{"id":77618,"date":"2025-12-02T02:23:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/77618\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T02:23:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:23:19","slug":"lions-warthogs-bear-seized-from-southern-california-animal-sanctuary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/77618\/","title":{"rendered":"Lions, warthogs, bear seized from Southern California animal sanctuary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A Ventura County animal sanctuary will pay more than $50,000 after it was found to possess 15 restricted species, including lions, leopards and a bear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Born to Be Free animal sanctuary in Frazier Park, \u201cwas in possession of 15 restricted species, including African lions, leopards, a leopard\u2013tiger hybrid, a lion\u2013tiger hybrid, warthogs, a serval, a fishing cat, a European brown bear, and a wolf\u2013dog hybrid\u201d when officials inspected in March, according to the Ventura County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cBorn to Be Free did not possess a valid permit for any of these animals,\u201d the VCDA added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As a result, the animals were seized and taken to \u201cmultiple fully licensed and accredited sanctuaries across the country, including several facilities accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Born to Be Wild animals seized\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/33b2b8a64eecd013d4ab7bdf6d39d1e9.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photos shared by the Ventura Count District Attorney\u2019s Office show restricted animals seized from the Born to Be Wild sanctuary in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Born to Be Wild animals seized\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/b6b8e4aeaf3ce4270cfcb790257f30d4.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photos shared by the Ventura Count District Attorney\u2019s Office show restricted animals seized from the Born to Be Wild sanctuary in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Born to Be Wild animals seized\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"379\" height=\"516\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/afb21c232ac404000df0b3171ccea402.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photos shared by the Ventura Count District Attorney\u2019s Office show restricted animals seized from the Born to Be Wild sanctuary in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In addition, Born to Be Wild will be required to pay a $10,000 penalty, $40,000 in investigation and relocation costs, and a $435 administrative fee. They are also prohibited from possessing restricted species without proper permits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis judgment reinforces the importance of California\u2019s restricted species requirements and the responsibility that comes with caring for exotic animals,\u201d said District Attorney Erik Nasarenko. \u201cOur office is grateful for the partnership with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and for the thorough work that led to this resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ktla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Ventura County animal sanctuary will pay more than $50,000 after it was found to possess 15 restricted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44654,7,9,8,1226],"class_list":["post-77618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-animal-sanctuary","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-ventura-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77618","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=77618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}