Growler Pines Tiger Preserve closed; former West Coast Game Park Safari owner Brian Tenney indicted on 371 counts
HUGO, Oklahoma––Tiger trainer Ryan Easley, 37, was on September 20, 2025 killed by a tiger at his Growler Pines Tiger Preserve.
Despite pretenses to being a sanctuary for former circus animals, “Growler Pines Tiger Preserve, also known as ShowMeTigers, is an unaccredited roadside zoo whose business is currently and historically tied to the circus,” according to Florida online exotic animal traffic investigator Jeff Kremer.
Growler Pines Tiger Preserve, closed to visitors at least temporarily after Ryan Easley’s death, does not appear to have federally recognized nonprofit status. ShowMe Tigers is the business name that Ryan Easley used as an independent tiger exhibitor who formerly contracted with the Kelly Miller Circus, founded in Hugo in 1937, defunct since 2019.
“Passionate advocate” who “built his career on exploiting tigers”
Ryan Easley appears to have retired his tigers from performing and begun exhibiting them at his own facility around then.
According to the Growler Pines Tiger Preserve page on Facebook, “Ryan was a passionate advocate for wildlife conservation. His love for animals, especially big cats, was evident in every aspect of his life.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA] posted a very different perspective.
“Ryan Easley, who built his career on exploiting tigers, acquired tigers from notorious figures [featured in the 2021 Netflix series] Tiger King, Joe Exotic and Doc Antle, who were known for their own widespread mistreatment of big cats.”
(See “Joe Exotic” gets 22 years in a cage for murder plot and Kevin Antle, self-styled “Bhagavan” and “Doc,” pleads to federal charges.)
PETA dossier on Ryan Easley began in 2011
“The animals Ryan Easley caged were denied natural lives, hauled around in circuses, and left to languish in roadside zoos — places that are clearly dangerous for both humans and other animals,” PETA continued, concluding “The surviving tigers must be given a true retirement at an accredited sanctuary where they can finally live in peace!”
The PETA dossier on Ryan Easley appears to have begun on November 22, 2011, when “Kelly Miller Circus contracted tiger exhibitor Ryan Easley was cited” by the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service for allegedly violating the federal Animal Welfare Act by “failing to maintain high enough containing walls around an animal exercise area. He was also cited for failing to meet minimum space requirements for animals in transport.”
Circus World
Ryan Easley appears to have stayed out of trouble for almost five years after that, but in July 2016 the Alliance for Animals & the Environment, of Madison, Wisconsin, filed a complaint of multiple alleged Animal Welfare Act violations by multiple trainers and other personnel at Circus World, a circus-themed amusement park in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
“Circus World contracts with animal trainers and performers for the summer, so it is not licensed by the USDA,” explained Jake Prinsen for the Baraboo News Republic.
“But its contracted performers are licensed and subject to unannounced USDA inspections,” Prinsen added.
According to Prinsen, an Alliance for Animals & the Environment video showed Ryan Easley’s “tigers biting at the wire fence around their performance ring, which the group says could damage the animals’ teeth and weaken the fence, creating a public safety issue.
“The organization also included [in their USDA complaint] a video,” Prinsen wrote, “that it claims shows tiger trainer Ryan Easley whipping and prodding his tigers during a performance, which could cause ‘behavioral stress,’ ‘physical harm,’ and ‘unnecessary discomfort.’”
Tigers “cringing & bolting”
A Humane Society of the United States [now called Humane World for Animals] undercover investigation, findings from which were released to media in May 2017, “revealed the mistreatment of eight tigers featured in Ryan Easley’s ShowMe Tigers act,” blogged then-Humane Society of the U.S. president Wayne Pacelle, now heading Animal Wellness Action and the Center for A Humane Economy.
“Even a layperson can recognize the signs of stress, including cringing and bolting from Easley, who uses the stage name Ryan Holder,” Pacelle wrote, “when he raises his whip and stick. The tigers squint and flatten their ears back, because they’ve felt the lash before. Their shoulders are hunched, defeated.”
“Traumatized tiger whipped 31 times in two minutes”
The Humane Society of the U.S. “filed a complaint with the USDA for potential violations of the Animal Welfare Act,” Pacelle continued, “and is urging the agency to investigate ShowMe Tigers and to take swift enforcement action for violations of federal law.
