Visiting West Coast Game Park

An Investigative Report by Tiffany Lopez, WCR Operations manager

This past weekend me and Chris had the opportunity to drive down to Bandon, OR and go to West Coast Game Park Safari. Not to enjoy a good time or vacation but to get some important information and footage of the parks now illegal activities of exploiting big cats. Now that the Big Cat Public Safety act has passed, it is now illegal for exhibitors to allow direct contact with cubs. West Coast Game Park has continued to allow the public to interact and ‘pet and play‘ with big cat cubs along with other species at the park, so we decided to see for ourselves. 

As soon as we walked in to pay we were greeted by a lady at the front desk, without hesitation the first words out of her mouth were that their animal interactions for today were going to be a Black Jaguar cub and Syrian Brown Bear cub. I asked what time they were going to be coming out for those interactions….she told me EVERY 30 min. It was shocking to hear that these animals would be subjected to interactions with the public EVERY 30 minutes. 

When we walked in we were greeted by hungry deer and livestock. The first thing we noticed were 3 red foxes, their enclosures were too small to be living in and the public have direct access to their mesh, allowing anyone to put fingers and hands into their enclosure. Next to the fox, capybara, wallaby, and emu were housed with direct access to the enclosure fence line. Allowing the public to stick their fingers in again and possibly get bit, or worse injure an animal. 

As we walked further into the park the first thing that caught my eye was 3 pacing big cats…. A male lion, black leopard, and spotted leopard. Their enclosures were laid with gravel and cement, The male lion was in an enclosure that seemed to be made to house arboreal cats, with a lot of vertical space and little ground space. All the cats that were on display that we saw were of younger age between 1-6 years old. You may not think anything of that, but big cats in captivity can live from 15-20 years. These cats that were housed on display were most definitely their ‘pet and play’ cats at the beginning of their stay here at the game park…. But when they get too old or need to bring in more babies to “play” with the public, where do the older cats go? The cats we saw on display included a caracal, 2 Siberian lynx, 1 female lion, 2 male lions, 1 tiger, 1 spotted leopard, 1 black leopard, and 1 black jaguar cub. Again they have been doing this for over fifty years…. Or so they say. They should have a lot older cats if they are caring for them properly. They are most likely being sold to private owners or breeders to continue this inhumane cycle.

As we continued into the park, an ear wrenching announcement came over the annoyingly loud intercom…. Their black jaguar cub was ready for “special touching and petting”. We followed this small crowd over to their gazebo area where the black jaguar cub eventually came out pulling on a chain ready to play with the audience. The keeper holding his chain went to talk about how he is the first black jaguar cub that the park has ever had in their last 50 years of doing this. The cub was “trained” to sit on a wood stump and be bottle fed by its trainer while the public could come up from behind the cat and pet it along its back. This cub was 5 months old… before the Big Cat Public Safety Act was even passed the legal age for a cub to be pet and handled by the public was no older than 12 weeks of age (3 months). This cub was big, big enough to really hurt someone if he decided he didn’t want to be handled or pet anymore. As I recorded everyone happily walking in and petting the cub, the trainer is constantly talking, I'm assuming so she does not get any hard questions from the public. A question was asked where his mom was and her answer was that she was at a zoo somewhere and he was pulled for outreach and education. Bullshit. Such bullshit. These cubs are taken from their mothers for one thing and one thing only, to make money. To bring the public in and make them excited about touching an exotic animal. But if you take away the ‘pet and play’ experience all you get is a sad depressing zoo with animals that are not enriched, suffering from neglect and are housed in inadequate enclosures. 

After the jaguar cub was done being on display and 10-15 minutes had passed, another announcement came blaring over the intercom. This time their Syrian brown bear cub was ready for “special touching and petting”. I was expecting a cub that was much smaller in size. She was 6 months old… again the cub was trained to sit atop a wood stump and the public would come up from behind and pet along its back. The bear cub was suckling on the trainer's hand, something that the cub would be doing to its mother to show affection. She goes on to talk about how ‘Betty’ the new bear cub was going to be their other Syrian brown bear, ‘Buster’s’, companion when she is older and will try and breed them…. Again, why? Just to take their cubs away and ruin their lives like all the others.

As Betty was on her way back in, she stopped and started suckling along the back bench. Her trainer was trying to get her to come into the back area by pulling her on the chain but Betty wasn’t wanting to go back there just yet. She started swinging her paws and pulling back and then continued to suckle the bench, her trainer offered her another bottle to get her to follow her back in again. How many bottles per day are they going through with these guys? That's a lot of unnecessary formula these cubs are ingesting just to entertain the public. 

As we continued to make our way through the back of the park, we encountered a miniature donkey that brought tears to my eyes. This poor donkey could barely walk, his hooves were in terrible shape and his legs and whole back end were matted with feces. I couldn’t control my emotions after seeing this poor animal. I tried so hard to stop crying, but tears just kept coming. We also witnessed a peccary that was limping out in its yard, and as we looked a little closer its front right hoof had grown out extremely long to the point where the pig was not walking normally and in obvious pain. 

There were so many other things that I could list that were wrong with this place. So many unsafe areas for the public and for animals. Extension cords in the public's and animals pathway, broken fencing, latches to animal areas not locked and accessible by the public, thin wooden doors that were access points into big cat buildings, unlocked doors into animal buildings….this list goes on. 

The livestock animals were clearly breeding uncontrollably and there were no hand washing stations for the public after petting any of the animals, not even hand sanitizer. This whole facility is a public health issue and should have been shut down years ago. It promotes the selling and breeding of exotic animals and contributes to the wild animal crisis that we have here in the states. 

Friends and family I ask that you do not support this facility or any facility like it and educate yourselves before visiting any roadside attraction such as this one.