Star Tribune
Carver County Fair tiger show brings concerns about safety, animal welfare from Humane Society
The white Bengal tiger raised its large pink paws and stretched out against the wire enclosure as its trainer dangled a piece of raw meat on a stick. Hundreds of Carver County Fair spectators watched in awe, some just a dozen feet away from the animal.
Promoters of the twice-a-day Tiger Encounter show at the fair in Waconia promise it teaches crowds about big cats and the value of conservation. But an animal rights group is saying the circus-like attraction is far from humane — and dangerous to the public.
“These aren’t house cats — they are large wildlife,” said Zack Eichten, Minnesota’s state director for the Humane Society of the United States. “This is just not a natural environment for them to be in.”
The organization sent a letter to Carver County Fair organizers a week before the event started, asking them not to bring Tiger Encounter back next year, he said.
Jim Klein, president of the Carver County Fair Board, said fair organizers try to bring in a variety of acts “that can make [visitors] feel good.”
“They love to see animals,” Klein said. “The children just love it.”
He said so far the tiger show has received a few complaints and “thousands of compliments.” Shows have been well-attended since the fair started Wednesday, with the bleachers full.
“I think everything’s been going well — animals are well-treated, clean, very relaxed,” Klein said.
The Tiger Encounter show features trainer and owner Felicia Frisco, 30, leading three tigers around an enclosure for about 25 minutes using a stick with meat on it. Thursday, in front of the crowd, she urged the animals to lie down on metal platforms and stand on their hind legs to show the crowd their height. One drank from a baby bottle. After the show, audience members could pay $5 to feed the animals using a stick.
As Frisco led the big cats — one yellowish-orange and two white — an audio recording shared facts about tigers and their plight in the wild. Frisco said the show is educational and promotes conservation.
“They’re facing mass extinction,” said Frisco, who said she and the animals split their time between Florida and Illinois. “People that make connections with an animal, then they want to do something about it.”
Frisco, who also works as a wedding planner, said the animals only perform four non-consecutive weeks out of the year and she doesn’t work on training at all when they’re not on the road.
New sights, sounds and smells “are the best things you can give an animal,” Frisco said, adding that they’re “not bored” on tour.
Exotic animals aren’t uncommon at county fairs around the state, said Steve Hallan, president of the Minnesota Federation of County Fairs. “We’ve had them at our fair [in Pine County]. It’s been a few years.”
Fair organizers in Dakota County nixed a tiger display planned in 2019 after the Humane Society and a local big cat sanctuary raised objections.
Hundreds of spectators, including many small children, showed up to watch the tigers in Waconia on Thursday. Eichten, from the Humane Society, also attended.
Demand for such shows has declined over the last five years since the Ringling Brothers Circus stopped using exotic animals in its circus performances in 2017, Eichten said, and smaller outlets followed suit. The public is also increasingly concerned about the safety and ethics of big cat shows, he said.
The Humane Society publicly objects to exotic animal shows around the country, he said, and continues to work on both state and federal legislation banning the performances.
Eichten said big cats are often stressed by large groups of people and loud noises, and transporting them long distances requires they be kept in “very cramped conditions.” The exhibit area is small, too, he said.
The animals wouldn’t perform unnatural behaviors for an audience unless they felt compelled, he said. He added that the tigers could escape and hurt audience members or their trainer.
“What it really is doing is promoting behavior that shouldn’t be replicated,” Eichten said. “Ultimately, it’s really at odds with conservation.”
Klein, the fair board president, said he had “no comment” on the question of whether it was ethical for wild animals to perform in a show.
Dustin Thompson of Chaska brought his two kids to the Thursday afternoon show.
“It’s a unique opportunity to see tigers close up,” he said, adding that if the animals were performing every day, he would have concerns for their welfare. He said there are also ethical questions about zoos keeping wild animals.
As she waited for the show to start, Mary Baney of Norwood-Young America said she was concerned about the trainer’s message, though she hadn’t heard about the Humane Society’s objections.
“I’m not sure I feel it’s humane, either, because they’re still captive and they’re still being made to perform,” Baney said.
Eichten said he hopes people who are worried about the animals’ welfare will contact fair organizers and make a point not to attend the tiger show themselves.
“The fair is really supposed to be promoting local agriculture, and exotic sideshows just don’t fit into that,” Eichten said.
Betty Danger’s, the quirky northeast Minneapolis bar known for its Ferris wheel and miniature golf, has been sold for $3.5 million.
The property, located at 2501 Marshall St. NE and 2519 Marshall St. NE, was purchased on Nov. 15, according to the certificate of real estate value filed with the state. The primary buyer of the site is entrepreneur Joe Radaich, according to Taylor VerMeer, a spokeswoman for an undisclosed project planned for the site.
“While I can confirm that Joe Radaich is the primary buyer listed on this project, we are not able to share anything more at this time,” VerMeer said in an email.
Radaich has operated bars in the past, including Sporty’s Pub and Grill, which later became Como Tap. Radaich no longer operates Como Tap, an employee said on Tuesday. Radaich did not return requests for comment. Attempts to reach Leslie Bock, the Betty Danger’s previous owner, were unsuccessful.
The property’s mortgage payments are set at $18,886 per month with a 6.15% interest rate, the state filings show.
A Minneapolis nonprofit that served food to low-income kids has agreed to dissolve itself after a state investigation found it violated laws regarding its operations and financial transactions.
The move was announced Tuesday by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office began investigating Gar Gaar Family Services, also known as the Youth Leadership Academy, after it was denied from participating in a federally funded program to provide food to students after school.
The investigation then found additional issues, including:
An attorney who has represented Gar Gaar, Barbara Berens, could not be reached Tuesday afternoon. Neither Ali or Morioka have been charged in criminal court.
The settlement by the state and Gar Gaar requires it to begin the dissolution process within 60 days of a court’s approval. The nonprofit then must transfer its assets to other charitable organizations with a similar mission.
Gar Gaar, which means “help” in Somali, launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to help students in need, especially those in the Somali community. The group served meals outside of the school year as part of the Summer Food Service Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture but managed by the Minnesota Department of Education.
Gar Gaar received $21 million in reimbursements for serving 7 million meals — the top provider of summer meals in Minnesota in 2021.
What would have been a wild story was quickly put to rest Tuesday when Bloomington police issued a statement clarifying that no, it was not in possession of a recorded O.J. Simpson murder confession.
TMZ reported Tuesday afternoon that Bloomington police may have unwittingly come into possession of such a recording after arresting a former bodyguard of Simpson’s more than two years ago.
But about two hours after that report published, the suburban police department sent out a release that said the belongings seized during the arrest of Iroc Avelli had been inspected and officers “did not locate any information of evidentiary value for the Los Angeles Police Department.”
Here’s what police said happened:
Bloomington police arrested Avelli under suspicion of assault on March 3, 2022. Several items were taken by police in the process, including a backpack which contained multiple thumb drives, according to a statement.
They said Avelli and his attorney said one of the thumb drives in the backpack contained a recording of Simpson confessing to the infamous 1994 murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman, according to Bloomington police.
A search warrant was granted to inspect the thumb drives. A copy was obtained by TMZ, dated June 26, and the document only said the results from the search were “pending.”
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