PETA Complaint Exposes Shocking Conditions at Houston Interactive Aquarium

An armadillo nearly drowning in a flooded enclosure, a stressed ostrich crashing into a fence, and a despondent macaw trapped without enrichment are just a few of the damning tales revealed by a recently released U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection report from inside Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve.

How the Houston Interactive Aquarium Failed Animals Imprisoned There

According to the report, contractors left a water line running in the armadillo’s enclosure, flooding it and forcing him to swim for an extended period of time. By the time he was found, he was unresponsive, cold, breathing abnormally, and his skin had turned purple. He was rushed to a veterinarian, who was fortunately able to save him.

In another documented incident, an emu and an ostrich were forced into an enclosure together without a compatibility assessment. This caused the stressed ostrich to attempt to run away and crash into a fence, resulting in a four-inch wound on her chest.

She also sustained two wounds on her foot after kicking a cattle panel that contractors used to try to corral the terrified bird. Following the injury, she was unable to bear weight on the leg entirely. Despite the severity of the ostrich’s condition and her obvious distress, employees failed to notify a veterinarian until after the federal inspector asked whether they had.

The report also documents:

• Otters and kinkajous denied the required rabies and distemper vaccines.

• A Patagonian cavy with a wound that had never been reported to a veterinarian.
• Employees were not following required enrichment plans for lemurs, a macaw named Sammie, or a cockatoo named Paloma.
• Sammie was housed in a barren cage with no species-appropriate enrichment at all.

• The operation was also cited for ignoring safety protocols during public encounters with two sloths, putting both humans and the sloths at risk.
• Rodent feces, mold, and fruit flies and other insects “too numerous to count” in food preparation and storage areas.
• Expired and rotten food in food preparation areas and inside refrigerators.
• Enclosures covered in feces and animals swarmed by flies.

None of this animal suffering is new. Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve has received 37 citations for alleged violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act in less than five years, including two critical citations in 2024 after 40 parakeets and an Eclectus parrot escaped through a tear in the mesh of an enclosure and were never found.

How You Can Help Animals Suffering at the Houston Interactive Aquarium

As its name conveys, Houston Interactive Aquarium forces animals into stressful and dangerous hands-on encounters with visitors, which subjects them to a constant barrage of noisy crowds and grabbing hands and disrupts the natural sleep cycles of nocturnal animals such as sloths.

Houston Interactive Aquarium is a house of horrors where animals are confined in disgusting enclosures and denied the most basic care, right down to bloody injuries that are completely ignored. PETA urges everyone to stay far away from this filthy operation and all roadside zoos, where suffering animals are exploited for human entertainment.