The animals had been purchased from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.
There were six lions, seven tigers and a leopard — but no bears.
Arkansas authorities responding to a report of exotic animals locked in cages on a farm found exactly that in Poinsett County over the weekend.
Read: After Ringling Bros. Closure, Activists Zero in on Zoos: 'Animals Deserve Better'
“It’s a really weird story,” state Fish and Game Commission spokesman Keith Stephens told InsideEdition.com Wednesday.
The exotic menagerie and its owner were killing time while paperwork was being sorted for the animals to be flown from neighboring Tennessee to Germany, Stephens said.
Apparently, the group was turned away from a Nashville airport because their documentation showed they were missing a tiger, Stephens said.
The big cat, named Suzy, had escaped earlier this month by jumping from the owner’s truck onto a Georgia highway. It wandered into a residential neighborhood, where it attacked a woman’s dog.
Local authorities later shot and killed the animal.
Read: Sickly Tiger Rescued From Backyard Circus Is Now in Love and Happily Married
Some local reports said the animals were parked in a warehouse on a farm owned by a friend of the animals' owner.
Stephens said state game officials and sheriff’s deputies kept watch over the caged cats until the group’s documents were in order.
The animals were escorted to the state line, where Tennessee authorities accompanied the trucked animals to the airport Tuesday for their flight to Germany.
They cats were purchased by a Florida animal troupe from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, which ceased performing in May after 146 years in business.
Watch: How a Circus Tiger Got Loose on Georgia Highway
