Former tiger owners plead guilty to charges

Former tiger owners plead guilty to charges
By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

The couple whose escaped tiger was shot near Miller Park in Moorpark two years ago pled guilty Jan. 8 to federal charges relating to animal welfare and obstruction of justice.

Gert Hedengran, 58, admitted to felony counts of making false statements to agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

Hedengran also pled guilty for two misdemeanor counts of failing to maintain proper records for the exotic animals.

Authorities recommended that he go to federal prison for 14 months and receive supervised release afterward. Supervised release is much tougher than probation, said Joseph Johns, assistant U.S. district attorney who prosecuted the case.

His wife, Roena Hedengran, 54, pled guilty to one misdemeanor count for failing to maintain records of exotic felines.

She and the U.S. attorney's office have asked the judge to sentence her to three years of probation, four months of home detention and a $2,000 fine, Johns said. Both will be sentenced in April.

But the judge is not bound by the plea agreements and he could impose tougher sentences.

"I can't predict what the judge is going to do," said Johns, who is satisfied with the preliminary results because crimes involving exotic animals don't usually yield any prison time.

The Hedengrans owned several exotic felines, including lions and tigers, for about seven years through March 2005. They allowed people who donated money to them to visit and play with the animals. But the cats weren't rescued animals- they were mostly bought on the open market, said Johns.

The animals were transferred to Moorpark in January 2005 because the Hedengrans were evicted from their prior location in Temecula.

A Siberian lynx and the adult male Siberian tiger escaped from the new facility in the Tierra Rejada Valley during the move. The lynx was spotted by neighbors and authorities managed to tranquilize and capture the animal which was returned to the Hedengrans.

But the tiger roamed the eastern Ventura County rural region for more than three weeks before it was shot and killed by a federal animal tracker with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. The Hedengrans denied that the large tiger was theirs at the time.

There are many fatalities and severe injuries involving big cats. Those cases almost always involved negligent conduct but nobody gets prosecuted, he said.

Having a Siberian tiger loose in the chaparrals of Moorpark for a few weeks was an incredibly dangerous situation, the U.S. attorney said, so this case was a milestone as it produced results.

Johns hopes that this disposition will encourage other big cat owners to follow the rules and take measures to protect their neighbors.

Since the Moorpark incident, the Hedengrans have been living in Pahrump, Nev. with their cats. Although they won't be able to own cats in California anymore, they could still keep the creatures in other states in the future, said Johns.