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

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dani (00:00):
All right, we ready?

Stephanie (00:04):
Let's go.
I've been watching too much

Dani (00:07):
football.

Stephanie (00:08):
Yeah.
And Jared saying it a hundredtimes, I'm sure.
Does he say that a

Dani (00:13):
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 dumbass.

Stephanie (00:30):
Hang on to the ball.
That's what he says all thetime.
So, yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, everyone, welcome back tothe Lethal Library.
I'm Stephanie.
I'm Danny, and we are a TrueCrime podcast based out of
Idaho.
we like to cover cases out ofIdaho and in the Pacific
Northwest.
and I'm told we have aparticularly interesting case

(00:50):
today.
So, Danny, what is on the table?
Well,

Dani (00:57):
there was murder involved.

Stephanie (00:58):
No way.

Dani (01:00):
There was Okay, but not, uh, this isn't our typical.
podcast.
So you're in for.
I think it's gonna be a littletreat.
so let me just take it.
We love a good story, so I knowthat that's, it's gonna

Stephanie (01:13):
have this, so

Dani (01:14):
that that's where we're at.
So, I ran into this whileresearching, several months ago.
I ran into an article about thiswhile researching another case,
and I was like, well, why thehell is this?
And so I just kind of put it inmy 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'sa lot going on in here and, and,

(01:36):
It's an Idaho so part of theculture, we wanna

Stephanie (01:40):
know about the things and the happenings here.

Dani (01:43):
The happenings.

Stephanie (01:43):
Yes.
And from what I've gleaned fromit is it sounds like there might
be some scandal in here, whichwe love to talk about.
The salacious and scandalscandalous.
So let's go if that's yourthing.
It sounds like this might be theepisode.

Dani (01:59):
And also my favorite thing with just, you know.
People being stupid.

Stephanie (02:04):
Yes, we can.
That's a running theme.
We can't let that go.
We just cannot let it go whenpeople are stupid and you know,
everyone does stupid things.
But as you've heard, some ofthese things are legendary type
stupid.
So let's get into it.

Dani (02:51):
On September 13th, 1984, just outside of Newport, Oregon,
police and animal controlofficials rolled up to an 80
acre game ranch.
With 20 vehicles armed andready, what they found behind
the fences looked less like azoo and more like a nightmare

(03:12):
lions, tigers, wolfs, even ajaguar.
Hundreds of exotic animals keptin cages, fouled with filth,
some so starved that their ribswere showing through their skin.
At the center of it all was oneman.
Robert Thomas Fieber, aself-styled animal lover who
insisted he would rather starvethan hurt his creatures.

(03:34):
But investigators saw somethingvery different.
What began that day as a raid incoastal Oregon would set off
years of court battles, animalescapes, and one of the most
infamous cases of animal neglectin the Northwest.
This is Astoria Fieber.
His partner, Dottie Martin.
And the disastrous rise and fallof Lir Town, LIR Town.

Stephanie (04:00):
I'm already so intrigued.
Sounds like a little dash ormore of Tiger King esque style.
All the way over here.

Dani (04:11):
It's Idaho's version.
Yes,

Stephanie (04:14):
because, you know, wasn't, wasn't Tiger King in
like Florida or something?
Somewhere Southern.

Dani (04:20):
Yeah.

Stephanie (04:21):
I, so, which is like

Dani (04:22):
a whole nother country to us, like so far away.

Stephanie (04:24):
Florida.
Well, and Florida really is itsown thing.
And I feel like Idaho in someways just has the different
facets of other states that itbrings in.
And I could see a little bit ofa Florida thing type happening
here.
Some of the wildest shit comesoutta here.
People don't hear about itthough.
'cause they don't remember.
It's a state.
They're like, oh, Iowa, sure,

Dani (04:47):
I'm gonna Google.
Uh.
It was Oklahoma, which again islike another country.
Okay.
We got the Okay.
Oklahoma.
So yeah, Idaho's very own.
Very own.
Wow.

Stephanie (05:05):
I'm

Dani (05:05):
Liger

Stephanie (05:06):
King, if you will.
I want, I want them to meet.
I can already tell this person'sgonna be a character.
They should have a little meetand greet.

Dani (05:14):
He, yeah.
Let's get into it.
Yes.
Okay.
On September 13th, 1984, justoutside of Newport, Oregon, the
Oregon State Police raided anexotic game ranch and arrested
its owner.
A Humane Society officialdescribed the ranch as being in

(05:34):
quote, very deplorableconditions

Stephanie (05:38):
deplorable.

Dani (05:39):
The man at the center of it all was Robert Thomas, Fieber
46 years old.
He was charged with cruelty toanimals, failure to maintain
adequate cages and shelter, andnot having a holding permit for
an exotic animal.

Stephanie (05:54):
Mm-hmm.

Dani (05:57):
Fieber himself claimed that he had 150 animals on the
property.
Are you ready?

Stephanie (06:02):
Yeah.

Dani (06:03):
Including 14 lions, three Bengal tigers, a cougar.
A Bobcat and six buffalo.

Stephanie (06:13):
A lot of cats, and six buffalo.
I'm sure there was other typesin here, but usually from what
I've seen on not only TigerKing, but what was the other one
with the chimpanzee, usuallythey kind of stick to one
modality, like chimp.
Crazy,

Dani (06:31):
right?
Like

Stephanie (06:31):
just chimps and all types of monkeys?
No,

Dani (06:34):
he

Stephanie (06:34):
or just cat.

Dani (06:36):
No,

Stephanie (06:36):
he was Dilin and Dalin.

Dani (06:38):
Dilin and Dalin for sure.
but when the state police gotinside the compound, what they
saw told a different story.
They counted 20 lions, fourbengal tigers, 10 wolves, the
jaguar, and two cougars among aplethora of other animals.

(06:59):
All types didn't discriminate.
Nope.
About 20 vehicles with armedofficers showed up to secure the
ranch.
Fieber had owned the propertysince 1970 and it had been open
to the public until 1981.
So he invited people to come in.

(07:19):
Yeah.
but I think it was run down andhe was getting some, maybe some
public outcry.
Yep, yep.
And so he shut it down.

Stephanie (07:31):
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 (07:41):
gonna tell you about the amount of food and I'm, I'm
telling you animal lovers, thisis gonna.
It's gonna hurt your heart.
And we are

Stephanie (07:48):
animal lovers too, so I knew as soon as you kind of
introduced it that there wasgonna be some tough things in
here as well.
But yeah, if you, where's themoney to feed?

Dani (08:00):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
After the raid, he posted a$19,000 bail and was released.
Police locked the gates to the80 acre property.
No one was allowed in.
The Oregon Department of Fishand Wildlife delivered water to
the animals and theveterinarians came in to examine
them.

(08:22):
Speaking to the Oregonian,Fieber said that he was
particularly concerned about twoyoung white lions on the
property because they needed tobe fed every 90 minutes.
These cubs were rare andvaluable, and he admitted he was
depending on them to turn hisfinancial situation around.

Stephanie (08:41):
Oh, so this is just like when they were selling the
little chimps and selling thelittle tigers to people.
That's a huge market and itbrings in a ton of money.
And then it encourages folksthat have animals like this to
breed and breed and breed andbreed, which just like a puppy
mill.

(09:02):
Mm-hmm.
That's not,

Dani (09:04):
it's not the way to go kids.
Yeah.

Stephanie (09:05):
Turning your animals into, you know, being
responsible for breeding and.
Supporting everything leads tosome pretty shitty stuff.

Dani (09:15):
Fieber insisted that he had raised most of the animals
himself.
His father Ray defended himsaying Bob wouldn't hurt an
animal under any condition.
He'd starve himself first.
He treats his animals betterthan most people treat their
kids, but the Humane Societytold a different story.

Stephanie (09:35):
Hmm.

Dani (09:36):
Eric Skat, one of their officials called the conditions
quote, among the most deplorableI've ever seen animals in.
He said that drinking water wasfilthy contaminated with fecal
matter and mosquito larvae.

Stephanie (09:50):
Mm-hmm.

Dani (09:53):
And you were, you were right.
Complaints about the ranch hadbeen coming in for some time,
and eventually an undercoveragent was sent in to gather
evidence.
It's

Stephanie (10:04):
Oh, I bet.
Because I mean, can you imaginesomewhere, somewhere that's kind
of advertising themselves aslike a zoo or like an
interactive place.
You wanna take the kids there,you see a bunch of starving
animals walking around in theirown shit, and you're like, great
Now, now we're all traumatized.
Timmy's traumatized, and nowwe're concerned for these
animals.

Dani (10:23):
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 youimagine going to what you're
thinking?
You're going to go show yourkids some puppies and you show
up and they're starved androlling around in shit and
disgusting and it stinks.

(10:46):
Ooh, yeah,

Stephanie (10:48):
nope.
Not gonna work

Dani (10:50):
that, that's same investigation.
It also uncovered 23 small MaryJoanna plants on the property.
Oh.
They

Stephanie (10:58):
were

Dani (10:58):
dabbling

Stephanie (10:59):
in the devil's lettuce as well.
And in Idaho?

Dani (11:02):
Well, we're still in Oregon.
Oh, okay.
But it was still, it was not

Stephanie (11:05):
legal though.
No, it's not legal.

Dani (11:08):
Okay.

Stephanie (11:08):
You

Dani (11:08):
might as well have been growing meth.

Stephanie (11:10):
Growing meth straight from the vine.

Dani (11:12):
Yep.
Picking it off the tree

Stephanie (11:15):
fresh.

Dani (11:17):
Fieber himself acknowledged that money was
tight.
Quote.
I've got a lot of years moneyand guts tied up in this.
I know I can turn it around nowthat I have my white lions.
He told reporters

Stephanie (11:31):
special breed.

Dani (11:34):
He admitted that his financial problems had led to
neglect, including cutting backon how much chicken he was
feeding the lions.
He said that.
He had even been unable to payhis electric bill and the power
to the ranch had been shut offtwo weeks before the raid.

Stephanie (11:53):
Do you know if it had been off that entire time?
Because then even if you do haveany, if you're feeding meat,
which you have to for theseanimals where all your freezer,
fridge, stock gone, water 80

Dani (12:05):
acres, uh, they're on a well,

Stephanie (12:08):
yeah.
No water, no food.
Oh, this is dire.

Dani (12:13):
To raise cash, he was cutting lumber on his property,
which took up so much of histime that he couldn't keep up
with cleaning the cages.
This is a shit show, justwaiting there literally, it's
just a natural spring that hadsupplied water to some of the
animals had dried up weeksbefore and he had been hauling
water in from elsewhere.

(12:36):
His 18-year-old son and19-year-old daughter were
helping him run the place.

Stephanie (12:42):
Is that it for employees?

Dani (12:46):
That's what I could gather.

Stephanie (12:48):
even if you had finances and water and
electricity for all of theseanimals and you've got yourself
and, and some kids, two kids,maybe dad's helping out every
now and then Ray Oof.

Dani (13:04):
Officials noted that a large elk on the property was in
especially poor condition,quote, just skin hanging on a
rack of bones.

Stephanie (13:13):
Oh no.

Dani (13:14):
They decided not to move.
The elk fearing and wasn'thealthy enough to be
transported.
Other large animals were alsoleft in place.
Fish and Wildlife supervisorThomas Drynan remarked that
there were no laws in Oregonprohibiting people from keeping
exotic animals like this.
Fieber had once been licensed toexhibit and sell exotic animals.

(13:38):
But in 1982, he surrendered thatlicense to avoid prosecution for
failing to meet state standards.
Yikes.
He hadn't applied again untilMay of 1984, but the permit was
denied because the ranch stilldidn't meet requirements.

Stephanie (13:55):
And so I just want to, from what I've gathered so
far,'cause I mean, obviously itsounds like the few weeks before
the raid.
Made this probably much, muchworse.
But there's history of thisgoing 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?

(14:15):
And unable to clean cages.
But from what you're telling methis, it's not like this all
just spiraled at the lastminute.

Dani (14:24):
No, it wasn't a spiral.
On September 17th, he appearedin court facing 16 charges.
Eight were for animal cruelty,one was for manufacturing the
marriage jawana.
Mm-hmm.
Others were for keeping a bobcatand a raccoon without permits.

(14:45):
It's not the lions, but youcan't have a raccoon.
Okay.

Stephanie (14:53):
Some of that, it's just wild how laws work in.
It is different states.

Dani (14:58):
he also, one of the charges was for maintaining
substandard pins.
The filth Lincoln CountyDistrict Attorney Yuli
Stapleton, said as many as 40additional charges.
Might follow.
They're on the sky.
They're

Stephanie (15:15):
like, we've got tons of other stuff.
We just to sort this all out isbeen a lot.
This is what we got so far.
Hold my beer.
Here we

Dani (15:21):
go.

Stephanie (15:21):
Yeah.

Dani (15:23):
Fieber pled innocent to a total of 23 charges, ranging
from cruelty to animals toholding wildlife without permit.
All of these were misdemeanorsexcept the ANA charge.
He done fucked up.
On top of that, he faced 30violations of Oregon
administrative rules for notmaintaining food and water

(15:44):
supplies.
Those carried fines, but no geltime.
Mm-hmm.
So he is, he is looking at, Imean, I know these were all
misdemeanors except for the potstuff.
But I mean, that's a lot ofcharges

Stephanie (15:57):
and a lot of fines to where, so it seems like although
it wasn't illegal, they did haveregulations if you had these
kind of animals, which, yeah.
You can't keep an animal

Dani (16:07):
and and starve it to death.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's not how it works.

Stephanie (16:10):
Can't be.
And especially if you're a knownplace like a zoo where they're
like, I wonder what's going onup at that zoo.
That closed down a few yearsago.

Dani (16:19):
Eventually, prosecutors and the defense struck a plea
deal.
The case was reduced to sixcharges.
The marijuana charge was droppedto a misdemeanor.
Mm.
Good.

Stephanie (16:30):
Actually.
'cause that's the one thatwould've probably hurt the most.

Dani (16:33):
Yeah.
And, okay.
You ready for all these fines?

Stephanie (16:36):
Yes.

Dani (16:38):
Fieber was fined$232.

Stephanie (16:42):
Oh.

Dani (16:44):
He was fined.
Yeah.

Stephanie (16:47):
And listen, my opinion about crimes with a fine
is you're just saying peoplerich enough can always do the
crime, but especially in thisknowing how egregious it was and
that he had like 40 or 30violations that were these admin
type of violations.

(17:08):
I'm not about kicking someonewhen they're down, but.
If there's no jail time, what'sthe penalty?
You know?
So

Dani (17:15):
they do get him a little bit.
So listen, this is what he endsup with.
So he was fined$232.
he was fined$115 on four countsof neglect involving a jaguar, a
bobcat, a raccoon, and threelying cubs.
Those animals were forfeitedalong with a sick elk.

Stephanie (17:36):
Hmm.
Okay, so a little bit more of aconsequence with the forfeiture.

Dani (17:41):
And I just, I kind of feel like the raccoon was probably
just a pet.

Stephanie (17:44):
Right, right.
You're not, I mean, listen,you're

Dani (17:46):
not making babies and selling raccoons, but

Stephanie (17:49):
I've wanted a raccoon as a pet.
They're just so cute.
They're little hands washing thefood, eating

Dani (17:55):
the fish.

Stephanie (17:56):
Oh

Dani (17:57):
my gosh.
Do you know that one of myaunt's friends had a raccoon as
a pet, and and his name wasRocky and I loved him and I
loved going over and seeing him.

Stephanie (18:10):
I would too.
See, this is where though I amappreciative that I have some
like impulse control.
'cause I feel like I could veryeasily 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 slightAmazon addiction to some online
shopping here or there.
Because gosh, if I had gotten inlike the chimp game or the

(18:32):
raccoon game.
I'd be the, who knows where youwould be?
Raccoon queen.
I'd have a whole gang ofraccoons just committing crimes
for me across the city.
Oh, what a dream.
Anyway,

Dani (18:46):
The sixth charge involved was failing to provide adequate
food and sanitation for a wolfpup.
Fieber was placed onunsupervised probation for five
years with the condition thatofficials be allowed to inspect
the ranch regularly.
Okay?
And he was ordered to pay up to$2,000 for the cost of the case

(19:09):
and animal care.

Stephanie (19:11):
Right, because they, they had to take over while he
was arrested and be like, well,and

Dani (19:15):
they wouldn't allow him back in for a hot minute.
Yeah.
Because they're like,

Stephanie (19:19):
it's a crime scene kind of.
So yeah,

Dani (19:22):
it really was.
So, but he was allowed toreclaim the rest of the animals.
He picked up eight cubs, sevenlions, and a tiger.
He later told reporters it took200 pounds of meat each day to
feed the big cats.

(19:44):
200 pounds a day.
Let's do$7 pound hamburger.
That's a lot of money.
By the way, I was just so pissedoff when I went to go buy
hamburgers for a barbecuehamburger 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

(20:06):
me.
I mean, really 85 15 is probablythe best for burgers.
'cause it's more fatty.
Yeah.
But 85, 15, no$7 a pound.

Stephanie (20:17):
It's, it's ridiculous.
Even places like Chef Store, youstill gotta even watch them for
their clearance stuff.
'cause sometimes you can getjust a screaming deal on meat
or.
Like roast or pork loin or stufflike that.
Even on like the super steel,like where restaurants are
swooping in and you might haveto fight someone for a selection

(20:40):
of meat.
Even then it's like this stillfeels like I'm just getting it
at regular price from five yearsago or something.

Dani (20:48):
I can buy two, two pounds of chicken breast or one pound
of burger.
When did that happen?
Yeah,

Stephanie (20:55):
I don't remember that.
Chicken breast used

Dani (20:57):
to be like.
Ooh, I only eat white, onlybreast meat.
And it was kind of bougie like

Stephanie (21:03):
it was.
Yeah.
Everything else was like, it's agarbage cut.

Dani (21:06):
No hamburger is garbage cut.
What is happening here anyway?

Stephanie (21:14):
Yeah, we're not talking a steak.
It's a hamburger.
It's hamburger meat.

Dani (21:19):
So fee to make money.
Continued logging and begantaking the cats into town for
people to take photos with them.
Hmm.
But by this point, he wasalready considering leaving
Oregon behind.

Stephanie (21:32):
He's got too much of a reputation at this point, and
they're gonna be there checkingit out.
I don't know how he was survive.
Clearly he wasn't survivingwell, but like, like you said,
the logging took up too muchtime.
The photos is a good little, I,I don't know if I'd call it a
grift, but a good way that a lotof these people make money.
Remember they have like thechimps going into classrooms and

(21:55):
stuff.
Taking'em to these little likeconferences.
The Tiger

Dani (21:58):
King was taking'em to the fucking mall.

Stephanie (22:00):
Yeah,

Dani (22:01):
let's go.

Stephanie (22:03):
No, a hundred percent.
So it's a good way and one ofthe somewhat more ethical ways
other than like black marketbreeding that you could, you
might have an actual enrichmentprogram that teaches kids, you
know?

Dani (22:17):
So I didn't find that.
I just found pictures.
Oh yeah.
So, no, I bet.
in January of 1985, neighborsspotted two female lions on top
of their cages.
They had an escaped through anarea of the enclosure covered
with plexiglass and reinforcedwith chain link fencing.

Stephanie (22:40):
So better than the chicken wire that Creech had.
At least there's that.

Dani (22:46):
So.
Yeah, we're gonna get intofurther on down some details
about these cage, how much ducttape we were using.
Yes, exactly.
Okay.
Had a feeling duct tape wasgonna come into play at some
point.
one lion was herded back in, butthe other had to be
tranquilized, which is so sadwhen they have to do that.