“At the ShowMe Tigers act,” Pacelle alleged, “the trainer holds back on obvious abuses during the live performance. It’s out of the circus ring that the more intense punishment occurs. Our investigator videotaped a practice session that showed, among other things, a traumatized tiger being whipped 31 times in less than two minutes because she refused to get off a pedestal. Whip marks would suddenly appear on a tiger’s fur during both the practice session and live performances, confirming that the whip was making physical contact and not just being used as a threat.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Ryan Easley & Joe Exotic
“Easley’s passing was also acknowledged by former zookeeper Joseph Maldonado, more popularly known as Joe Exotic, profiled in the smash hit Netflix documentary series Tiger King,” reported Jessie Christopher Smith for The Oklahoman.
“Maldonado is serving a 21-year sentence at Fort Worth’s Federal Medical Center after he was convicted in a highly-publicized murder-for-hire case,” Smith mentioned, specifically an attempt to have former Big Cat Rescue sanctuary operator Carol Baskin assassinated after she repeatedly criticized Joe Exotic’s operations and successfully sued him.
“Ryan built a huge compound to keep his tigers in on the backside of my zoo,” claimed Joe Exotic.
Affirmed Jeff Kremer, “When Joe Exotic was operating his Oklahoma roadside zoo, G.W. Exotic Animal Park,” based in Wynnewood, Oklahoma from approximately 1999 to 2020, “Easley boarded his tigers in cramped cages at the roadside zoo during the winter.”
The G.W. Exotic Animal Park was dissolved by court order after Joe Exotic was convicted of attempted murder for hire. Baskin arranged for sanctuary care of all of the animals and, having won the premises in a lawsuit, sold the land with the stipulation that the facilities could never again be used to house animals.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Transactions with Kevin Antle & Adam Burck
PETA documented several transactions through which Ryan Easley acquired tigers from other problematic owners.
“On July 17, 2019, Kevin Antle,” convicted in 2023 of money laundering, wildlife trafficking, and conspiring to traffic wildlife, “shipped two 8-month-old tigers to Ryan Easley,” PETA said.
Then, “In December 2021,” the PETA rap sheet on Ryan Easley continues, “a woman filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma’s Choctaw County District Court, alleging that she had been mauled by a tiger on January 6, 2020 at Adam Burck’s home. The lawsuit sought more than $75,000 in damages.”
Adam Burck, a former trainer for the Jordan World Circus, “failed repeatedly to meet minimal federal standards for animal care while working for Jordan,” according to PETA. “He has been cited for housing tigers in cramped ‘travel quarters’ used as permanent housing for over a year, and holding tigers in a filthy, maggot-infested barn in 2021.
“Also in 2021, Burck was cited for failing to provide veterinary care for an extremely thin tiger named Shere Kahn. Similar citations were given to Burke in 2020.”
After the lawsuit, PETA alleged, “Burck’s tigers were apparently been renamed and transferred to Ryan Easley.”
Brian Tenney indicted
The tiger mauling death of Ryan Easley came almost a month after Brian Scott Tenney, 53, former owner of the West Coast Game Park Safari in Bandon, Oregon, was on August 25, 2024 indicted by a grand jury in Coos County, Oregon on 371 charges.
The alleged offenses include 20 counts of unlawful possession of wildlife, 351 counts of animal neglect in the second degree, unlawful possession of methamphetamine and cocaine, unlawful possession of a machine gun, racketeering, and “violations of cervid [deer] disease testing and fencing requirements,” reported KATU television news from Portland, Oregon.
Animals Brian Tenney allegedly neglected include raccoons, bobcats, capybaras, African lions, a tiger, a fishing cat, a kinkajou, a camel, a javelina, and a porcupine.
Brian Tenney was on May 27, 2025 arrested in alleged possession of 80 grams of methamphetamine, 44 firearms, about eight grams of cocaine, and $1.6 million in cash, cashier’s checks, bonds, and certificates, the Coos County Sheriff’s Office announced in a media release.
Evacuated after 57 years
The drugs and weapons were seized twelve days after veterinarians and other personnel from the Oregon Humane Society, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Oregon Department of Agriculture on May 15, 2025 began the four-day process of taking into custody the 310 animals found alive at the West Coast Game Park Safari.
The West Coast Game Park Safari had been accumulating federal Animal Welfare Act violations since September 2015.
Founded in 1968 as Deer Park, the West Coast Game Park Safari was sold to Robert Stanley Tenney, father of Brian Tenney, and given the present name in 1976.
