They do indeed get them from animal control from all across the USA, I’d read elsewhere about people like gangster rappers, meth dealers etc obtaining inappropriate pets for their locations; although in many cases they were surprisingly well looked after other than often undersized enclosures and went unnoticed until they either escaped during extreme weather or their owners got busted by feds for other crimes and the animals were discovered.
Makes sense TBH to rehome these creatures in TX where there is plenty of space for them (they seem well looked after, and thats a lot of bears and big cats in one place, way more than most European zoos have..)