(23:10):
I, I think it'd be traumatizingfor them to be herded.
I've, I've.
I have herded, is that a word?
Herded to be herd animals and,oh,

Stephanie (23:23):
herded herd.
I thought you meant, is thatherd herded like out instead of
herded?
Like I herded them into a right.
Yeah.

Dani (23:31):
it's very stressful.
Yeah.
For me and the animals.
You.
Yeah.
You know

Stephanie (23:39):
what?
Now that you say that, if, ifsomeone's gotta wheel me off to
the psych ward, if they couldjust train me, I might opt for
that.

Dani (23:46):
Right?

Stephanie (23:46):
Because Yeah.
Of otherwise, instead of Youwanna

Dani (23:48):
be chased around by the

Stephanie (23:50):
I don't,

Dani (23:50):
I don't listen stuff.
I have no, just when I had pigs,I would have them get out.
Uh, pigs are not a herdinganimal 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.

(24:10):
That's what they do.
Scatter.
She can't catch all of us prettymuch.
it's traumatizing.
It's hard.
They're stressed out.
I'm stressed out.
Look, if I could just give'em alittle bowl of food, I don't
wanna shoot nothing with atranquil oyster can, but I'm
just saying they could just passout and I could put them where
they need to be.
Yeah.

(24:32):
And it's not just.
Get out the forklift about meowning animals.
How do you do it?
The forklift?
Like me.
Oh, you should try chasing a 30pound 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

(24:56):
to lose these animals.
I mean, right.
I'm not.
Yeah, I wasn't raising thesepigs 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 havethe babies and get'em to a
certain way and then mm-hmm.
Like they would come get'em oncethey're weaned and boy.
Losing those pigs out in themiddle of winter.

(25:16):
That's like your paycheck.
Yeah.
Uh, so it's like dropping yourwallet and then being stressed
out

Stephanie (25:22):
and Well, and you also, like, if they're escaping
in the middle of nowhere in thesnow

Dani (25:25):
and you don't want them to, they would freeze.
Yeah.
So then you also have, and Imean, 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 worriedabout people getting in car,
like tr.
Oh my God, what did I just see?
You're slamming on their brakesand accidentally, I mean,
especially when it's snowing.

(25:45):
I mean, there's a lot of thingsgoing on anyways.
Yes.
Like you said, if you're gonnahaul me off, tranquilize me.
Yeah, let's go.

Stephanie (25:54):
I'll take a nap about it and hopefully wake up
somewhere more comfy.

Dani (25:59):
So this whole incident pushed Oregon lawmakers to act
that year.
the state passed a law requiringowners of exotic animals to
obtain permits from theDepartment of Agriculture and to
cover public cost if theiranimals escaped.

Stephanie (26:16):
And that's a good idea, regardless.
'cause we saw in Chimp crazy thechimp getting out and ro roaming
about the town shutting downtraffic.
Thankfully it didn't hurt anyoneon that little escapade, but
that's a big danger.
Mm-hmm.
If I'm going downtown to goshopping, I'm not expecting an
animal that can literally rip myface off to just be out and

(26:38):
about'cause it happened, right?
Yeah.
I mean, that's happened topeople.
So, and sometimes unprompted, soit's a danger that I didn't
think I was stepping into.
And yeah, um.
I just need to find some fuckingblack shoes for work.
I got the will to get out of myhouse and do an errand, and now
there is a literal animal thatcould kill me that no one can

(27:00):
control.
No one can get control of thisanimal 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 (27:14):
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie (27:15):
Be like, that's funny.

Dani (27:16):
The thought of that just terrifies me, so, yeah.
Fieber, tried to hang on, andAugust, 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.

(27:37):
Donations of materials and food,including dead horses and cows
to feed the cats, helped'em getthe gates open again, which,
look, if you've ever owned largeanimals, they do die.
And then you, you're literally,I've paid somebody to come.
There's companies

Stephanie (27:52):
that make

Dani (27:52):
a lot of money

Stephanie (27:53):
on this.
They,

Dani (27:54):
I, I have to pay for them to come pick it up and they're
gonna resell it and make moremoney.
Yeah.
They're gonna make like collagenor something like that.
Yeah.

Stephanie (28:01):
I literally talked to a company a few weeks ago that
that was their business modelis.
We come pick up your large deadanimal.
Mm-hmm.
And I think they didn't chargeanything, but they got to reap
all the benefits of I wasfucking

Dani (28:14):
charged.
Welcome to the country.
Drive around to see if, I'msorry.
Dead horse at the top of thedriveway.
Yeah.
It's waiting for pickup.
Yeah.
I never, I never had a horse buta cow.
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
A cow, just four legs up bloatedat the end of the driveway.
It sucked.
'cause.
I hearted my animals.

(28:35):
I was very big into husbandryand how I took care of them.
And, but sometimes, look, I'mjust, sometimes animals are
stupid and they do stupidthings.
Mm-hmm.
And then they die.
Uh, you'd like to reason withthem be like, Hey listen, don't
overeat and get bloated.

(28:56):
Okay.
Especially in the evening.
'cause I'm going to bed and thenI wake up and you're bloated.
Did I tell you about the time Isaved a calf from Bloat?

Stephanie (29:03):
No,

Dani (29:04):
I didn't tell you the story.
How do you do that?
I feel like I've, okay.
Maybe you

Stephanie (29:10):
have,

Dani (29:10):
we'll see.
But I'm gonna tell it againanyway.
Yes.
Tell me.
Okay.
So I was out, bought a jerseydrop calf from a dairy.
They're like$5.
They're steers.
but I, I enjoyed them.
I enjoyed raising them and, Theytake a long time to grow.

Stephanie (29:27):
They're$5.

Dani (29:29):
These drop calves, they're like a week old because at a
dairy, they don't, they pullthose mamas from the cow.
Mm-hmm.
The, the milking cows.
And then they feed them.
And if they're, they're littleheifers, they're gonna keep them
and throw'em back into their,what are they gonna do with the,
what are they gonna do with amale, uh, milking cow?

Stephanie (29:51):
Yeah.

Dani (29:52):
Nothing.
Right.
So you can pick'em up and youcan still eat'em.
You can grain'em out and eat'em.
They just take a long time togrow.
Not ideal meat, but it's cheapmeat if you can.
Sure.
Get'em to go.
So I sat there and feeding, andI saw this jersey laying over on
his side and it's belly big aslike you could pop him literally

(30:15):
freaking out.
I called the vet and I was new,by the way.
Everything I learned.
I, I had to raise the animals ona farm.
I read on the internet.
I had no business, but I wasdoing, she

Stephanie (30:25):
didn't, she didn't, wasn't raised on a farm.
No.
Was not.

Dani (30:28):
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.

(30:49):
It's like just blow you think?
And I said, well, yeah, lookslike it.
I mean, we're looking, if you'veever seen a cow, they literally

Stephanie (30:55):
look like, they're like the blueberry on Cha.
Charlie Damnit.
Willy Wonka

Dani (31:00):
Rouass.

Stephanie (31:01):
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 aboutthe violet,

Dani (31:13):
violet

Stephanie (31:14):
Bo regard.

Dani (31:15):
Yes.
Anyways.
No, she's the blue bubble gum.

Stephanie (31:18):
Yes.
And it turns her into a big,okay,

Dani (31:20):
that's it.
It's Violet.
So they look like that.
Like you could, it looks likeyou should be able to tie their
legs with a string and likefloat'em.
Okay.
So I called the, anyway, calledthe vet and he's like, I can't
come out.
And he's like, so listen, thisis what you do.
You put, you find their hip boneand go one.

(31:44):
Palm length over one hand,length over, and one hand length
down.
And you stab them in the stomachwith a knife.

Stephanie (31:53):
What?
And you have not told this to me'cause I would've remembered
this.
I thought that.
I thought you were gonna belike, now basically pile drive
them in the stomach and squeezea fart out or something.
'cause that would even seemmore, and then I said,

Dani (32:09):
sir, my hand or your hand.
Right.
Yeah.

Stephanie (32:14):
Like I what?
I'm gonna stab something I'm notsupposed to stab here.

Dani (32:19):
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 problemsolver,

Stephanie (32:36):
what did you do?

Dani (32:37):
I said, well, I have some 16 gauge needles here for.
The, uh, pigs.

Stephanie (32:46):
I think that sounds much nicer.

Dani (32:48):
I said, could I pull the cap off of a syringe and stab it
in the stomach with a needle?

Stephanie (32:57):
It'll take longer deflate, but it

Dani (32:59):
pretty much is what he said.
Fucking two hour, Steph sh

Stephanie (33:08):
See, and as a cow, I find that more relaxing.
Like stab, like you could go toocrazy with that.

Dani (33:15):
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 (33:21):
am, we're talking like, that would probably be
like a two inch incision with aregular size, like

Dani (33:26):
no, look, you literally stabbed them.
So, uh, the needle was probablyabout three inches long that I'm
stabbing it and I deflated acow.
That's what I did.
I deflated a cow, called overthe neighbor kid when I felt
like he was deflated enough andwe rocked him and rocked him and
rocked him and got him up on hisfeet.
And I was winning.
I saved a cow.

Stephanie (33:47):
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 actuallydoing a stab.

Dani (34:02):
How do we get here anyway?

Stephanie (34:05):
I dead cow how we got it.
I hope you guys like it, justthe convo because I'm learning
so much.
Danny and I chat all the timeand that I haven't heard this
one before.
Yeah.
One

Dani (34:15):
time I deflated a cow.

Stephanie (34:17):
That could be a two truth and a lie

Dani (34:19):
for sure.
Ever deflated

Stephanie (34:21):
a cow?

Dani (34:32):
Okay,

Stephanie (34:34):
so you were at the drive through where he was
charging$4.

