Time for tigers to leave

What took him so long? That’s what people may be asking about state Superior Court Judge Eugene D. Serpentelli.

After conducting a seemingly endless string of hearings in the matter of Jackson resident Joan Byron-Marasek, Serpentelli, who sits in Toms River, apparently had enough on Tuesday.

When Byron-Marasek, the owner of the Tigers Only Pres-ervation Society, declined to present her plan to move the tigers out of Jackson and to a facility out of state, Serpentelli closed the record. Frankly, the judge has given Byron-Marasek more than a fair chance to tell him what her plan is to move the tigers. She is under orders from the state to move them.

The state has put forth a plan to move the tigers to a wildlife sanctuary in Texas. The director of that sanctuary has already testified that she can move the tigers to the facility and provide them with a safe and suitable home.

Byron-Marasek has tested the court’s patience — and the patience of the public and her neighbors — by constantly changing lawyers in an attempt to forestall the inevitable.

Her present attorney — who came to the case in July — re-quested a postponement when the case came back before Serpentelli on Tuesday.

The judge just said no.

Serpentelli closed the record and ruled that unless Byron-Marasek comes forward to offer her own plan to move the 24 tigers she owns, he will decide where they are going either by month’s end or in early Septem-ber.

It is important that the judge stick to his word because a July 8 inspection of Byron-Marasek’s 12-acre property at Route 537 and Alyson Road, Jackson, where the tigers live, by a team from the state Division of Fish and Wild-life, determined there was evidence of a rat reinfestation of the property as well as tigers that appeared underfed with no evidence of food for them on site. The team also reported finding indications that the tigers were beginning to try to dig their way under the compound’s fencing.

This is clearly a matter where the public’s health and safety is an issue.

Byron-Marasek is devoted to her tigers. She made that clear when she spoke with a Greater Media Newspapers reporter months ago. She knows they must be moved from Jackson. If she loves them as she says she does, she must present the court with a plan of her own choosing or let the state take them to a place where they can live in health and safety and Jackson residents can do the same.