Judge closes hearing on

The judge has closed the record on the "Tiger Lady." State Superior Court Judge Eugene D. Serpentelli, sitting in Toms River, ruled Tuesday that unless Joan Byron-Marasek of Jackson 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 September.

Byron-Marasek was in court for the final hearing on Tuesday when her newest attorney, Darren Gelber, of Woodbridge, again asked for a postponement of the proceedings. Gelber, the seventh attorney to represent Byron-Marasek in the matter, came into the case in July.

According to Serpentelli’s law clerk, when Serpentelli denied Gelber’s request for a postponement, Byron-Marasek said she was ill and left the courtroom to seek medical attention. The judge then closed the matter pending his decision or testimony from Byron-Marasek.

To date, Byron-Marasek has not told the court where she would like to move her tigers. She is under orders from the state to remove them from the grounds of her Tigers Only Preservation Society.

Following 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 Wildlife, Serpentelli said there was now an evident need to expedite the proceedings which have dragged on since January 1999.

State representatives who visited Byron-Marasek’s property last month reported 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 and dig their way under the compound’s fencing.

Byron-Marasek has been in and out of court on the same matter since January 1999: fighting the court-ordered removal of approximately 24 Bengal tigers from her Jackson preserve. The order of re-moval followed the January 1999 killing by police of a tiger that was found wandering in the vicinity of Byron-Marasek’s TOPS site.

Following the 1999 incident and a subsequent state investigation, Byron-Mara-sek was denied a permit renewal for the TOPS compound and ordered by the state to remove the tigers from the premises.

The courts have already decided that the tigers must be removed from Jackson.

Byron-Marasek’s remaining option was to come up with a plan of her own choosing: a different transportation plan and destination for the animals than the one proposed by the state.

The state has proposed moving the tigers to a wildlife sanctuary in Texas. The director of that sanctuary has testified that the facility is capable of transporting the tigers to Texas and providing them with a safe and suitable home.