. Despite everything. Feba Martin filed a$30 million lawsuit against Bannock County, very litigious. He called it claiming one of their lions had been improperly killed. They also filed, wait, he wasn't really attacking? No, I dunno. they also filed an eight and a half million dollars tort claim accusing the county of racketeering and theft of animals naming even Martine Collette of the Wildlife Way Station, the one that came and rescued the animals. Oh my God. And now it's a conspiracy. Yep. And that just pisses me off of after everything of their reluctance to help that they said one, one of our cats was killed improperly. And I can understand there might have been, but out of 14 or so, you know what Colleen said, some of my chickens and goats were killed improperly. Like you put the entire town in an emergency situation, what's proper and improper. I wonder, god forbid, if something happened to one of those kids, what their stance would've been. I think it would've been the same. I kind of feel that way too. I'm feeling that way. Magistrate Mark Bebe, you issued a gag order after a county commissioner openly commented on plea negotiations. This motherfucker was at a Lion's Club meeting. Oh, shit. Yeah, he was like, how, how funny. The Lions Club meeting. Yeah. And he's like, we're gonna get these fuckers. And he just talked all about it. And, and that's a 10th of the town at least. Oh yeah. No, they're holding close. And then the judge was like, all right, shut your fucking pile. They gotta stop that. Shush. This is an actual legal proceeding now. It's, they we're doing plea negotiations and this's a big fucking deal. Shut the fuck up. Yes. In 1996, magistrate BB ordered nuisance charges reduced from 16 to one, and he threatened to dismiss all the charges if the prosecutors didn't comply.

Stephanie:

Okay?

Dani:

They're like, you can't, you can't do cats at large for every single cat. It's cats at large. Boom. I kind, which it's the law stuff. Okay? I guess we have to follow the directions and shit. Back when I was like 18, I had two dogs that got out and I got one ticket for dogs at large. Okay, sure. Okay. It's the same thing, same death, By March the case was paired down to only 21 misdemeanors. The defense be defense in must, must be. And listen, when they said they were litigious, I'm like, yeah, they try to fight a lot of stuff, but they are incapable. It seems like they're winning left and right except for their, I mean, they're losing their animals, but they are getting nothing for these charges. Nothing. Oh my God. After a five and a half hour deliberation, a jury found Fieber and Martin guilty of maintaining a public nuisance. Nine counts of cruelty, two zoning violations, and one count of possessing parts of a protected species. And that species was an animal, not the owl. Marijuana. The owl. The owl, I'm shocked. While they awaited sentencing, the compound was burned and raised. By who? The county. They gave those guys 90 days to get it up to par. And in typical fashion, what do they do? Abandon. Abandon, abandon. We've seen this in Oregon. Yeah. Abandon. Abandon, abandon. They run. Mm-hmm. Fieber was sentenced to one year in jail and seven and a half years probation. And Martin received six months in jail with the same probation term. Magistrate. Bebe told them, quote. The paradox is that for people who have had such great love for animals, you ended up creating an animal ghetto.

Stephanie:

Oh.

Dani:

