Joe Monahan here. Apparently Bruce has had more than just a passing interest in high dollar exotic animals.
I found some more info about Bruce that I thought might be of interest. Here's an excerpt from an article in the St Petersburg Times (Florida):
This article is about white tigers -
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 27, 2001
Janie's story is an example of what can happen to a white tiger cub.
When she arrived in 1997 at a wildlife sanctuary run by Vernon Yates of Seminole, she was 4 years old and should have weighed about 400 pounds.
She weighed 100 pounds.
"Janie could hardly hold her head up," Yates said. "You know what a greyhound looks like? You could see her ribs. We didn't even have to hold her down to put an IV in her."
Janie's owner, Bruce Eisenmann, sent her to Yates on orders from an inspector with the state Wildlife Commission. She was one of three tigers in Eisenmann's possession in Alva, near Fort Myers. The inspector found the cats after a neighbor complained. All were emaciated, with hairless patches of skin and open sores, according to wildlife commission records.
Through his company, Tiger Rescue Foundation, Eisenmann got the tigers to display at schools, churches, nursing homes and civic associations. In June 1997, he pleaded no contest to a charge of animal cruelty and was put on probation.
Yates said Eisenmann told him the tigers had been ill.
"We could never find anything wrong except not enough food," Yates said.
Eisenmann has moved from Florida, according to his mother in South Carolina. Contacted there, Louise Eisenmann said her son was too ill to discuss the matter. She did not elaborate.
Eisenmann's Tiger Rescue Foundation no longer exists. Because nobody ever paid Janie's boarding bill, Yates says, the tiger still lives with him.
more at:
http://www.sptimes.com/News/052701/F...ral_fate.shtml