Feds Cite ‘Call of the Wildman’ Exhibitor for Cruel Handling of Drugged Zebra

June 2014

In an episode of the Animal Planet series Call of the Wildman, the show’s star, Ernie Brown Jr., chases down a zebra who had supposedly escaped from a fenced-in yard and roughly wrestles the animal to the ground. PETA learned that the Grévy’s zebra—who’s protected under the Endangered Species Act—had been drugged prior to filming. Now, in response to a PETA complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the zebra’s supplier, Jason Clay of Franklin Drive Thru Safari, has been cited in association with this incident for violating the federal regulation that forbids handling an animal in a manner that could cause “trauma, behavioral stress, physical harm or unnecessary discomfort.”