Exclusive: Ashland family raising five tigers

ASHLAND -- One family's five pet tigers has neighbors on edge.

Especially since the recent incident in Ashtabula County where a woman was attacked in her own home when a pet bear escaped a nearby pen.

And for the moment, the tigers live in the basement of a home near Ashland on State Route 511.

All of them are rescued animals.

Sammie, 11, is a rare Indo-Chinese Tiger. He weighs an impressive 500 pounds.

Delila isn't fond of strangers, she's an 11-year-old Sumatran.

Taz is a Bengal cat that is 9 years old and tips the scales at more than 300 pounds.

Eight-year-old Ticha is a Siberian.

And the baby is Katie, she's just 1 year old.

Denise Flores has helped raise them since each was just a cub.

She and her husband Jose, love the cats like they were their own children.

As you might expect, the idea of having big cats for neighbors doesn't sit well with some of the neighbors. Flores and her husband are in the process of building big steel reinforced cages in their back yard on a one-acre lot.

Each cage will be completed with a welded steel mesh cover, just in case.

The Flores plan to add video cameras and a second electric fence around the outside cages, just to be extra safe.

The zoning board plans to review the tiger situation next week.