Dani (34:38):
but within a week.
Officials shut him down again,citing violations of the Animal
Welfare Act

Stephanie (34:45):
and sneaky being like, well, if you just saw it
from your car, doesn't look thatbad.
If you get up close, it mightlook

Dani (34:52):
bad.
Well, he, listen, he wasarrested for violating probation
after failing an inspection bythe US Department of
Agriculture.
That was the big deal.
Mm-hmm.
Because you agreed.
Remember that part where yousaid 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 eventhough you built a couple of new

(35:14):
pens and are trying to make itshiny and new and you got some
help and you're trying to getmoney coming in, you're still
not passing inspections, bro.

Stephanie (35:21):
Yeah, I can appreciate the trying,'cause it
does sound like he probablyimproved it quite a bit, but it
was in dire, deplorable.
Mm-hmm.
So even a few cages being cleanor.
The front looking shiny enoughto have a drive by tour.
It's a big, large, it's 80acres, right?
So what's in the

Dani (35:40):
back acres?
Yeah.
Yeah.
A judge ordered him to reducethe number of animals on the
property, and by 1986 was deepin legal and financial trouble.

Stephanie (35:56):
Yeah.
Well, and once you start sayingthat they have to get rid of
animals'cause he got off kind ofeasy, only having to forfeit a
few.
But a lot of these are almosthoarder situations.
Mm-hmm.
Where,

Dani (36:08):
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 wastrying to harm animals.
Right.
But His pocketbook was not.

(36:30):
Deep enough to support theamount of animals he had.
And so then I think it was kindof an addiction with having, I
think he loved these animals.
Yes, me too.
But he just, the lines wereblurry for him.
so it made it messy.
And we're gonna see some work.

Stephanie (36:44):
Well, yeah.
And when you're, when you'regoing through something like
that.
I'm sure these people feel like,well, I'm the only one that
knows how to take care for theseanimals.
I've raised them.
Yeah, since a baby, you have aconnection.
And there probably was a timewhere his business was doing
pretty well,

Dani (36:59):
and then the delusion it

Stephanie (37:01):
escalated.
We're gonna turn this into anempire, it's gonna be a huge
zoo.
And then you're like, oh my God,

Dani (37:06):
wait, this, they eat 200 pounds of meat a day

Stephanie (37:09):
every 90 minutes

Dani (37:10):
for the Cubs.
Yeah.
What the fuck?
So he was in that deep legal andfinancial trouble.
But he was still in and out ofcourt trying to keep his
animals.

Stephanie (37:22):
Mm-hmm.

Dani (37:23):
But the ranch itself was facing foreclosure, not good.
And his ex-wife was pursuing himfor unpaid child support.
Oh.
See, now you,

Stephanie (37:33):
you're never gonna crawl out.
No.
Because if you're making any.
It's easier when you have yourown business.
'cause you can, yeah, you canhide some stuff, move things
around.
But she's

Dani (37:41):
on'em.
She's like, you know what, I'mjust gonna jump on this
bandwagon.
You're fucking everything up.
That summer he decided he hadhad enough of Oregon.
Mm-hmm.
In July, he moved 18 animals toan area near Grangeville, Idaho.
About 75 miles southeast ofLewiston.

Stephanie (38:00):
So this is North Idaho.
For those of you we're panhandleright.
Uh, kind of, I mean,

Dani (38:11):
I almost said golly,

Stephanie (38:12):
golly golly, folks.

Dani (38:19):
Um, so Lewiston, Lewiston is panhandle.
I just don't feel likeGrangeville iss really panhandle
though.

Stephanie (38:27):
Mid, mid handle, I don't know what you

Dani (38:29):
call it.
Yeah, let's go.
Mid handle.
We're naming mid handle, we'renaming 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, thePlains 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.

(38:51):
We have all, I would say 80, allthe different,

Stephanie (38:53):
80% of places are beautiful.
We have our barren lands whereit's just like, yeah, but it's
pretty.

Dani (39:03):
It didn't take long for problems to start there though.

Stephanie (39:07):
Oh, shocker.
Because just moving doesn't cureyour financial and lethal
pallets and

Dani (39:13):
chicken wire.
Well, he what?

Stephanie (39:14):
I'm bringing

Dani (39:15):
my pallets and chicken wire with me.
I don't, he's

Stephanie (39:17):
still on probation, isn't he?
He don't

Dani (39:20):
give a fuck.
Oh, I don't

Stephanie (39:21):
think you're supposed to leave.
He don't

Dani (39:23):
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 killone of Fe's lions.

Stephanie (39:39):
Oh.

Dani (39:39):
After it came close to attacking a horse.

Stephanie (39:42):
Can you imagine being in a rural location in Idaho in
the eighties, just on a farmwhere my neighbor, really, no
one knows what Idaho is?
You haven't seen anyone that'snot a mile away for a few weeks.
You've just been working and alion is in Idaho roaming, trying

(40:03):
to kill.
Can you fucking imagine the copswouldn't have believed you?
They would've thought you werehigh on mushroom.
Bessie, bring my gun.
Hey Adam.
I think we're, I think there's a

Dani (40:15):
goddamn

Stephanie (40:16):
lion out here.

Dani (40:18):
Nine one One's like putting the them on mute,

Stephanie (40:21):
being like,

Dani (40:22):
Hey, outta James and

Stephanie (40:23):
Bessie's place, they're saying there's a lion
out there decking their horse.
Do we

Dani (40:28):
call Chip?
Tell'em to go out there, see ifthey're, see if they're growing
that marijuana.
They've

Stephanie (40:32):
got, they've gotta be on the marijuana.
I heard about that.
Devil's lettuce hallucinating.
Can

Dani (40:38):
you fucking imagine?
Uh, another rancher blamed thedeath of a cow on the same lion.

Stephanie (40:45):
Oh.
So the lion's just been sneakingout like a young teenager.

Dani (40:49):
Wolfie actually.
Oh shit.

Stephanie (40:54):
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 Saharalike this is.
It's in my living, my

Dani (41:07):
blood.
I am, I'm gonna go partytonight, so I'm, fuck you guys.
Can't get outta your cages.
Uh, Fieber insisted.
The animal, a lion is named GatoOriginal, Ugh.
Uh, was gentle and so tame.
He could walk her without aleash.
Is that technically walking?

(41:28):
But should you ever, is thattechnically walking?
Because like if I walk my dog.
I'm it, I don't consider it awalk if it's not on a le, like,

Stephanie (41:40):
well, I do, but especially Harry and Gordy, if
you needed to physicallyrestrain the dog, you probably
could.
If, if a lion is walking withyou without a leash and not
going far, it's only because itfeels like it in that moment.
It's not because of any of yourdiscipline or anything.
It hasn't found me like catslike, go fuck yourself.

(42:02):
Like, yes, I'm walking.
You're walking by me.
But if you think you're the onein control here, I've got a
bitch flap to tell youotherwise.
Hey

Dani (42:09):
Bob.
I know, I know you think you gotthis, but uh.
I'm just being nice to you.
Okay.

Stephanie (42:16):
Listen, you mostly gimme food sometimes.
So

Dani (42:19):
mostly, sometimes

Stephanie (42:21):
if I, if I can create a sense of trust that allows me
to hunt on these beautiful Idaholands, let's

Dani (42:26):
go.
I'm gonna

Stephanie (42:27):
tell you.

Dani (42:28):
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 agazelle.

(42:49):
No.
The cows get, the cows get tothe edge of the fence and he is
like, gotcha, fucker.
Yeah.
The cow's never seen him before.
They're like, that's a weirdlooking 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 intheir light trot running for

(43:10):
their lives.
Poor things.
But Gato was the mother of hisprized white lion clubs that he
wanted, so she was special.
When asked how she escaped, headmitted she simply walked over
the eight foot fence.
Oh.

(43:31):
Simply, oh, he promised to putroofs on the enclosures.

Stephanie (43:36):
Yeah.

Dani (43:37):
Were you not watching any fucking, I don't know.
They had National Geographic.

Stephanie (43:42):
If you know, if you are raising these animals, you
know the capacity that they haveeight feet, I feel like my
doberman could almost like, atleast get up on a fence and
clear that

Dani (43:55):
my, I've had dogs that could clear a six foot fence.
Yes.
Easy.

Stephanie (43:59):
What in the fuck?

Dani (44:00):
And they were not wild.
Fucking 200 predators, poundtigers that need to leap and
jump in the desert.
Yeah.
Agile as fuck to eat and notstarve.
They were just stupid and wantedto get out of the fence.

Stephanie (44:21):
Unbelievable.
Oh, gato.

Dani (44:26):
Oh,

Stephanie (44:27):
got to have a little, I mean.
It does make me a little happythat Gato got to live out their
original What?
That's what they're supposed tobe doing.
That Gato had a great time.
Right?
Not the cows though.

Dani (44:40):
Not the cows so much.
Well back in Oregon.
Authorities issued a warrantafter he failed to appear at a
probation hearing.
Uh oh.
He left behind 17 lions, threetigers, three wolves, three
bison, and a large herd of deer.

(45:00):
A whole herd was his ownpersonal deer.
They were special deer.
I don't know if I wrote it downin here.
I gotta remember, they weredifferent deer.
They weren't your average Oregoncoast deer.
Okay.
They were like a native No, I,something was special about'em.
Maybe they were a, it might comeup.
I can't remember if I wrote itdown or not.

(45:22):
So be patient.
But that's, that's one of thosethings where I do believe that
the intent was pure at thebeginning.
But if you're gonna abandon thatmany animals mm-hmm.
Take the money and run.
It's what was doing.
For sure.
Yeah.
And escaping the new laws.

(45:42):
And you're willing, so you sayyou're willing to starve, but
you're not willing to.
Dad said he was willing tostarve.
Yeah.
So what, what, what is the realthing?
Like how has it escalated?
And clearly it's escalated to apoint where if they were doing
terrible with you, being able tofeed them sometimes, you know,

(46:05):
as an animal owner that they'regonna do worse without,
Meanwhile, in Idaho, he lostthree more cats.
Two adult lions died fromunknown causes.
And an 11 month old lion was soill a veterinarian, had to put
it down.

