A 13-year-old tiger rescued from what critics called the \u201cworst roadside zoo in America\u201d has finally found a new home at the Oakland Zoo.<\/p>\n
The big cat, Sitara \u2014 whose name means \u201cstar\u201d in Hindi \u2014 is one of five tigers that authorities say were abandoned and neglected at a private Northern California facility before being rescued.<\/p>\n
Sitara will be staying at Oakland Zoo Courtesy of the Oakland Zoo<\/p>\n
Sitara is a 13-year-old tiger rescued from the \u201cworst roadside zoo in America\u201d Courtesy of the Oakland Zoo<\/p>\n
Sitara receiving care Courtesy of the Oakland Zoo<\/p>\n
\u201cOakland Zoo has successfully transferred these tigers after a private owner reached out to the Zoo for assistance in finding suitable placement, following their abandonment at his facility,\u201d the zoo said in a press release.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSitara, a female generic tiger, remains strong, though she is experiencing some lameness in her left hind leg,\u201d the announcement further read. <\/p>\n Sitara has injuries on her left hind leg but is remaining strong Courtesy of the Oakland Zoo<\/p>\n The entrance of the Oakland Zoo Gado via Getty Images<\/p>\n The five tigers were transferred to this zoo Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n All five tigers were brought to Oakland Zoo for medical evaluations and treatment before being placed in permanent homes.<\/p>\n A 14-year-old female white tiger suffering from health issues linked to inbreeding was treated at the zoo before being relocated to a sanctuary in Arkansas<\/a>. An 11-year-old tiger and another 13-year-old tiger were transferred to PAWS, while a fifth female tiger was humanely euthanized because of her condition.<\/p>\n The zoo said it will provide updates on Sitara\u2019s recovery through its social media channels<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Barry R. Kirshner Wildlife Sanctuary in Oroville, CA<\/p>\n \u201cThese tigers endured hell,\u201d a PETA Foundation Managing Director said Courtesy of the Oakland Zoo<\/p>\n Sitara\u2019s rescue marks the latest chapter in the downfall of the Barry R. Kirshner Wildlife Sanctuary<\/a> in Oroville, a nonprofit that once claimed to house some of the \u201crarest and most endangered series on Earth\u201d before shutting its doors in November 2025.<\/p>\n Before the sanctuary closed, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife launched an animal cruelty investigation after rescuers found a severely malnourished tiger cub named Cleo suffering from 10 broken bones.<\/p>\n The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) also sued the sanctuary<\/a>, alleging its owners \u201cpacked up their ESA-listed animals and carted them off the premises, stashing them at other locations to avoid confiscation by government regulators\u201d in July 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cThese tigers endured hell on Earth in Kirshner\u2019s clutches, on top of which, when authorities closed in, the roadside zoo shuffled the animals around to other seedy facilities like so many stolen goods,\u201d said PETA Foundation Managing Director of Captive Wildlife Debbie Metzler<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 13-year-old tiger rescued from what critics called the \u201cworst roadside zoo in America\u201d has finally found a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14048,1592,2113,7,9,8,4182,266,143,47647,3586,3343],"class_list":["post-394254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-abuse","tag-animal","tag-animals","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-metro","tag-northern-california","tag-oakland","tag-tigers","tag-us-news","tag-zoos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}