One Child's Mauling Is Too Much, Says Group

For Immediate Release:
November 5, 2009

Contact:
Lisa Wathne 757-662-7382

Utica, Ill. -- PETA has fired off a letter to Keith and Susan Wolick and Joseph Hook Jr., owners of Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Resort in Utica, asking them to dump all exotic-animal acts. PETA made a similar request in April after a wolf hybrid owned by notorious animal exhibitor Sid Yost mauled a 2-year-old girl. Grizzly Jack's continues to host Brown's Oakridge Zoo, which allows members of the public to have photos taken with wild animals. Brown's has an abysmal history of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

"Grizzly Jack's goes from one cruel exhibitor to another with little regard for animal welfare or public safety," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. "These animals aren't stuffed toys, and when they're denied the opportunity to fulfill their most basic needs and are otherwise abused, they can become ticking time bombs."

Brown's Oakridge Zoo's violations of the AWA include the following:

* Failure to provide veterinary care to a bobcat and numerous deer who were thin as well as to one-third of the zoo's deer, who were suffering from hair loss
* Allowing the public to handle unvaccinated 2-week-old tiger cubs
* Failure to provide proper shelter to 12 bears, leopards, tigers, and cougars whose enclosures contained large areas of standing water and, in some cases, mud; to 20 elk and deer who had no protection from the wind; to two tigers whose enclosure contained mud that was several inches deep; and to a sick deer who was shivering in the cold
* Repeated failure to erect a perimeter fence to safely contain big cats

Brown's breeds animals so that it can keep itself supplied with cute babies who will draw visitors and who can be used at public events. The cubs are forcibly removed from their mothers just a week or two after birth. Once they mature, they are likely to be discarded to make room for more babies. With its letter, PETA included a copy of an ad for free tigers and a lion. Brown's placed the ad in Animal Finder's Guide, a trade magazine that caters to canned-hunt facilities and the exotic-animal trade.

PETA's letter to Grizzly Jack's is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.