(46:27):
The same vet took in a threemonth old Bengal tiger.
And two, two week old Africantigers.
He just can't keep well, andmost vets aren't normally in
the, an exotic animal tradingbusiness.
What are they doing with these?
It was difficult for me to finda large animal vet for my little

(46:49):
farm there, like an equine and,yeah.
Yeah.
No, you are finding petveterinarians, 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 Warmedwarned that the makeshift cages

(47:13):
and fatty food scraps being usedfor the feed mounted to cruelty.
Ooh.
Fieber was also four monthsbehind on his rent, and he
eventually moved nine cats to afriend's ranch in Idaho Falls,
and eventually he ended up inLava Hot Springs, Idaho.

(47:37):
So for those that aren't fromIdaho, where's Idaho Falls?
And where's Lava Hot Springs?
It is very eastern south, notpanhandle.
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.

(47:57):
We're not talking the pine treesand mountains and creeks and
streams that most people mightthink of.
When you think of Idaho, it'sdesert.
There's no fucking trees unlessthere's s water sagebrush.
It's, it's for those who havedriven to Vegas from surrounding
states that maybe some hills.
So yeah, it's, it's the dessert.

(48:19):
Um, fun.
Let me just, fun fact,

Stephanie (48:23):
okay.

Dani (48:25):
Napoleon Dynamite.
Yes, that's what we're talkingabout.
You've seen that movie, soyou're gonna have some
agriculture stuff going on.
Yeah.
But if the ground hasn't beenplowed, tilled and getting fed
by a canal, it is not garash.
It's not grown.
Nothing.
It is garash.

(48:45):
So, also, well I'll come back tothat later.
Put a pin in it.
We're gonna circle back the restof the organ animals were
rehomed.
Some even ending up with aBarnum and Bailey Circus.

(49:06):
Which as we know, is just agreat life for those animals.
I mean, probably at leastthey're probably getting Fed,
fed, because I'm sure that thatis a closely watched
organization.
Yeah.
At least closer than a randomquote unquote zoo.
But game farm, I just, for me,game is not tigers and lions and

(49:26):
bears.
Oh my.
No, it's not.
but you know, they have, wehave, we have buffalo ranches
here.
Yeah.
We have elk ranches here.
Jeffrey Star has a buffalo meatranch in Montana now.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(49:46):
So, okay.
I'm, I can get down.
I understand that they're nativeto those areas.
Yes.
What the fuck are you doing withlions and tiger?
Why is a jaguar here?
Thank you.
Why would a Jaguar be here?
And all by himself or herself.

(50:06):
Yeah.
What the fuck are you doing withwhat kind of maniacal breeding?
Oh, I bet you he had some namesto come up with that if he could
get'em to breed.
Anyway, So when Fieber, moved toLava Hot Springs.
Yeah.
He had a partner, Dottie Martin.

(50:27):
I've been waiting to hear aboutDottie.
Yeah.
So him and Dottie were Buddhaand I think she, I think she was
also involved a little bit inOregon, but her never, her name
never kind of came up inarticles and stuff.
Okay.
I think it was a long timepartner of his.
Sure.
but those lava, in 1994 LavaSprings ERs began complaining,

(50:48):
when a wolf hybrid from Fieberand Martin's property killed
dozens of chickens, turkeys,goats, and other livestock.
This isn't a free range huntingsituation in Idaho.
We have free range for cattle,which for, it's very surprising
to people to know that in freerange areas, if a cow's on the

(51:09):
road and you hit it, you're introuble.
'cause there's signs.
And so you'll be liable.
Yeah.
And it doesn't matter if they'restanding literally in the middle
of a highway.
It does not matter.
But it isn't free range.
Predator of your predator pet isallowed.
I can't go out and shoot thecow.
You can have your dog go kill acow and you certainly cannot

(51:32):
have your pet lions go Gala.
A gal.
Yes.
They should not be gallivanting.
No, no.
Gallivanting.
So, yes.
the, the free range laws arepretty, it's pretty.
Well, you would think, oh mygod, 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.

(51:52):
They're allowed to be there.
and they are buttholes about it.
There's, I literally, they willstare 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 wouldhit me.
Go.
Go ahead.
I personally know in depth of acase where a couple was driving

(52:17):
a Cambridge council area Sure.
Hit a cow and there was a bigthing.
Ooh, I should do that fuckingcase.
I think you might've mentionedthis one on another case where
they went to the owner orsomething.
Well, they hit, the cow totaledtheir car.

(52:38):
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 wholenother thing with the co gun
drawn Yes, yes.
You have mentioned this.
Okay.
And I'd be very interested toknow 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

(53:00):
Idaho.
But one neighbor, ColleenHansen, shot the animal herself.
Oh.
These guys were breeding fuckingwolf hybrids, and they were
going to court, listen, I didn'tget into this, but they were
going to court with the state ofIdaho over certain
characteristics.
There was like eightcharacteristics of what was

(53:22):
considered a wolf, or not a wolfor a dog.
So they were hybrids and theywere going through all of this,
why poor Colleen's goats weregetting fucking cho up.
Well, and listen, even if it's aregular dog, if it's a Labrador
that's coming onto your propertyand killing your chickens
mm-hmm.
In Idaho, for the most part, canshoot it.

(53:44):
You can shoot it.
Yep.
It's on your property.
Yep.
You either have to find a way tokeep 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 Gameinspected the five acre lot,
they discovered at least 44wolves or wolf hybrids.

(54:07):
That's too many of anything.
Many dehydrated and in importcondition.
And so not only do you have waytoo 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 beingstarved and thought you could go

(54:27):
to a neighbor's house and snatchup a chicken or eggs or
something, are you not gonnamake that?
Like this is a wild animal.
Harry gets outta the backyardand he's not even fucking
starved or nothing.
Well, and he thinks he's sixfoot tall.
He probably thinks he's a hybridwolf.
He's like, now I'm on the prowlin my habitat.

(54:49):
16 pounds.
And just so you guys can get,can know Harry, he's like the
typical and listen, I'm gonnasay this with love, but the
other, I'm not even gonnafucking judge you.
'cause I probably felt probablywhite dog with the little tear
stains sometimes.
He's, and he's got a great, Ieven used the whitening shampoo.
I don't, I don't even think hehas a good personality.

(55:11):
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 dogfrom death.
And this is how he pays me back.
Anyway.
he gets out for no reason.
maybe the gate didn't shut allthe way.

(55:33):
Someone left it open.
Maybe dad left it open.
Taking out the trash.
Yeah.
Those things.
Yeah.
But he's surely not starving inthe fucking desert.
No.
And so you take a wild animaland starve it.
They, it's in their nature toget out.

(55:53):
Well, here we go.
Oh God.
On September 20th, 1995, thissituation exploded.
Several big cats escape from thecompound Fieber and Martin now
call Liger Town.
I'm sorry, very bold.
No, why do you want a notorietyname plate town?

(56:15):
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 milesaway from this area.
That's where it was filmed.
Yeah.
So, so definitely.
Okay.
I'm glad that Napoleon Dynamitereally went with Idaho's.

(56:36):
There's not a lot of culturehere, but they, they found, they
found a little bit, they foundthe culture.
Oh, wonderful.
So the liger king couplethemselves were attacked by, at
least one of the animals havesuffered injuries.
Well, they had several get out.

(56:58):
What are you gonna do againstthese lions and tiger if you've
got females?
They literally have a geneticinstinction to hunt together.
this is what they don't reallyhave to be taught.
They just have it.
You should see the pictures ofthese guys in the press.
Their arms are all bandaged up.

(57:19):
They're like, we love our cats.
Which I feel like some regularcat owners have those type of
cats where they're like, my catbeats me up and I, they're
literally on a stretcher.
Yeah.
I love my cats.
I should have saved thosepictures for you.
Oh my fucking girl.
Oof.
the escape sent the small towninto chaos.

(57:40):
And when I say small town, itwas like 500 people or something
ridiculous.
Like little.
I write that down.
the elementary school closed thenext day after, like, we're not
having fire drills, shooterdrills.
We're having lions, tigers, andbears drills.
Oh my, what the fuck?

(58:01):
Could you imagine getting that?
'cause this was a phone call atthe time.
We gotta shut down the schoolbecause of the, because of the
lions and tigers.
What?
excuse me.
What the fuck?
I'm like, they're, they'resmoking that marijuana at the
school.
I know it.
That devils lettuce.
I know it.
50 sheriff's deputies fromsurrounding counties.

(58:24):
SWAT teams, Idaho Fish and Game,and Idaho State Police swarmed
the area.
Oh, they called in everyoneBecause this is one of the most
unique and crazy, no one knowswhat to do.
We don't have a protocol forthis.
I'm glad they at least calledin.
Like, we don't know what weneed.
We just need people.
We need it all.
And then residents were warnedthey should probably keep their

(58:44):
pets inside.
Yeah.
Don't let, and children, yeah.
That Julie and Timmy shouldn'tbe out playing in the
neighborhood, in the drivewayright now.
In the end, 15 African lions andtigers were killed.
So 15 escaped.
Do you think?
Yeah.
that's like almost all of them.

(59:06):
Well, they were having morebabies, so this is gonna come
up.
Okay.
So it could have, it could havebeen 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 doeverything we can to prosecute

(59:29):
these people to the full extentof the law.
They're done, but they are verylitig, litigious.
Litigious.
Am I?
Yes.
No, that's right.
Yay.
I'm winning.
They know their rights.
They're not good citizens andthey don't want to cooperate.
That sounded very Idahoan.

(59:49):
Mm-hmm.
Not being a good neighbor.
Clearly your 15 cats are out.
We had to get little Timmy andShirley in the house.
They couldn't even have theirplay date with their neighbors.
So part of the big deal, and Imight end up repeating myself,
but in my story, but part of thebig deal is fucking Fieber and
Martin would not tell them howmany cats they had.