They were ordered to transfer titles of their animals to Bannon County, reimburse costs and perform 250 hours of community service. Mother attorney appealed. Bill bail was reduced. When Bebe admitted, he had mistakenly said it too high. So he had said it for, it was a thousand dollars per misdemeanor, but when he reread the law, he couldn't do that. It was a thousand dollars per case. Okay. So it was reduced to nothing. So they got, yeah. Makes sense. They got out literally$3 and 15 cents. They got out pretty much. by late that year, the county sees the remaining wolf hybrids after they failed the care for them spending$24,000 on their upkeep. The county did. Oh my God. in December 82, hybrids were moved to a compound in Arizona. Can I just tell you, they started out with like 40, 42 wolf hybrids. The bitches be humping, they're making babies. No, all by waiting for, it's just a free for all. Yeah. And this is breeding in captivity that isn't supervised. Or these animals aren't going for vet visits to look for different things like diseases that shouldn't be bred. Joanie wasn't taking a pill. No. Mary didn't have an IUD. They were making babies. I just, I feel like even if this was in Nampa or Boise, which are some of the bigger towns in Idaho. This would've been a huge deal. I can't imagine in the eighties. How crazy. And just salacious. I mean, everyone would've been talking about it. What? Danny? I'm scared. I'm scared. I've had enough. Oh, well, 1998, what district Judge Randy Smith, ruled that the trial court, they're stealing fucking appeals. Okay. Randy Smith ruled that the trial court had no power to order the forfeiture of the animals saying that should have been handled in a civil court proceeding. The misdemeanor conviction stood so those appeals continued. I'm having to take a Tums over this. By August, a bench warrant was issued after fee and Martin skipped court. They run surprise. Finally, in June of 1999, Oregon State Police arrested Fieber in Newport, Oregon. Back to your old stomping grounds. I see officers had called him in to talk about the alligators he was keeping. No, no, no, no Fieber. Instead, they discovered the warrant. They had no idea. Literally, they were like, Hey, we need you to come down and talk to us. Something about gators. I, I know it sounds wild, but just come clear. They just come down and talk to us. They had no, that's not true. We know that's not true. They did not know that these guys had a warrant I want, so no animals ever again. Not even an ant farm. Not even a seahorse farm or what are they, sea monkeys. None of those either. Or a seahorse farm either. You can't have any of that shit. You can't even have a pet rock bitch. Don't you ever, oh, I'm pissed. So they were arrested. Him and Dottie Martin favor and Dottie Martin were arrested. Favor and Dottie because they had warrants. I'm fucking done with these two. You're be more pissed. Damn it Denny. I thought I was at my limit. Tell me. But Idaho declined to extradite saying it'd be too expensive. That's surprising. And Fieber Martin were released isn't you must not have had enough'cause Idaho loves to extradite. They're like, send them there. They just fucking forget about it. Send them here. We'll throw the book at it. So they might not, they must not. The litigious side of good old Fieber and Dottie must have really showed them that they did know what they were talking about. And to know the law. In the eighties, there was no ai. You're not Googling that shit even. Is it illegal for me to own Great Horn Owl part? No, you gotta be involved in knowing and learning constantly. That's why he couldn't feed his cast'cause he was too busy fucking paying attorneys. He was there at the library. I'm pissed. Robert Fieber fought to keep his dream alive. First in Oregon, then Idaho, but what he called passion for animals looked very different to law enforcement, veterinarians and neighbors, and everyone with eyeballs. I just wanna put that on the record. Cardi B. Yes. Uhhuh Just look security heavy. He was security heavy folks and everyone knew it. In the end. Liger town wasn't remembered as a sanctuary. No, it became a cautionary tale. A place where obsession, neglect, and defiance collided until the animals paid the highest price. A hundred percent. The neighbors, the animals, and literally guys in Idaho having, and I'm sure that, I'm not saying Idaho's special for this, having a lion, most of y'all would not expect this, but I feel like especially here in the deep country where you don't see your neighbors for weeks on end, you can't see them from your house with binoculars. That seeing a lion would be like seeing a fucking pterodactyl. That's you're right. what? So anyway, Danny, this has been one of my favorite ones, just because I love the absurdity type story. It was, we have absolute, this is why I had to do, I'm like, Steph, I'm gonna do a little different one. I wanna do this one. We thought that Tiger King. Was just a, oh, they do that weird shit over there. No, it's been happening in our own backyard. We didn't know this about our culture. This is our heritage in Idaho. So yeah, we have our own liker king here in Idaho. We've, we've learned a bit more about our own history, so thank you, Danny. You're welcome. Any other closing thoughts? No, I'm excited for, I am excited for, spooky season. Me too. Got my gal here. we've got our friend, what did we decide to call her? Sarah with an H? Sarah with an H, if you've noticed. and I don't know if you noticed on my rocking chair, I have a new skeleton. I didn't notice. my mama bought it for me, so she's the best. What I wanna say is from both of us, we know we had a little break to finish up the end of summer. Also just getting caught up on some different changes that we're doing in our own lives. So thank you guys for being patient with us and supportive. We've received nothing but support for taking a break. You know, sometimes we feel pressure like, oh my gosh, we don't release a new episode. The world's gonna end. And so sorry in the microphone. But the support has been great. Thank you for being there with us. We'll always keep you posted and let's go. check out our tiktoks. Yes, please. We've been kind of slaying it out there, so we've been having fun. Yeah. we've been having a good time. So, uh, check out our tiktoks please. Word of mouth. Biggest compliment you can give, share with your family and friends and yeah. Yeah. Ten four over ducky. Fuck yeah. Let's go. Danny. I fucking like that episode.

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