Lockport Wolfman Pleads Guilty to Taking Tiger into Tavern

The Lockport wolfman pleaded guilty to taking a tiger into a tavern.

John Basile, the proprietor of Big Run Wolf Ranch on Farrell Road, copped a plea to misdemeanor disorderly conduct Friday. He was fined $500 and sentenced to a year of court supervision.

While Basile, 58, took care of his state case by pleading guilty, he still has a federal matter with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A USDA complaint accuses him of failing to provide adequate veterinary care to two wolves, failing to “handle animals so that there was minimal risk to the animals and the public,” taking his tiger into a bar, walking around downtown Lockport with the tiger on a leash, and failing to “provide potable water to two wolves, whose water receptacles contained slimy green water,” among other things.

The federal complaint factored into the decision by prosecutors to accept the plea deal, said Charles B. Pelkie, the spokesman for the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office.

“We agreed to this disposition knowing full well the U.S. Department of Agriculture is pursuing a case at the federal level,” Pelkie said. “This is their area of expertise. They’re better positioned to address this case from a complete perspective.”

Basile was originally charged with reckless conduct and possession of a dangerous animal for stopping by Uncle Richie’s bar on Ninth Street with his Siberian tiger cub, Shere Khan, in February 2014.

After Patch reported on the case against Basile, a Lockport woman contacted Patch and said Basile’s tiger bit her arm during a Dec. 14, 2013 Christmas party at Uncle Richie’s. The woman said she alerted police after reading the Patch story and gave officers a written statement. Nearly a year later, additional charges were brought against Basile in connection with the woman’s claims.

The Big Run Wolf Ranch is a “non-profit, federally licensed, educational facility which specializes in the education and conservation of North American wildlife,” according to the ranch’s website.

The site says that in addition to Shere Khan, 10 wolves, a black bear, a cougar, two skunks, a horse, three coyotes, two porcupines, a raccoon and a groundhog live at the ranch.

The leader of a group dedicated to animal welfare and wildlife conservation last year criticized Basile for allegedly taking his tiger to a bar.

“Being someone’s pet is immeasurably cruel to wild animals,” Adam Roberts, the chief executive officer for the group Born Free USA, said in a statement that cited the criminal charges filed against Basile.

“These so-called ‘pets’ endure miserable conditions in captivity—they are usually locked up in cages in a home or backyard, isolated, and deprived of the ability to express their natural behaviors,” the statement said. “Some private owners often extract their teeth and fingernails, among other barbaric practices, in an attempt to ‘tame’ them. Wild animals belong in the wild and can never be tamed. They are ticking time bombs and should not be confined as a pet.”