(01:00:14):
So you got, they couldn't go inand 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, buttell me how many cats do you
have?
And they're like, eh, that's soI can understand why they were,

(01:00:36):
the message was so much eventhough it happened, there's
nothing that's gonna change thatit happened.
But are you going to be part ofthe solution or part of the
problem?
Absolutely not gonna be a partof the solution.
No.
Zero.
None.
A hundred percent the problem.
Maybe there's a thousand, Idon't know.
Dunno, maybe.
Maybe the, maybe the populationof cats in this town exceeds

(01:00:57):
people.
Yeah.
Wouldn't you like to know?
That's part of the problem.
Fucking weird.
20 to 30 more big cats remaininside the compound.
Oh, damn.
Yeah.
So they've been going crazy.
They've been humping.
The Humane Society flew inofficials by helicopter and
removed five bottle fed lioncubs.

(01:01:21):
As they worked, three adultlions 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'mgonna talk a little, they were
literally going into a lion'sden, if you will.
They've taken over to check andfind what they could, how they

(01:01:45):
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 theresponsible thing, but then
you're also like, oh, we gotsnipers on the fucking roof.
Pretty much.
Pretty fucking much.
Okay.
the makeshift cages told alarger story.

(01:02:06):
They were built out of chainlink fencing pallets used as
gates.
Plywood carpet, cardboard, andcorrugated metal.
Sorry, I just gotta rewind tothe cardboard.
And carpet's a very durablekeeper in her for a large cat or

(01:02:30):
dog.
Mm-hmm.
Predator.
Yes.
We all know that carpet's theend all for cats.
They're like, nah, not my thing.
And they literally make catscratches outta it.
I thought, okay.
Wait, you said carpet.
I thought you said cardboard.
No.
Carpet and cardboard.
Both terrible.
Both terrible.

(01:02:50):
It's a play thing for them.
That's what their scratchingposts are made out of.
Exactly.
They love to tear it up.
It's like an invitation to tearit up.
You might as well just sprinkledsome fucking catnip on it.
Well, and I'm sorry.
Even, even the best tapedcardboard boxes, even without a
sharp object.
You are not keeping me outtathat bitch when I get a fucking

(01:03:13):
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 predatorhunter.
Fastest, most agile there.
This is a fucking joke, Danny.
I am.

(01:03:34):
The pens were filthy of full offeces, chicken parts and bones.
The officials said that cageshad not been cleaned in a long
time and there was no drinkingwater available.
that's why they said, we gottaget up out of this bitch.
They were ting, they'redesperate.
They were revolting.

(01:03:55):
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 animallike cow femurs and stuff just
laying because they're gettinglike the free mm-hmm.

(01:04:16):
When Fieber and Martin tried toenter the compound to feed some
of the cubs, they were stopped.
It's now a crime scene.
Yeah.
And, and Fieber demanded, whatthe hell's the crime?
That got no answer.
I'm just seeing like the head onthe forehead.
Oh my.
Wrapped in fucking two pounds ofgauze.

(01:04:38):
Yeah.
seriously, all of his pictures,he was in gauze.
reports later indicate thecouple, often let the cats roam
freely.
Even inside their manufacturedhome for fun time, it's
enrichment activities.
So you know how some of thosedouble eyes have a slider off of

(01:05:00):
the back bedroom?
Yeah, just let'em in.
They had a patio, it wasenclosed.
Maybe they even had a hot tuband one of the cats stayed in
there.
Little little dip and littlecome 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 littlepatio.
See, and this is where peoplereach the chimp crazy.

(01:05:23):
They not understanding that evenif you've raised an animal and
trained, you've got a circusanimal, zoo animal.
Or even if you're on an ethical,sanctuary type place.
This is an animal that has theability to, and doesn't need a
reason to.
It doesn't have to be a logicalreason.

(01:05:46):
What are you gonna put him onthe witness stand and be like,
well, was this premeditated?
Or no?
This is literally an animal.
Something can happen, their pawmight hurt, and they might bitch
slap the shit outta you.
Well, neighbor Bruce Hansen hadbeen the one two first report,

(01:06:07):
the escape.
He saw a lion stalking hislivestock and shot it.
Can you fucking imagine?
Bruce said, absolutely the fucknot well.
And Colleen, his wife, hadalready fucking shot a wolf.
I'd be fucking li Um, a deputythat responded, killed another
lion nearby, and a third wasshot.

(01:06:30):
After it attacked, it attacked,Bert Martin.
So they're lucky that it gotshot because it was about to
fucking tell them how they feltabout not having food and water
for a while.
Y'all.
The sheriff's office explainedthey didn't have the resources
or training to tranquilize theanimals because even now we

(01:06:52):
might have better connections tolike fish and game for like a
bear, you know, whatever.
But this is back.
You can't just be textingsomeone who works at the zoo.
You can't do that.
And the amount of animals thatwere, they didn't know They
probably didn't even have enoughtranquilizer or in stock.

Stephanie (01:07:13):
Mm-hmm.

Dani (01:07:14):
Well, emergency service and it's in a town of 500 is
like, well what if we have totranquilize 13 lions?
The budget doesn't account forthat.
No, they're not.
Stockpiling.
Lion and tiger tranquilizing.
Yeah, we're looking atsidewalks.
They could have had enough forjust the ligers.
I'm just kidding.

(01:07:34):
Maybe they could have hadsomething for one, like a bear
or something.
Sure.
zoo Montana Director, Dr.
Bill Tarson, came to help.
He said, quote, I, I've neverseen animals kept in these kind
of conditions.
It's sad.
He said, well, constructed zooshave an escape.

(01:07:56):
Once in a while, the way thisplace was built, there should
have been an escape here everyday, and it sounds like there
may have been.
Hold my beer.
Yes.
Infrared helicopters were usedto track lions outside the
compound.
At least a dozen were shotinside.

(01:08:18):
One male lion was found dead inhis cage being eaten by others.
How terrible This is like Houseof Horrors Terrible on September
26th.
27 African lions and tigers wereremoved to a wildlife park in

(01:08:38):
southern California.
The Wildlife Way Station run byMartine Collette, Colette said,
quote, this is unconscionable.
This is one of the worstsituations I have ever seen.
How these people could put theseanimals in such a horrible
environment and in such danger.

(01:09:00):
I don't know.
The deputies here didn't killthese lions.
The people that kept him heredid that.
Yeah, this is all over.
Terrible.
The county declared the propertyuninhabitable and posted signs
forbidding anyone to live there.

(01:09:21):
Health officials beganinvestigating 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'sgonna be something.
It's not a rental, but it's adrama.
They were renting in, uh,outside of Lewiston, oh, four
months behind.

(01:09:41):
And then that's when they'relike, oh, shit.
Gotta go, gotta get outta here.
Okay, well, they bust a move,right?
Yes.
Fieber was pissed.
He said at the authorities, hesaid, quote, they're murderers
and they ought to be hung.
We are terrorized because wehave exotic animals.

(01:10:03):
We been given the finger byneighbors harassed.
You name it, I'm totally fed up.
I'm so damn bitter.
This is the United States ofAmerica, not Nazi Germany.
I hate when people try to like,bring that into a completely
irrelevant, I, oh dude, youranimals were starving, being

(01:10:24):
kept in cardboard.
And really it was a lot of.
In the pictures, I didn't see alot of cardboard that was
reported.
What I saw were pallets andchicken wire and metal roofing,
like pallet gates.
It's not hard to disassemble apallet.
No.
And pallet walls reinforced withchicken wire and no.

(01:10:52):
So Dottie Martin added quote, werealized the place was a
housekeeping disaster,

but the

Dani (01:10:59):
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 toalone.
Okay, let me just give a roundof applause for the PR
turnaround.
A housekeeping, we, we've hadsome issues with housekeeping.

(01:11:21):
Sure.
We'll allow.
That doesn't mean animalsrolling in shit and like having,
I'm sure infections andeverything that goes along with
that.
And then she said, what else wasthe rest of that after the
housekeeping?
Uh, they were well fed.
We've minded our own business.

(01:11:41):
We tried to be good citizens.
We just wanna be left alone.
Um, so does fucking Colleen andher chickens.
Yeah.
She, she does not want a wolfeating her fucking goat.
You've minded your business toomuch.
You've narrowed your scope toomuch.
You're like, if my animals areout killing my neighbors, I'm,

(01:12:02):
I'm not, I'm not paying anyattention.
That's not my business.
I'm minding mine.
No, you mind yours.
You should mind yours and keepyour shit on your own lawn.
Ma'am.
On September 28th, 109misdemeanor charges were filed.
Goodness gracious.
Okay.
84 counts of animal cruelty.

(01:12:23):
16 counts of public nuisance.
Mm-hmm.
Three zoning violations, twocounts of possessing ketamine.
Oh, One count of the marriage.
Joanna possession.
They like their grass, bro.
You can't be doing it herethough.
You gotta, Idaho is a special,well, you couldn't be doing it

(01:12:44):
anywhere at this time, but, butIdaho 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 twocounts of possessing protected
wildlife.
Okay, that's not the wildlife.

(01:13:05):
You think.
What is it?
Is it another raccoon?
They're like, everything else isfine.
But that raccoon, you crossedthe line.
That was good.
I think it's in here.
If not, I'll tell you.
that same day that all thosecharges were dropped on him,
another lion was spotted just500 feet from the elementary

(01:13:29):
school.
It was shot and wounded by alocal resident and then later
killed by authorities.
And of course, the school wasclosed Again, can't you can't
have the lions around the schoolbecause it's, because these
motherfuckers wouldn't tell howmany they had either they didn't
know or they weren't telling,and I'm betting on they should

(01:13:50):
have an estimate.
They weren't telling.
Yeah.
It sounds like they were, theywanted to save as many as they
could and thought that they'djust come back to mommy and
daddy's house and no one wouldknow.
Mm-hmm.
These are cats.
Wow.
They're, they're completely ableto just go on for a very long
time independently, so good luckwith that.

(01:14:13):
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 elementaryschool.

