Hawthorn Circus Tigers John Cuneo

I sent this to the USDA and FWC:

 

I’ve been asked by John Cuneo's personal care givers to take his last 9 tigers.  They say he is willing to cancel his USDA and any state licenses, in exchange for me taking them off his hands immediately.  There seems to be quite a bit of urgency on his part, so I want to be sure I am not interfering with anything you guys may be planning.

 

I also want to ask for your direction on HOW to legally transfer them from him to us.  His caregivers don't seem to understand, or know anything about the FWC requirements for possession or transfer.  They say they will contact their HQ in IL on Monday to see if they have anything that will satisfy our/your requirement that the cats be transferred to Big Cat Rescue by someone who is legally permitted to have them in FL.

 

Do you know what kind of permit they have, or we need, in order to move the cats here Monday afternoon?

 

Below is my correspondence w/ the caregivers:

 

Dear Chris and Suzanne, on behalf of John Cuneo;

I got your inventory list, so I can create the USDA transfer form if this info is correct:

 

THE HAWTHORN CORPORATION    23675 W CHARDON ROAD    LAKE    GRAYS LAKE  IL  60030   33-C-0053

 

The part I don't know and would need before I can take them is the Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC) permit info.  It is a state permit in addition to the federal USDA permit.

 

In the state of Florida, in order for me (or anyone in FL) to legally accept a tiger from someone, they have to either be brought in via an Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC) import permit OR the owner of the tiger has to have a Florida Wildlife Commission permit to house them in the state.

 

I'm guessing that if the cats came in, just to do some shows, then they had to have an import / travel permit from the Florida Wildlife Commission (myfwc.com) but that may not be what is needed to actually transfer them to a Florida licensee permanently.

 

I am not aware of Michael Ramos having an FWC permit to possess tigers, but he might. I just don't know how that works when cats are expected to just be here for a while and then go back.

 

Unless the tigers are possessed by someone who has an FWC possession permit, I might not be able to take them, unless I can get the FWC to allow us to take them based on their existing travel permit.  The FWC won't be open until Monday for me to confirm that though.

 

Can you text or email me what you can find so we can see if we have what we need to make this happen?

 

Please advise.

 

For the cats,

 

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

 

The FWC asked for me to gather all the info I could on where the cats were, which I could only presume were with Ramos, and then followed up with:

 

Happy to help in any way I can.  If you can't find the tigers, I am willing to try and force the issue of my inspection of them, which you will be invited to attend of course. :-)

 

We have 9 empty tiger enclosures open and waiting for the cats, so if you seize them, we are prepared to take all of them, and hold them if there is any litigation, but my sense of the matter is that John Cuneo is ready to let them go.

 

According to news reports dating back to 2003, John Cuneo has been trying to unload his tigers and elephants for a decade, with no takers. He tried to pay me $1000 per cat to take his cats from him years ago.

 

In 2015 he asked me to take his last 28 tigers, via Glenn L. Hamilton who is the Vice President of Real Estate at Bank of America, Private Wealth Management (US Trust) in downtown Chicago.  It's my understanding he is John Cuneo's money manager.  At that time Glenn was fearful Cuneo may sell them into a worse life than they have.  Mr. Cuneo's family started Bank of America and his vast amount of wealth (or what's left of it) is still held under Trust at Bank of America.  Some say he started the white tiger trade in the United States.

 

Our goal is to end it.  Cuneo's driver told us they already placed 7 tig