The call of the wild B&B guests sleep yards away from big cats

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. -- The latest draw for visitors in eastern Missouri has a stripe of a different color: The owners of an increasingly popular winery have acquired a tiger habitat and opened a bed-and-breakfast and upscale restaurant on the property.

Since Chardonel grapes were first planted at Crown Valley Winery in 1998, it has become a regional attraction with more than 32,000 wine tastings recorded last year, said operations manager Bryan Siddle.

"A lot of wineries have bed-and-breakfasts. The tigers are the unusual part of the equation," said Christopher Ruess, Crown Valley's marketing director.

That's for sure. It has a lot of people wondering how a litter of tigers, one of them a white tiger, wound up in mid-Missouri.

Judy McGee and Keith Kinkade have cared for the tigers after they helped rescue them from a neglectful owner in Chicago in 2000. The animals would not survive in the wild, Crown Valley employees explained.

DePaul University in Chicago bought the 55-acre tiger habitat in 2002 with plans to develop it as an environmental field campus in Ste. Genevieve, about 375 miles southwest of the Windy City. The school decided instead to sell the property last year.

McGee and Kinkade stayed on to care for the cats and considered opening their own bed-and-breakfast, but the property ultimately was bought by Joe Scott Sr. and his wife Loretta, whose more than 8,000-acre winery down the road also boasts herds of cattle and bison. The Lorettas also own a golf course, two lodgings and three antique malls in eastern Missouri.

The Scotts used their new property to create Crown Ridge, a bed-and-breakfast property with a restaurant and five big-cat stars, named Dee, Max, Paul, TJ and Vincent.

McGee and Kinkade live adjacent to the tigers' fenced-in habitat. Their home has an up-close, reinforced view of their charges, a "tiger place" rather than a fire place, Ruess explained.

Visitors to Crown Ridge can pay to see the tigers' fenced-in habitat -- from a basic tour to see the animals for $8 an adult and $4 a child to a $75-per-person "behind-the-scenes" option in which guests can feed the tigers, if it's their regular feeding time.

Efforts to educate visitors include a colorful, detailed brochure about the animals' endangered status.

However, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has raised concerns, saying these animals, and others, should not be viewed for commercial purposes. Also, PETA spokeswoman Lisa Wathne said places like Crown Ridge could lead others to seek out exotic animals of their own. Wathne said Crown Ridge has extended her an invitation to see the tigers, but she has not been in Missouri to be able to do so.

Siddle noted McKee and Kinkade have cared for the tigers for years, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said their not-for-profit had been issued the proper permit, which is granted based on inspections.

Visitors can now stay at the property, in an area dotted with farms and vistas of the surrounding hillsides. Both the Tiger View Lodge and the Tiger Den have three bedrooms each and share a small swimming pool and tennis court. Prices begin at $170 a room to $680 to rent out the entire lodge house, the more expensive of the two properties. Crown Ridge is about an hour's drive south of St. Louis.

If individual rooms are rented out, visitors share the common areas, including tiger-striped furniture and a game room with a pool table.

Visitors can opt to tour Crown Valley's 44,000 square-foot winery, about seven miles down the road from Crown Ridge, or visit four other wineries in the area. Tastings are available at Crown Ridge for $5 to sample seven wines.

Siddle insists the attractions -- the winery, the tigers and the bed-and-breakfast -- all tie together.

"It's just like golf. Sometimes people (visit the region) to play golf, but they don't drink wine. This way, we can maybe get animal lovers or someone who likes the outdoors. It's a way to get another market, another group, out here," he said.

Debbie Fisher, 49, of St. Louis visited the tigers recently with her mother, her daughter and her 3-year-old granddaughter. She said she was pleased with the animals' habitat. Curiosity about the cats had prompted her family's visit.

"I was surprised, because there's nothing like this around here at all," she said. "That's why we wanted to come see it."

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On the Net:

Crown Valley Winery and Crown Ridge: http://www.crownvalleywinery.com