(01:14:35):
Can you imagine?
How tragic.
And they're still acting likeit's not a big fucking deal.
That's less than two footballfields away.
Mm-hmm.
And they're fast, large.
They're known for that.
Yeah.
That's literally their brand.

(01:14:56):
In October, felony charges wereadded for administering ketamine
and xylazine without properauthority.
A sheriff's report described theconditions as beyond belief,
nails and screws, protruded fromthe boards and pallets, the
cages wreaked of disease, riddenwater.

(01:15:19):
And some animals requiredimmediate medical attention.
I'm sure there was infection.
You know, that smell of whereyou just know.
Yeah, I bet that smell.
Oh, well, and one of the bigthings, this was on the PBS,
this documentary, that I watchedIdaho PBS documentary.
I love PBS.

(01:15:40):
they, some of the people, theauthorities and neighbors were
like, the cat piss you couldsmell so bad.
So take your little fucking 10or 12 pound fat ass cat that
sprays once in your house thatat pisses in your house.

(01:16:01):
Once it ain't, and you gottatear off the 40 gallons.
You gotta tear off the carpet.
It's never going away per cat.
Well imagine how many cats, howmany gallons of piss?
I didn't think of that.
Yeah, but I bet it was just,yeah.
So they were saying how fuckingdisgusting it was.
I did not think of that.

(01:16:22):
Oh no.
So I mean, and you can't reallyclean up piss on a dirt thing.
Right.
But so, but the feces wereeverywhere.
They needed large spaces.
Yeah.
And these guys were in anenclosed.
Cages somewhat enclosed.
They're like, well, we got'em intheir plate bin.
Yeah, the pack play, ourportable play bin, play our pack

(01:16:42):
and play.
We put'em in the pack and play.
Is the pack and play notacceptable now?
Oh, okay.
I'm a bad parent now.
when Magistrate Heart warnedMartin that she could lose her
hunting, fishing, and trappingprivileges for three years, if
convicted of possessing aprotected species, she laughed
and said, losing thoseprivileges was no punishment at

(01:17:04):
all.
Oh.
I'm not sure I might repeatmyself.
So, the protected species, theyfound, parts of a great horned
owl on their property.
Oh, no.
So whether they, I really don'tthink Fieber and Martin killed

(01:17:25):
the owl.
but it doesn't look good forhim.
The tiger might have.
They might have picked up, look,these guy, the authorities were
after these guys and you'regonna see like every little
fucking thing.
They were, they were done, theywere trying to get'em on
anything.
And unfortunately they had toreally dig deep because most
these were all misdemeanorcharges except for the little

(01:17:48):
bit of pot they found.
So when they're going throughand they said, oh really?
You got a couple of al feathershere?
Go fuck yourself.
We're charging you because youcan't even, you can't even have
al feathers.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm not sure of how much wasthere.
I don't, oh God.
It might be later in the story,but I'm not even sure how much

(01:18:09):
of this owl they found.
I don't think these guys werepoaching owls, to feed their
cats or anything like that.
I think that there might havebeen some feathers or, and there
might have been a mishap.
an owl literally could have gottrapped in one of those fucking
palaces and died.
Yeah.
And it's just sitting there andthey're like, yeah, got you on
this one fucker.
And the cats would've beenstoked about it.

(01:18:30):
And in Idaho, I will say that,like, not even the endangered
bird species, I don't, I can'tthink of the word off the top of
my head, but the predator typebirds, like falcons owls, like
there's birds of prey.
Yes.
Thank you.
Birds of prey.
There is a huge community inIdaho for protecting tracking,

(01:18:52):
going for their environment.
Idaho Power has their own likebirds of prey, person and team,
because of course birds like tobuild nest in power poles and
lines.
Mm-hmm.
birds of prey in Idaho is huge.
So, and we have a huge birds ofprey.
Area.
Yeah.
Just, uh, south of, of Boise.

(01:19:12):
Beautiful out there.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, people go and watch.
I mean, one of the highlights ofelementary school was going out
there and looking at birds.
They have birds, a breezecenter, and there's
photographers and bird, watchersand hobbyists.
And so again, it's another oneof those things where they
stepped on another Idahoannerve.
I'm sure they stepped on a lotof Oregonian nerves that we

(01:19:34):
don't know about, but theyreally for, for when, by the
time they got here, they werealready escalated to Max on the
misbehavior with everything.
So Idaho was just offended andwanted to act.
'cause like you said, they triedto find every little thing and
they did.

(01:19:54):
Oh.
it doesn't sound like it washard.
It sounds like it was a evenmore of a shit show.
You want another little sidestory?
I do.
Okay.
I was trying to, that's why Ipicked up my phone'cause I
wanted to tell you this.
Okay.
So I think I might've told thisstory before, but I'm gonna, so

(01:20:15):
we had the farm, I was workingin town.
Austin called me and said, mom,there is an owl in the chicken
coop and it's killed like threechickens.
Have I told you this?
No.
And I was like, well get it thefuck out hurting the chickens.

(01:20:36):
Get it to, he said, and itprobably 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 outthere.

(01:20:57):
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 getthat owl out.
Get it outta there.
But I decided because owls,there's a lot of owl species

(01:21:23):
that are protected here.
I'm at work, can't leave.
'cause this is back like circathe day where you can't leave
for circa the day.
You're not being able to leavework.
No for this you'll get fired.
they don't give a fuck if yourchickens don't killed, you don't
have an excuse for owl in thechicken coop.
So I sent my 15-year-old outthere to get this owl out called

(01:21:45):
fishing game and said, Hey, howan 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 kiddidn't have a cellie.
and I called fish and game andthey're like, that's not an owl.
It's probably a chicken hawk.
Okay.
I didn't even know that was areal fucking thing.

(01:22:08):
I googled it.
I googled the scariest fuckingpicture ever.
I was like, claws out.
I'm like, oh my God.
I just sent my fucking15-year-old and a 20 by 20 pin
to go play with a fuckingchicken hawk panic.
Immediately sets in, calling,calling, calling.
He's not answering because he'sdoing what mama told him because

(01:22:29):
he's fighting a chicken hok.
Get the fucking hell out.
Luckily my friend was driving.
I called my friend on her cellphone.
She was on her way home.
She stopped my son, middle ofsummer dressed head to fucking
toe.
Not one piece of his body.
Was showing.
He went in there with full armorand I respect Austin for this

(01:22:52):
masks, Carhartt, muckers gloves,sunglasses.
He got his rain boots on.
I love the protective eyewearsunglasses.
He went in there and he coveredit with a clear, like a 20 or 30
gallon like tote container.

(01:23:12):
Sure.
The clear ones.
Oh like a, like you went with aspider with a cup.
Yeah, I like that.
But on a larger scale and he puta cinder block on it when I got
home, it was a great horned owland those are big.
It was fucking huge.
Their eyes are like two inchesbig, like they can see your soul

(01:23:37):
and it was hissing and you couldsee it'cause it's in the clear
plastic.
Which way?
Badass That he, yeah.
Picked the plastic one out likeoutta the heart.
You can see it.
Yeah.
Very cool.
What?
So we scooted it out.
I'm not kidding you.
The wingspan on thesemotherfuckers is like 6 5, 6
feet.
Huge.
But we scooted it to the edgeand got it out.

(01:23:57):
But anyways, fish and gamedidn'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 abig one.
He was like two feet tall.
You think they should sound likea chopper?
Like No, nothing.

(01:24:19):
He was silent out of the chickencoup assassins.
Okay, go ahead.
Don't fuck with Al in Idaho.
I wasn't expecting to tell thismany farm stories tonight.
Oh, I love it.
Cheers.
I haven't heard these.
I'm like, I probably told youlike, no, I haven't heard this.

(01:24:46):
Okay, back to the story.
The county.
So planning office declaredtheir mobile home unfit for
occupancy.
Okay, this is disgusting.
Doors and halls were blockedwith solid waste.

(01:25:06):
Windows were covered withplywood and there was no
sanitary water.
See, and this is where you com.
I was already completely lostand obviously saying how
terrible this shit is.
But if when you cannot opendoors and hallways are blocked
from feces, there's, you've lostthe fucking plot.

(01:25:31):
Sorry, go on Danny.
The couple would have to repairthe 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 effecteffective regardless.
You may as well torch themotherfucker.

(01:25:52):
They just needed to go clean itup.
Really?
They needed to get water runningto it.
They need to, they needed toclean the blocked hallways and
doorways.
Yes.
You can't shut a door becausethere is such a mass of feces.
Yeah.
I cannot, well they, they didn'tparticularly say feces.
I think it, I'm not a, I don'tknow if that was there or not.

(01:26:15):
Probably.
I mean, I'm thinking an episodeof Hoarders, they don't even
know what's in there.
There's probably some big catshit in there.
but also there could be goodanimal.
He has also, can you get rid ofthe pizza boxes?
Oh, they didn't have pizzathere.
I promise.
Whatever it is.
They might had one joint.
Yeah.
They might have had that barthat served burgers and fries.

(01:26:37):
And also a guy who said, I canmake 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, whoworked at a pizza place.
Fuck yeah.
For two years back in the, yeah.
He's like, I can fucking dothis.
Let's go.
Okay.
Sidetracked.

(01:26:57):
Okay.
that November, the felonycharges were dropped after a
veterinarian witness admitted.
He wasn't sure how many vials ofsedatives he had authorized.
Remember the ketamine and themm-hmm.
Zyl.
Xylazine.
Thank you.
but federal investigators beganlooking into whether the pair

(01:27:17):
had been illegally selling lionsand tigers.
I'll get ya, Margaret and HarveyDavis, who had sold the pair,
the lagger town property,described their own ordeal.
The couple had agreed to awraparound mortgage.

(01:27:38):
Never, ever do this.
Kids don't do a wraparound ever,ever, ever.
But when Fieber filed forbankruptcy in 1987, the Davises
were left battling banks foryears.
So this is what happened.
These guys had a mortgage on aproperty.

