There may be less than 500 Siberian tigers left in the wild, slightly more than that number in captivity.

Strangely enough, four of them live in Silver Springs and therein lies the problem.

A small compound in a far corner of this sprawling rural community is the latest stop on a long odyssey for Peter Renzo and his cats.

Along the way he has attracted supporters and sparred with various local governments.

Nine years ago the journey brought them to Nevada. He arrived with few resources, in fact little more than a personal dream of a permanent base from which he could join in efforts to save the species.

Their first home, for a brief time was an empty warehouse in Sparks. From there they moved to the hills above Lemmon Valley.

Inevitably, there were concerns and then objections, so Renzo and his cats moved to Silver Springs in Lyon County.

Thunder and Thor, the pair he had with him in Washoe County were raised from kittens by Renzo and are still with him. They've been joined by two females rescued from a zoo in Oklahoma and two rare white Bengals.

Watch Renzo feed the cats by hand and you'll quickly realize the affection and trust between them is mutual.

That affection and trust, however, don't extend to some of his neighbors or county officials.

Renzo has moved four times since coming to Silver Springs and the county says those moves nullify his grandfathered status under the exotic animal ordinance adopted after he arrived. In other words, he needs a permit.

He argues, however, that he and his non-profit group, the Sabre Foundation, are a federally licensed zoo and by a reading of the county's own ordinance are exempt from the permit requirement.

"I didn't write the law," he says. "They wrote it and now they don't want to follow it."

That's not how Jeff Page, the county's emergency management director, reads it. He says there's nothing in that federal license that says Renzo's compound is a zoo.

Besides there are public safety issues involved. "He's moved into a residential neighborhood with lots of livestock. He's a short distance from a school bus stop. His neighbors are concerned for their safety.

Page says he can't say why the county has waited nine years to decide Renzo needs a permit, but insists he needs to be able to assure neighbors the cages are secure and Renzo has emergency plans in place in case the cats got out.

The county notified Renzo he needed to apply for a permit. He didn't respond. Now they've cited him for non-compliance and scheduled a court hearing for December 20.

If Renzo applies for a permit, Page says. and after an inspection can address those concerns the law and public safety worries would be satisfied.

"At present we don't even charge a fee," he says. "It's just a pen and paper issue at the moment."

Renzo has his doubts and they are fueled by a healthy distrust of government any Tea Party member would recognize. "I smell a rat."

In any case at the moment this confrontation doesn't seem fated for such a simple ending.

"They're not forcing me out," he says.