The burning house contained several pet cats

When Bekah Weitz’ phone rings, she never knows what is waiting for her on the other end of the line.During one of her shifts working animal control for the Eau Claire County Humane Association in 2005, a confused officer responding to a house fire in Dunn County called for backup after being tipped off that a shed attached to the burning house contained several pet cats — big cats.More specifically, tigers. And no one knew they were there prior to the fire.Weitz advised the officer not to act until she and other animal control officers arrived on the scene. 

they should be considered extremely dangerous and the officers should take action to defend themselves and those in the neighborhood if necessary.While en route to the scene, Weitz received another phone call from the officer: The tigers had been found, but all of them had died from smoke inhalation.Recalling the incident, Weitz — now a humane investigator for Monroe County — said that “as horrible as that was for them, it was probably the best case scenario for everybody involved because it didn’t mean that there were loose tigers in the area.”Wisconsin is one of just five states that allow residents to keep almost any animal they want as a pet. The others are Alabama, Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina.