Daniel Vitilio?s gaze shifted from the three robed judges to the formal, oak-paneled courtroom walls. With his left hand, he clutched his wife?s. His right foot tapped nervously.
The fate of his best friend ? a 90-pound wild Siberian lynx that government officials have deemed a public threat ? was at stake Tuesday as the Maryland Court of Special Appeals heard his plea to keep Puddy against the wishes of Baltimore County.
Told three times to “immediately” remove the lynx, a relative to the bobcat, Vitilio sees the appeal as a last-ditch opportunity to save Puddy?s life.
“I think it went OK,” Vitilio said after the brief hearing, the latest in a series of administrative and court appeals since June.
The 3-year-old cat lives in a cage on Vitilio?s Kingsville ranch ? along with about 200 other animals including a buffalo, zebra, peacocks and exotic birds ? which he occasionally opens to school groups.
Tuesday, Vitilio?s attorney, Anne Benaroya, said a county employee told Vitilio the government would issue a wildlife permit if he obtained a federal one first.
Even so, she argued the ranch constitutes a zoo, entitling him to an exemption from county wildlife permits.
“It could be a one-animal zoo,” Benaroya said. “It?s an exhibition of wild, exotic animals to the public for humanitarian education.”
But county officials said the lynx ? which experts said could kill prey up to three times its size ? poses a public threat because there is no proven rabies vaccine. In a June e-mail to several county communications specialists, county Health Officer Dr. Pierre Vigilance outlined a plan to move the lynx to a cat sanctuary with the help of police and the Maryland Zoo.
County Attorney Nancy West said Vitilio never suggested his property is a legal zoo in previous hearings.
She also said no county employee guaranteed Vitilio a permit before he purchased the lynx.
“They?re making an eleventh-hour argument,” West said. “The county?s main concern is public health and safety.”