(01:28:00):
They, they sold the property toFieber and Martin.
Sure.
Still having a mortgage with thebank.
So when Fieber filed bankruptcy,he knows shit no longer making
payments to the bank.
They're responsible, butultimately the Davis says it

(01:28:20):
responsible for it.
Oh, and they had alreadypurchased it at their home.
They can't have a Yeah.
And they were they, anyways,yeah.
So they were paying, trying tolike, how can, who could afford
one mortgage, let alone two?
Geez.

Yeah.
Mm-hmm.

Dani (01:28:36):
Margaret Davis said they lived off a, lived off of us for
two years.

Mm-hmm.

Dani (01:28:42):
They were struggling trying to figure it out.
Oh, and by the way, Harvey Daviswas 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 millionlawsuit against Bannock County,

(01:29:07):
very litigious.
He called it claiming one oftheir lions had been improperly
killed.
They also filed, wait, he wasn'treally attacking?
No, I dunno.
they also filed an eight and ahalf million dollars tort claim
accusing the county ofracketeering and theft of

(01:29:29):
animals naming even MartineCollette of the Wildlife Way
Station, the one that came andrescued the animals.
Oh my God.
And now it's a conspiracy.
Yep.
And that just pisses me off ofafter everything of their
reluctance to help that theysaid one, one of our cats was

(01:29:51):
killed improperly.
And I can understand there mighthave been, but out of 14 or so,
you know what Colleen said, someof my chickens and goats were
killed improperly.
Like you put the entire town inan emergency situation, what's
proper and improper.
I wonder, god forbid, ifsomething happened to one of

(01:30:11):
those kids, what their stancewould've been.
I think it would've been thesame.
I kind of feel that way too.
I'm feeling that way.
Magistrate Mark Bebe, you issueda gag order after a county
commissioner openly commented onplea negotiations.
This motherfucker was at aLion's Club meeting.

(01:30:32):
Oh, shit.
Yeah, he was like, how, howfunny.
The Lions Club meeting.
Yeah.
And he's like, we're gonna getthese fuckers.
And he just talked all about it.
And, and that's a 10th of thetown at least.
Oh yeah.
No, they're holding close.
And then the judge was like, allright, shut your fucking pile.
They gotta stop that.
Shush.

(01:30:52):
This is an actual legalproceeding now.
It's, they we're doing pleanegotiations and this's a big
fucking deal.
Shut the fuck up.
Yes.
In 1996, magistrate BB orderednuisance charges reduced from 16
to one, and he threatened todismiss all the charges if the

(01:31:15):
prosecutors didn't comply.

Okay?

Dani (01:31:18):
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 lawstuff.
Okay?
I guess we have to follow thedirections and shit.

(01:31:40):
Back when I was like 18, I hadtwo 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.

(01:32:03):
The defense be defense in must,must be.
And listen, when they said theywere litigious, I'm like, yeah,
they try to fight a lot ofstuff, but they are incapable.
It seems like they're winningleft and right except for their,
I mean, they're losing theiranimals, but they are getting
nothing for these charges.
Nothing.

(01:32:25):
Oh my God.
After a five and a half hourdeliberation, a jury found
Fieber and Martin guilty ofmaintaining a public nuisance.
Nine counts of cruelty, twozoning violations, and one count
of possessing parts of aprotected species.

(01:32:45):
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 toget it up to par.

(01:33:08):
And in typical fashion, what dothey do?
Abandon.
Abandon, abandon.
We've seen this in Oregon.
Yeah.
Abandon.
Abandon, abandon.
They run.
Mm-hmm.
Fieber was sentenced to one yearin jail and seven and a half
years probation.
And Martin received six monthsin jail with the same probation

(01:33:29):
term.
Magistrate.
Bebe told them, quote.
The paradox is that for peoplewho have had such great love for
animals, you ended up creatingan animal ghetto.

Oh.

Dani (01:33:43):
They were ordered to transfer titles of their animals
to Bannon County, reimbursecosts and perform 250 hours of
community service.
Mother attorney appealed.
Bill bail was reduced.
When Bebe admitted, he hadmistakenly said it too high.
So he had said it for, it was athousand dollars per

(01:34:08):
misdemeanor, but when he rereadthe law, he couldn't do that.
It was a thousand dollars percase.
Okay.
So it was reduced to nothing.
So they got, yeah.
Makes sense.
They got out literally$3 and 15cents.
They got out pretty much.

(01:34:30):
by late that year, the countysees the remaining wolf hybrids
after they failed the care forthem spending$24,000 on their
upkeep.
The county did.
Oh my God.
in December 82, hybrids weremoved to a compound in Arizona.
Can I just tell you, theystarted out with like 40, 42

(01:34:54):
wolf hybrids.
The bitches be humping, they'remaking babies.
No, all by waiting for, it'sjust a free for all.
Yeah.
And this is breeding incaptivity that isn't supervised.
Or these animals aren't goingfor vet visits to look for
different things like diseasesthat shouldn't be bred.

(01:35:15):
Joanie wasn't taking a pill.
No.
Mary didn't have an IUD.
They were making babies.
I just, I feel like even if thiswas in Nampa or Boise, which are
some of the bigger towns inIdaho.
This would've been a huge deal.

(01:35:35):
I can't imagine in the eighties.
How crazy.
And just salacious.
I mean, everyone would've beentalking about it.
What?
Danny?
I'm scared.
I'm scared.
I've had enough.
Oh, well, 1998, what districtJudge Randy Smith, ruled that

(01:36:02):
the trial court, they'restealing fucking appeals.
Okay.
Randy Smith ruled that the trialcourt had no power to order the
forfeiture of the animals sayingthat should have been handled in
a civil court proceeding.
The misdemeanor conviction stoodso those appeals continued.
I'm having to take a Tums overthis.

(01:36:25):
By August, a bench warrant wasissued after fee and Martin
skipped court.
They run surprise.
Finally, in June of 1999, OregonState Police arrested Fieber in
Newport, Oregon.
Back to your old stompinggrounds.
I see officers had called him into talk about the alligators he

(01:36:51):
was keeping.
No, no, no, no Fieber.
Instead, they discovered thewarrant.
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, butjust come clear.
They just come down and talk tous.
They had no, that's not true.
We know that's not true.

(01:37:11):
They did not know that theseguys had a warrant I want, so no
animals ever again.
Not even an ant farm.
Not even a seahorse farm or whatare 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 rockbitch.

(01:37:33):
Don't you ever, oh, I'm pissed.
So they were arrested.
Him and Dottie Martin favor andDottie Martin were arrested.
Favor and Dottie because theyhad warrants.
I'm fucking done with these two.
You're be more pissed.
Damn it Denny.

(01:37:53):
I thought I was at my limit.
Tell me.
But Idaho declined to extraditesaying it'd be too expensive.
That's surprising.
And Fieber Martin were releasedisn't you must not have had
enough'cause Idaho loves toextradite.
They're like, send them there.
They just fucking forget aboutit.
Send them here.
We'll throw the book at it.
So they might not, they mustnot.

(01:38:15):
The litigious side of good oldFieber and Dottie must have
really showed them that they didknow what they were talking
about.
And to know the law.
In the eighties, there was noai.
You're not Googling that shiteven.
Is it illegal for me to ownGreat Horn Owl part?
No, you gotta be involved inknowing and learning constantly.

(01:38:38):
That's why he couldn't feed hiscast'cause he was too busy
fucking paying attorneys.
He was there at the library.
I'm pissed.
Robert Fieber fought to keep hisdream alive.
First in Oregon, then Idaho, butwhat he called passion for
animals looked very different tolaw enforcement, veterinarians
and neighbors, and everyone witheyeballs.

(01:39:00):
I just wanna put that on therecord.
Cardi B.
Yes.
Uhhuh Just look security heavy.
He was security heavy folks andeveryone knew it.
In the end.
Liger town wasn't remembered asa sanctuary.

(01:39:20):
No, it became a cautionary tale.
A place where obsession,neglect, and defiance collided
until the animals paid thehighest price.
A hundred percent.
The neighbors, the animals, andliterally guys in Idaho having,
and I'm sure that, I'm notsaying Idaho's special for this,
having a lion, most of y'allwould not expect this, but I

(01:39:42):
feel like especially here in thedeep 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 likeseeing a fucking pterodactyl.
That's you're right.
what?
So anyway, Danny, this has beenone of my favorite ones, just

(01:40:05):
because I love the absurditytype story.
It was, we have absolute, thisis why I had to do, I'm like,
Steph, I'm gonna do a littledifferent one.
I wanna do this one.
We thought that Tiger King.
Was just a, oh, they do thatweird shit over there.
No, it's been happening in ourown backyard.
We didn't know this about ourculture.
This is our heritage in Idaho.

(01:40:27):
So yeah, we have our own likerking here in Idaho.
We've, we've learned a bit moreabout our own history, so thank
you, Danny.
You're welcome.
Any other closing thoughts?
No, I'm excited for, I amexcited for, spooky season.
Me too.
Got my gal here.
we've got our friend, what didwe decide to call her?

(01:40:49):
Sarah with an H?
Sarah with an H, if you'venoticed.
and I don't know if you noticedon my rocking chair, I have a
new skeleton.
I didn't notice.
my mama bought it for me, soshe's the best.
What I wanna say is from both ofus, we know we had a little
break to finish up the end ofsummer.

(01:41:09):
Also just getting caught up onsome different changes that
we're doing in our own lives.
So thank you guys for beingpatient with us and supportive.
We've received nothing butsupport for taking a break.
You know, sometimes we feelpressure 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.

(01:41:30):
Thank you for being there withus.
We'll always keep you posted andlet's go.
check out our tiktoks.
Yes, please.
We've been kind of slaying itout there, so we've been having
fun.
Yeah.
we've been having a good time.
So, uh, check out our tiktoksplease.
Word of mouth.
Biggest compliment you can give,share with your family and

(01:41:52):
friends and yeah.
Yeah.
Ten four over ducky.
Fuck yeah.
Let's go.
Danny.
I fucking like that episode.

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