LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An arrest warrant has been issued for the owner of a controversial southern Indiana zoo over allegations that he removed animals before the state could custody of them.
According to court documents, a warrant for the arrest of Tim Stark was issued on Wednesday. Stark is the owner of the Wildlife in Need zoo in Charlestown.
Last week, a court appointed the Indianapolis Zoological Society to remove animals from Wildlife in Need and care for them. According to court documents filed Monday, some of the animals on the inventory, including a sloth and monkeys, weren't there when investigators returned to the zoo Sunday.
"Several animals worth approximately $170,000 are missing," Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill during an interview Tuesday. "Some of those animals were found on a neighbor's property, located in a box truck, sealed up with no water, no ventilation, in deplorable conditions."
Stark refutes those accusations. Instead, he said he was asked to crate up some of the animals for the zoo and put them in a box truck on his neighbor's property.
"Now, they're wanting to say I was trying to hide them," Stark said. "If I was going to hide the damn thing, do I look like an idiot? I wouldn't have hid them right there in plain sight."
The warrant for Stark's arrest finds him in contempt of the court's order that the animals be removed.
"Stark vehemently demonstrates his opposition to the Court's Order by words and actions, and voiced his strong desire in open court to re-locate the animals in his own way," the warrant states. "WIN and Stark are in contempt of the Court's Order. Stark is immediately remanded to the custody of the Marion County Sheriff until further order of the Court."
The warrant is signed by Marion Superior Court Judge David J. Dreyer.
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