Oregon Roadside Zoo Under Fire for Big-Cat Cub Dealings
PETA Alerts Authorities to A Walk on the Wild Side’s Interstate Receipt of Two 3-Week-Old Tiger Cubs
For Immediate Release:
June 15, 2017
Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382
PETA has sent a complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) concerning A Walk on the Wild Side, a roadside zoo in Canby, which apparently arranged for the interstate transfer of two 3-week-old tiger cubs—who were likely forcibly and prematurely separated from their mothers—in apparent violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act.
According to certificates of veterinary inspection issued to the notorious Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (aka “G.W. Zoo”) in Oklahoma, Wild Side arranged for the cubs’ transfer from G.W. Zoo on May 11. USDA policy acknowledges that neonatal cubs (baby animals 4 weeks of age or younger) are not able to regulate their body temperatures and have an underdeveloped immune system, placing them at risk of disease and infection—and the agency previously cited Wild Side for obtaining neonatal bobcats from a roadside zoo in Florida.
“Tearing tiger cubs away from their mothers in order to ship them across the country and use them for unscrupulous purposes such as photo ops puts these baby animals’ lives at risk,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “PETA is calling on federal authorities to crack down on A Walk on the Wild Side and any other business that profits from young animals’ misery.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—has also asked the USDA to investigate facilities in Florida, Illinois, and Wisconsin that have received neonatal big-cat cubs from G.W. Zoo and to investigate G.W. Zoo for transferring these animals. PETA has also asked the USDA to investigate why G.W. Zoo’s veterinarian repeatedly signed off on these transfers and has asked the Oklahoma Veterinary Board to hold her professionally accountable.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
