The Environmental Appeal Board has denied Crawford Bay resident Earl Pfeifer the legal means to keep two cheetahs in his care.
The final decision, icluding statements and testimony was released in a report in early March.
Pfeifer intended on starting up an educational outreach program called Run Cheetah Run geared towards children. According to Pfeifer’s submitted description of the Cheetah experience, it would have been ‘a chance to get up close and personal with a cheetah.’
Cheetahs are considered the most docile of the big cat family according testimony given by South African animal expert and author of A book of Cheetahs Linda Rosenlöf. She says both cheetahs, Annie and Robin, showed ambassador animal characteristics.
However another expert, Dr. Laurie Marker, gave the opinion that the videos provided showing the docility of the animals do not represent a scenario wherein children would interact with the animals as was intended by the appellants for their Run Cheetah Run program.
The Environmental Appeal Board and panel chair Linda Michaluk deemed Pfeifer’s untrained handling of the controlled alien species inadequate based off the appellants failure to initiate the proper safety protocols when Annie briefly escaped four years ago.
An enclosure connected to the appellant’s primary residence and the admission that the cheetahs lived and slept near them did not help to sway the panel’s decision.
Ultimately, the Cheetahs never did go through the proper, legal avenues to be brought into BC in the first place.
The panel will not allow the Cheetahs to return.
