No Pigs, Please But Tigers, Monkeys, Tortoises And Antelopes Are Welcome

Pigs are prohibited within the Nampa and Caldwell city limits. Tigers are not.

City ordinances banning farm animals say nothing about exotic creatures, including tigers.

While Nampa does not have a city zoo, at least two private ones are in operation. Licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Monkey Bar and For the Birds hold the same license as Zoo Boise, and they are inspected just as often.

Jerry and Susan Korn of For the Birds soon will add two Siberian tigers. They already have 1,500 birds, nine African eland antelopes, a 58-year-old tortoise, what they say is the only Japanese crane in captivity and a variety of other small animals. The Korns estimate 10,000 people visited their zoo last year.

The tigers are being housed at a temporary site in Spokane. If no one had agreed to take them, Korn said, they would have been killed.

“I had to do something about it,” he said. The refuge is paid for by the Korns out of their own pockets.

Tina Remior of Kendall’s Monkey Bar in Nampa said her six monkeys are not dangerous, but she gives them respect. “They are wild animals.”

A glass case encloses the monkeys. Former owner Kendall Paynter bought the animals after he saw a similar attraction on a trip to Hawaii.

Technically, the bar is a private zoo with customers at least 21 years old.

Both cities follow Canyon County’s guidelines on animals within city limits.

“Exotics are allowed because the ordinance doesn’t speak to them,” said Jay Young, Nampa’s code enforcement officer. But farm animals are prohibited.

When the issue of a pot-bellied pig came before the City Council in March, it found there was no public support for putting exotics under the farm animal heading. The council decided not to change the ordinance, and the pet pig had to go.