Javon Stacks likes to think of himself as an entrepreneur, exotic zoo owner, primatologist and wildlife educator but the authorities and Romulus law enforcement say that he is not looking after his animals properly. They’re looking for him and they have posted a photo of Stacks on social media over the weekend asking for the public’s assistance in locating him. He’s gone to ground.
His wife says that he is planning to turn himself in with his lawyer later this week.
Stacks has an Instagram account where he has published photos of himself with his animals, one of which is a lynx cat (probably a Canada or Eurasian lynx). It is a large lynx and the Eurasian is the largest of this species of wild cat. There is a video of him taking a kangaroo on stage at a pop concert. The kangaroo looked terribly stressed.
In August the police carried out a search warrant at a shopping mall where he was based with his hundreds of animals.
Stacks’ wife Jerica believes that her husband is being targeted unfairly and that the investigation is being fuelled by animal advocates and competitors. His brother believes that the authorities don’t like a successful black man and want to ruin him.
The police insist that all they want to do is make sure that he takes care of animals to an acceptable standard.
Comment: Stacks appears to be a decent person I have to say. It seems that he loves animals and indeed does some educational work but I am one of those animal advocates and I hate to see animals exploited like this for financial profit. Ultimately it is about Stacks making a living out of animals and in doing so the animals are living a wholly unnatural life which is stressed I would argue.
Stacks states that he is an educator and no doubt he does some education but he is also educating children and adults that it is alright to use animals in this way for money. It sends out the wrong message and it perpetuates the wrong relationship that humans have with wildlife. If I was in charge I’d ban all private zoos. They are just not right and there have been some terrible failures both in terms of the health and welfare of the owner and the animals.
