Oregon Roadside Zoo Owner Pleads Guilty After FBI Seized Drugs Cash and Neglected Animals

By Lucille McNamara On Apr 21, 2026

The owner of an Oregon roadside animal park, where the FBI and State Police seized $1.6 million in cash, cocaine, and methamphetamine, as well as dead, malnourished, and neglected animals, pleaded guilty yesterday to drug, animal neglect, and weapons charges.

Brian Tenney pleaded guilty to a total of 47 charges and will be sentenced on July 20, the same day his former girlfriend, Edith Beckner, is scheduled to change her plea to some of the 300 charges against her. She was responsible for feeding and caring for the animals.

Tidings Insight

Tenney’s plea was not only about animal neglect. It also covered drug, weapon, racketeering, and reckless endangerment charges, showing prosecutors treated the zoo as both a welfare and criminal enterprise case.

The charges relate to Tenney’s ownership of the roadside zoo, the West Coast Game Park Safari, previously owned and operated by his parents.

Tenney took control of the zoo in 2009, after which criminal activities allegedly occurred at the property. The business has been operating without a license since 2023.

Tidings Insight

Operating without a wildlife exhibitor permit did not itself create the drug case. But it meant the park was already outside Oregon’s normal oversight framework while neglect complaints kept mounting.

Last year, the FBI, Oregon State Police, and other law enforcement agencies seized 300 animals and a large cache of cash, drugs, and guns.

Officers found several dead animals on the property, as well as animals that were malnourished and neglected. Authorities had to put down a number of the animals, and the remainder were relocated to sanctuaries and zoos.