Tim Stark, owner of Wildlife in Need, ordered to pay PETA more than $730,000 in legal fees

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The owner of a closed roadside zoo in southern Indiana has been ordered by a federal judge to pay more than $730,000 in legal fees to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

After years of battling PETA in court, Tim Stark of Wildlife in Need must pay the animal rights group $733,997.70 to cover attorneys' fees and other legal expenses, according to a judgement from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. PETA sued Stark in 2017 for violating the Endangered Species Act when it learned the zoo owner paid a vet to declaw big cats for controversial "Tiger Baby Playtime" sessions with visitors.

A federal judge ruled in favor of PETA in August. A few months prior, a judicial officer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered Stark to cease and desist operations at the zoo after it was determined that he had violated the Animal Welfare Act multiple times between January 2012 and January 2016.

"For years, Tim Stark cruelly tore big-cat cubs away from their mothers, removed their claws, and used them as photo props to make a buck, but now the long arm of the law has caught up with him," said Asher Smith, the director of litigation for the PETA Foundation, in a statement. "PETA looks forward to collecting its due and warns other sleazy roadside zoos that they could be next."

Stark, who appeared in the Netflix documentary "Tiger King," has been banned from owning exotic or native animals, including all mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. He's also been banned from hosting interactive animal shows.

In October, Stark was arrested in upstate New York on felony charges of battery and intimidation after he allegedly grabbed and threatened an Indiana deputy attorney general during an inspection in March. An earlier warrant alleges that Stark removed animals from the southern Indiana zoo before the state could take custody of them.

Advocates told WDRB News in November that the big cats and other animals that once called Wildlife in Need home were thriving in their new homes across the country.