Kenny Hetrick, the owner of Tiger Ridge Exotics, says inspectors from the United States Department of Agriculture are threatening to fine him $60,000.

Hetrick estimates he has spent $12,000 making corrections to his Stony Ridge facility that has been a home to rescued lions, tigers, bears, wolves, bobcat, lynx, mountain lion, leopards and cheetah for 37 years.

He says that doesn’t seem to be enough to please inspectors from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service.

“My side of the story is that I did every single thing that they tell me to do, and then they come back and they tell me that it is not good enough. Every time I do something, they come back with something else. So, over and over they keep doing that,” Hetrick said.

Hetrick fears the USDA is trying to put pressure on him to give up raising the exotic animals. There have also been complaints from animal rights activists.

“What started this, my inspector I had for 20 years, I never had any problems. He’d come here and he’d tell me things to do and I did what he told me. I never had hardly any write-ups at all — maybe the worse write-up would be to try and get leaves cut down. That was all he ever told me,” Hetrick continued.

“Now, they got rid of him and they come here now, and instead of having one inspector, they have two or three inspectors that come here and check me. You know, all this stuff has been OK for years and years, and all of a sudden it is not OK.”

According to USDA reports online, on Aug. 2 inspectors found two indirect repeat violations, on Apr. 20 they found one indirect repeat violation, on Apr. 19 they found four indirection repeat violations, on Oct. 27,2010 they found three indirect violations, and on Sept. 29, 2010 they found one direct, seven indirect, and one repeat violation.

The August 2 report states, “The primary enclosure walls of the big cats contained at the facility are 10 to 12 feet, kick-ins have been added for an additional 32 to 42 feet. The kick-ins have only four wires that are approximately 12 inches apart that are loosely strung between the doors…

“The kick-ins need to be made more substantial to prevent the escape of any animal. Any raised areas as dens, platforms, logs, or large rocks must be kept away from the primary enclosure walls to prevent the cat from using it to jump over the primary enclosure wall.”

‘Millions’ of kids

Hetrick, a part-time Walbridge policeman and retired Chrysler worker, says he has never had an escape at his facility nor has anyone, beside himself, ever been injured.

Last week, 45 boy scouts were there from Livonia, Michigan. The farm, located on a five-acre property at 5359 Fremont Pike, has educated thousands of children and adults in the conservation of animals. Tiger Ridge has entertained schools, boy scouts, girl scouts, day cares, church groups, handicapped children, nursing home residents and autistic children, leading Hetrick to say Tiger Ridge “has been good for the community.”

Making it tougher for him to maintain the facility was the loss of his wife, Roberta, who collapsed at home and passed away on Jan. 28 at age 67. Kenny says he feels lost without Roberta, who was often nicknamed the “Mother and Queen of Tiger Ridge.” Before that, he lost two sons in separate accidents and now finding volunteers is difficult.

Original estimates to purchase everything new would have cost $40,000, Hetrick said. He already has added an eight foot fence to replace a four foot fence, along with a four feet overhang. His original quote from a local fence company for 1,700 feet of fence was $23,000. It cost another $2,000 for mesh fencing.

“So I had to find used fence — that is all there is to it,” Hetrick said. “But I still had to buy it because all the scrappers will find it and take it to the scrap yard so it’s hard to find fence anymore. But I did find some and got all that up, just like they said, and it’s all eight foot all the way around, the overhang is all up and the four wires, and then I read a statement that read, ‘Well, he’s only got four wires.’ Well, that’s exactly what they told me.

“That was really hard. It took us every day for two months to do that. It cost all the money I had to do this just the way they wanted it. Just the brackets alone cost $800,” Hetrick continued.

As far as continuing to make the required improvements, such as fixing the “four wires…that are loosely strung,” he needs manpower.

“When (the inspector) comes back here, they are going to get all over me again because I don’t have that mesh wire over top of the entire fence. I can’t do that without help. I’ve got to have somebody to help me. You just can’t get 10 guys over here at one time and I definitely can’t afford to pay anybody to do that,” Hetrick said.

Inspectors have also asked Hetrick to fix roofs on enclosures that provide shelter for the animals, and there’s more.

“I’m out of money. I can’t do that,” Hetrick said. “That plywood is $25 per sheet and it takes eight sheets of plywood to cover up one of those cages. It’s a money thing. I’m not a millionaire. I can’t do all these things that they are telling me to do.

“A while back when it rained every day, and I had water out there, they said, ‘Oh, you have bad drainage. You’ve got to do something about this water. You’ve got to get rid of this water.’ I said, ‘This is Stony Ridge. This is all rock. You can’t dig a hole a couple to three inches and you’re into solid rock.’ I said, ‘The whole village is like this. It’s not just me.’ I said that water will go away but it takes a couple days. They wrote up that I had water troubles in my cage. The fields are full and the yards full and everything has got water. It isn’t like that water is going to stay there forever. It’s going to go.

“There are no weeds or vines growing over the fences — all that is taken out. All the cages have been painted. Everything is clean and neat out there — it all looks good. They are fed real well. They all have shelter and everything you can possibly give to them. I am taking care of them and a ‘million’ kids come in here and practically every day I have kids running all over the place.”

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