![]() Ontario has no laws governing who can own exotic animals. A dilemma for municipalitiesĭrysdale's efforts have exposed a serious dilemma for municipal officials: How to keep fearful residents safe while navigating an individual's right to keep wild animals. It would also ignite the latest in a series of bitter battles with Ontario municipalities over exotic animal bylaws. I wouldn't care about a lemur, but maybe they're dangerous, I have no idea."ĭrysdale's plan for Highland Big Cat Adventures would be his third such endeavour in less than a decade. Mitchell immediately feared the worst: "Lion escape. He wanted to open a roadside zoo with his collection of animals, including 10 big cats: eight lions and two tigers. ![]() The man was Mark Drysdale, an exotic animal owner who had recently purchased land in Maynooth, located in the municipality of Hastings Highlands about 265 kilometres northeast of Toronto. "It was like … what? Can you start a zoo?" Mitchell, an artist who had moved from Toronto a few years earlier, was gobsmacked. "And people were telling me, 'Did you hear about the guy … he's going to start a zoo.' " "He brought his tiger to the parking lot, or a lion or something," Mitchell said. Mitchell recalled hearing that the man said, "These are for my kitties."īut the "kitties" he was referring to were not house cats. Someone had just bought out all the chicken at the local No Frills, one of the area's only major grocery stores. Roy Mitchell remembers the moment he learned his rural Ontario community had acquired a new resident.Ī rumour was spreading through the tiny town of Maynooth in the fall of 2020.
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