Robert Stanley Tenney, then a 31-year-old former overseas oil field worker, with his wife May operated the West Coast Game Park Safari relatively uneventfully until Mary, 68, died in 2007.
(Daniel Leventhal photo)
Retiring at age 72, Robert Tenney turned the management of the West Coast Game Park Safari over to Brian Tenney in 2009.
(See Risk-taking roadside zoo operator busted for drugs, firearms; zoo closed.)
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So… flags at half mast tomorrow?
Well YEAH, @Lowell James Hicks! ;)
My mama told me if I can’t say something nice, to say nothing at all. So I’ll say nothing about Easley. I will hope, and pray, that the survivors of Easley’s ‘love for big cats’ find safe haven with good care and protection from others like him.
Sharing with gratitude and a lot besides.
I cannot say anything nice, either, so I will refrain from commenting – other than I hope the animals will finally be relocated to a facility that can allow them to live out the remainder of their lives in safety, peace, and comfort.
Ryan Easley did NOT abuse his animals! He loved all animals. He was passionate about the care of his animals, and animals in the wild. He was not in the business for money. Proceeds from his demonstrations at Growler Pines were donated to the International Elephant Foundation and other non-profit organizations. For the protection of animal habitats and to help hire people to prevent poaching.
If Ryan Easley was not in the tiger exhibition business for money, why did he work for circuses practically his entire life, instead of for accredited nonprofit zoos or animal sanctuaries? Why was Growler Pines not incorporated nonprofit, in which case any charitable activity would have been a verifiable matter of public record? That “Proceeds from his demonstrations at Growler Pines were donated to the International Elephant Foundation and other non-profit organizations” is an unverifiable claim without public accountability documenting the volume and destinations of the proceeds.
This entire argument is incredibly disrespectful to the tragic death of Ryan Easley and reads more like an animal-rights smear then a serious critique, You’re leaning on ad hominem and assumption heavily, Claiming “circus work” = only motivated by money” is not evidence, It’s obvious framing, Plenty of private facilities operate for-profit while contributing to conservation, For example, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a for profit AZA accredited zoological park that contributed over $125 million to support global conservation efforts since 1995, Many for profit AZA zoos donate to conservation, millions maybe even billions, The fact that Growler Pines Tiger Preserve is non-profit doesn’t prove anything about Easley’s motives, Your heavy reliance on PETA undermines your credibility, They’re one of the most polarizing organizations in this space, with a verifiable record of euthanizing more animals then they save, Hardly a neutral authority to speak on this matter, I also notice most of your argument is how Ryan was close with Doc Antle, Framing Easley’s association with controversial figures as evidence of wrongdoing is speculative at best and unfair at worst, Also Easley’s tiger transfer with Antle was six years ago, That is not relevant to his 2025 operations or his character before his passing, Laws were also totally different back then, Your article makes it seem like it’s still easy to obtain a tiger after the Big Cat Public Safety Act passed and everyone just has a tiger that can bite their legs or hurt them, If you actually want your argument to land, Present patterns of behavior, attack the argument not the person, don’t be so cruel and use Ryan’s death as justification of why all private zoos should be shut down and their animals should be put in “reputable sanctuaries” Otherwise this reads like another boring PETA press release disguised as news, If the goal was to stoke outrage, not educate the public, then mission accomplished, This reads more like ragebait than responsible journalism
Circus work has been motivated primarily by money since circuses began, although disposing of surplus Christians by throwing them to the lions was also an original function of the Roman Circus Maximus.
That Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom has earned substantial tax write-offs and reaped considerable public relations value by contributing $125 million to conservation projects over 30 years sounds much less impressive in view that it brings in estimated revenue of between $4.1 million and $7.2 million per day based on a daily visitor count of approximately 38,000 and average ticket prices ranging from $109 to $189, plus significant revenue from merchandise and food sales.
That much said, ANIMALS 24-7 has often acknowledged the many positive contributions of Walt Disney Inc. to animal welfare & conservation, including quietly practicing neuter/return feral cat control at the Walt Disney theme parks since 1955.
None of that really has anything to do with a roadside zoo & traveling animal show in rural Oklahoma, which first came to the notice of both PETA and Humane World for Animals (formerly the Humane Society of the U.S.) in 2011 because of frequent complaints received from attendees.
Loved them with a whip? I mean, if that’s your personal kink, hey no judgement, but that’s abuse to tigers who aren’t into pain and fear.