The owner of a non-profit wildlife sanctuary in Charlestown, Ind. is facing more legal trouble.
A Marion County judge signed the order after Wildlife In Need owner Timothy Stark admitted he allows volunteers to go inside big cat enclosures while the animals are unrestrained or unsedated.
The court ordered anyone besides veterinarians not be allowed into big cat enclosures unless animals are locked in another enclosure seperate from the one being entered.
In February, Attorney General Curtis Hill filed a lawsuit seeking to remove Stark and co-owner Melisa Lane from their director and officer positions.
Stark is accused of abusing or neglecting dozens of exotic animals at his sanctuary near the Indiana-Kentucky state line. Court documents say as of 2018, Stark had nearly 300 animals, ranging from tigers and primates to birds, living on the property.
Stark was recently featured in the Netflix docu-series Tiger King that follows the stories of several big cat rescue facility owners around the country.
The state says many of these animals have been forced to live in cages too small for them. In 2018, documents say Stark kicked a teething tiger cub when it bit him and killed a leopard with a baseball bat because it was malnourished.
In an order signed on March 2, Marion County Judge David J. Dreyer ruled Stark and Lane cannot remove or transfer any animals during the litigation, and must notify the court of any animal deaths.
Previous attempts to reach Stark for comment on this story have been unsuccessful.
