When Annie Lacroix left Montreal and moved to this lakeside town on southern Vancouver Island, she expected to encounter a wild animal or two: a raccoon, perhaps, or maybe a black bear.
Then a monkey showed up in her basement.
The simian was a fugitive from a wildlife sanctuary down the road.
Over the years, Ms. Lacroix's neighbours on Cowichan Lake Road each have had their own bizarre animal sightings: a herd of miniature ponies stampeding through the backyard; peacocks roosting on hydro poles, and large, fanged primates chasing kids, stealing cat food and defecating on the porch.
But the final straw came earlier this month with the escape of a 200-pound Siberian tiger named Susie.
"It's an absolute gong show," said Wally Baas, who lives about a kilometre from Primate Estate.
The large residential property is home to dozens of exotic animals and serves as a wildlife sanctuary, its owner says. But the animals, neighbours say, are prone to breaking free.
Susie's escape - thanks to an intruder opening her cage, according to owner Jamie Bell - has ignited a neighbourhood battle in Cowichan Lake, a town of about 3,000 where the only natural wildlife concerns are scavenging raccoons, black bears and the odd cougar sighting.
The tiger escape is the latest incident to renew the debate over the estimated thousands of exotic animals being kept in homes or at roadside zoos in Canada - and whether new laws are needed to protect exotic animals from humans, and humans from the animals.
It all started just after midnight on May 20, when the Cowichan Lake RCMP detachment received a strange telephone call.
"Someone swore to God she was following a tiger down Cowichan Lake Road," said Constable Marcus Skinner. "Our dispatcher was pretty surprised."
Soon, Ms. Bell was roused from her bed, on a grassy acreage in the shadow of a mountain where 87 rare and exotic animals are kept in homemade wire cages. The menagerie includes 46 monkeys, six large cats, a number or peacocks, a herd of miniature ponies, more than a dozen dogs and one Siberian tiger.
Susie was located about a mile down the road, sitting in a driveway next to a car. Using chicken meat for bait, Ms. Bell lured the fugitive cat into a shed, then closed the door behind them both. She stayed inside for a few moments before sneaking out.
"She was so good," Ms. Bell said during a tour of her property. "I was very proud of her."
Neighbours were horrified. Many had no idea that a tiger was in their midst and now fear for their children and pets.
"It's scary," says Cori Bath, 32, who worries for the safety of her three children aged 2, 4 and 8 when they play outside.
"I've got rabbits out there," says Jodi Mitchell, who raises valuable pedigree bunnies near Primate Estate. "They'd be a smorgasbord for a tiger."
It also didn't help that, just a week prior to Susie's escape, Tanya Dumstrey-Soos of 100 Mile House, B.C., was killed by a captive tiger after it reached out of its cage and tore open her leg. That was one of a recent string of bizarre incidents involving exotic animals.
On May 14, Ontario Provincial Police issued an alert after a 25-pound Japanese macaque escaped from a private zoo and had been missing over 24 hours. A week later, a kangaroo escaped an exotic pet farm near Orangeville, Ont., hopped on to a nearby highway and was killed by a vehicle.
Ms. Bell, 39, says somebody cut the locks on Susie's cage, which is made of dog fencing and measures about eight metres square, in order to make Primate Estate look bad and to capitalize on heightened media awareness after the tiger-mauling death in British Columbia.
