Photos a Key Part of Animal Abuse Trial Set to Start

Graphic photos of decaying tiger carcasses and dead frozen tiger cubs will be at the center of the prosecution’s case today when a Glen Avon animal sanctuary operator is scheduled to go on trial on animal cruelty and child endangerment charges.

John Weinhart and his partner, Marla Smith, were charged with the crimes after Riverside County authorities raided his home, which doubled as a wild animal compound, and reported finding the 58 frozen cubs, dozens of larger tiger carcasses and several malnourished animals on the premises.

The child endangerment charge is for allegedly exposing their son, then 8, to unsanitary conditions, as well as two alligators they kept in a bathtub and grown tigers roaming the yard.

Weinhart also operated Tiger Rescue, an animal sanctuary in Colton, and San Bernardino County authorities continue to press their case against him for alleged mistreatment of animals there.

In the Glen Avon case last week, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Ronald Taylor ruled that prosecutors would be allowed to show the jury dozens of explicit photographs of the dead animals, as well as the videotape that county authorities shot during their raid April 2003.

Attorneys for Weinhart and Smith had said the images would unfairly inflame the jurors and sensationalize the case, which is why they wanted to keep them from the jury’s view.

“Short of providing our jurors barf bags, why subject them to this?” Regina Filippone, Smith’s attorney, had argued.

Among the scenes photographed are a tiger’s decomposed frame, a pair of dead tiger cubs with their heads resting on frost in a chest freezer, and a pair of tiger paws tied together by a rope.Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephanie Weissman said the carnage stunned authorities who were responding to a tip that one mistreated tiger and two alligators were at the compound. The alligators were found sloshing inside a bathtub in Weinhart’s home, authorities said.

Weinhart’s attorney, R. Addison Steele II, told the judge that when a tiger or cub died on the property, Weinhart would throw lime over the body in an effort to destroy any diseases or parasites, or he would freeze a cub’s body in anticipation of a post-mortem examination.

The lime was used, Steele said, as part of a business venture in bleaching and selling the tigers’ bones to collectors.

“I’ll bring a [tiger] skull into court to show that it’s a process,” Steele said.

Both defendants’ attorneys said the manner in which Weinhart and Smith disposed of and stored the dead animals in Glen Avon was not illegal and did not endanger their son.

“[The boy] is a farm kid who’s grown up in rural Glen Avon,” Steele said in court. “He’s grown up around animals, exotic animals. He knows animals die.... A skeleton is not dangerous to a child. If anything, it’s educational.”

In addition to the animal cruelty charges, Weinhart is also charged with failing to maintain a program of disease prevention and parasite control. Prosecutor Weissman also said chicken kept in the same freezer that held the tiger cubs was for the family’s consumption, which the defense denied.