A judge has sentenced Brian Tenney, owner of the now-defunct West Coast Game Park Safari in Bandon, to 7 1/2 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to more than 40 counts of animal abuse and other charges.
Oregon State Police served search warrants at West Coast Game Park Safari in Coos County, Ore., on May 14, 2025.
Courtesy of Oregon State Police
State and federal authorities raided Tenney’s West Coast Game Park Safari in May 2025. Before the raid, U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors logged regular violations of the Animal Welfare Act at the property.
Authorities found malnourished exotic animals, dozens of guns, more than $1 million in cash and what an officer described as a “dealer amount” of drugs.
A grand jury indicted Tenney on 371 charges, mostly involving animal neglect and abuse. Under a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to 43 animal neglect counts and one count each of unlawful possession of a machine gun, racketeering, methamphetamine delivery and recklessly endangering another person.
Besides time in prison, Tenney must pay more than $340,000 in restitution. He is also banned for 15 years from owning or living with any domestic animals or any animals of the same species he is charged with mistreating.
PETA, which had repeatedly urged authorities to intervene at the park, welcomed the sentence.
“His punishment is still nothing compared to the suffering he inflicted on the animals he starved, neglected and exploited,” said Debbie Metzler, managing director of captive wildlife for the PETA Foundation.
“This case has been unlike any other,” Tenney’s attorneys wrote to the court. They said that in decades of practicing law, including the prosecution and defense of homicide cases, they have “rarely encountered a criminal matter of this complexity.” The case involved thousands of pages of investigative material.
Tenney’s attorneys noted that Tenney did not set out to harm animals but has, nonetheless, accepted blame and saved the state a lengthy trial by pleading guilty.
Authorities sent the zoo’s animals to sanctuaries around the country. A chimpanzee named George, who spent years in isolation after losing a mate, has made a new home at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Washington.
George, a chimpanzee at West Coast Game Park Safari, sits in his caged area at the roadside zoo near Bandon, Oregon.
Courtesy of PETA / JPR
Justin Higginbottom is a reporter with JPR. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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