Embattled Oroville Roadside Zoo Sued by PETA Over Shady Scheme to Reclaim Animals

For Immediate Release:
July 1, 2025

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Oroville, Calif. –

This morning, PETA filed suit against the Barry R. Kirshner Wildlife Foundation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California over the roadside zoo’s multitude of apparent violations of the Endangered Species Act, including denial of adequate veterinary care to sick and injured animals—many of whom later died. The lawsuit also describes efforts by Kirshner and its new business partners to evade a state-led shutdown by moving the animals and transferring its facilities to new shell companies, and asks the court to order that the remaining animals be sent to reputable facilities where they would receive adequate veterinary care, nutrition, and enrichment rather than allow Kirshner and its successors to reclaim them as they are attempting to do.

PETA’s filing points to the numerous examples of woefully inadequate care and extreme animal suffering cited in its previous Notice of Intent to sue Kirshner, including denying proper nutrition to snow leopards, six of whom have died since 2012; leaving several lions to suffer from wounds, lesions, and other injuries; subjecting highly social ring-tailed lemurs to solitary confinement in barren cages; and denying veterinary care to at least two lemurs, both of whom died.

The lawsuit further alleges that Kirshner’s owners sold the premises late last year to a subsidiary of Nevada-based adult entertainment conglomerate Janra Enterprises—leaders of which own a number of sham “animal refuge” shell companies and are promoting wild animal encounters using the Kirshner property’s address. In an apparent attempt to facilitate the transfer, Kirshner hauled numerous federally protected animals to other facilities to avoid confiscation by California authorities during their criminal investigation into Kirshner’s repeated violations of state animal welfare laws.

Kirshner and its successors are now attempting to reclaim the animals and bring them back to the facility under the management of Janra Enterprises and related personnel, who have no experience in caring for captive wildlife. PETA’s lawsuit asks the court to prevent the transfer of any protected species to the defendants—Kirshner, Janra Enterprises, and their affiliated personnel and entities—and to bar the defendants from owning or possessing endangered or threatened species in the future.

A lion named Samson at the Barry R. Kirshner Wildlife Foundation, who has shown signs of metabolic bone disease—a malnutrition-induced illness that manifests as decreased muscle mass, pain, lameness, and pathologic bone fractures. Credit: PETA

“The survivors of this sleazy operation deserve to finally get the care they desperately need, but are instead being shuffled from one bad actor to another in a desperate attempt to keep them crammed in the same filthy cages,” says PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “PETA is calling for this squalid operation to be shut down permanently, for the remaining animals to be sent to reputable facilities, and for everyone to avoid roadside zoos as if lives depend on it, because they do.”

PETA has engaged the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, which has offices in San Francisco, to assist in filing and prosecuting the suit.

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.