Feds Cite Houston Interactive Aquarium After Young Cavy Dies of Maggot-Infested Wounds
For Immediate Release:
August 4, 2026
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
A newly released U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection report reveals that Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve was slapped with two critical citations for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act after inspectors documented multiple injuries among several cavies, including a juvenile cavy who had to be euthanized following untreated wounds that became infested with maggots. The new citations follow 15 citations issued after an inspection in April, when an armadillo nearly drowned in a flooded enclosure.
According to the report, the facility had failed to notice the young cavy’s deteriorating condition for several days until a caretaker finally observed “raw, irritated, and reddened skin” on June 4 and reported it to an attending veterinarian. Later that day, the veterinarian had to euthanize the young cavy because she was “very lethargic,” covered in maggots along her back and abdomen, and had a wound so severe it extended into the subcutaneous tissue.
The report also documents that a cavy named Ginger was found during the inspection with a 5-inch laceration and a veterinarian noted in June that an adult female cavy named Lavender had puncture wounds near her left eye, abrasions on her hind leg, and a laceration on her shoulder after being bullied by other cavies in the enclosure. The veterinarian told the inspector that aggression among the herd had escalated after the roadside zoo changed how it fed the animals—yet staff continued to house incompatible cavies together.
“A young cavy died after suffering for days, eaten alive by maggots, while staff did nothing,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Wildlife Rebecca Smudzinski. “PETA is calling on the USDA to stop the Houston Interactive Aquarium’s dangerous and deadly pattern of neglect before another animal dies, and urging everyone to steer clear of all roadside zoos.”
Run by the notorious Covino family, Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve has received 39 citations for alleged violations of federal animal welfare regulations in just the last four and a half years, including two other critical citations in 2024 after 40 parakeets and an Eclectus parrot escaped from an enclosure and were never found.
Patagonian cavies—native to the open grasslands of Argentina—are monogamous, forming lifelong pair-bonds, and they are one of the very few mammals known to combine monogamy with communal denning: pairs share a single burrow with as many as 15 other cavy families and raise their pups together. In nature, their long legs let them gallop and bound across the open plains; in cramped roadside-zoo enclosures, they have nowhere to escape from stressed-out herd mates.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
