A Manhattan billionaire is demanding that a Tennessee man sell off part of his massive menagerie — including six cows, seven pigs and 12 camels — to pay off a debt.
Don Shadow, who describes himself as a “fourth-generation nurseryman,” could fill Noah’s Ark with his 800 animals and untold number of exotic plants.
But the menagerie wasn’t enough. He borrowed $6 million from JPMorgan Chase bank in a series of transactions over several years in order to buy more land and “exotic animals,” and Manhattan hedge-funder Michael H. Steinhardt agreed in 2007 to guarantee the loans.
Shadow and Steinhardt — both 75 years old — were such good friends that Shadow, an acclaimed tree expert, named a type of maple tree after Steinhardt.
But Shadow reneged, and JPMorgan asked Steinhardt to pay up, the billionaire says in a Manhattan federal-court lawsuit he filed against his pal.
The two negotiated a deal in which Shadow agreed to turn over some of his land to the billionaire, and to sell other properties and the 25 beasts. Steinhardt was so confident that Shadow would follow through, he didn’t object when JPMorgan took the $6 million from his accounts, he says.
But Shadow blew off the deal, the suit says. The animals should have brought in $222,000, says Steinhardt, who has a net worth of $1.2 billion, according to Forbes.
Shadow’s 2,000-acre nursery and other properties are home to 60 different animal species, including certain types of wild donkey, antelopes, sheep, ostriches, emus, zebras, deer and Brazilian tapir, which look like a cross between a hog and a rhino.
Shadow Nursery publishes a 35-page wholesale catalog of exotic plants and trees.
Steinhardt has his own menagerie at his Westchester estate, down the road from the home of Martha Stewart, who once featured a visit to the pair on her blog.
Among Steinhardt’s furry friends are decades-old tortoises, marmosets, African servals, a cross between a zebra and a donkey called a “zonky,” and camels, according to Forbes.