Feds Act on PETA Tip About Ailing Animals at Local Roadside Zoo
For Immediate Release:
October 21, 2021
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently cracked down on local roadside tourist trap Animal Haven Zoo, citing the operation for violating the minimum requirements established by the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by failing to provide animals with adequate veterinary care, adequate shelter, and adequately maintained enclosures—issues documented and reported to the USDA by PETA.
According to a newly released report from an August 26 inspection, Animal Haven Zoo failed to provide adequate veterinary care for a number of animals, including a pig whose tusk had grown into his cheek, a porcupine with discharge and discoloration of the eyes, and a young rabbit in “poor condition” who had dried discharge in an ear, mild discharge around the eyes, and hair loss on a foot. Animal Haven Zoo’s owner had reportedly noticed the rabbit’s poor condition but was too “busy with other chores” to address it. In addition, the facility failed to clean out rotten food from a rabbit enclosure or provide rabbits with adequate shelter from the elements, and numerous enclosures had broken, bent, or otherwise damaged fencing. The USDA also cited Animal Haven Zoo for failing to give any water to a liger for about 20 hours—once given water, the animal “continued to drink for over four minutes.”
“Animal Haven Zoo evidently can’t or won’t meet animals’ most basic needs, from providing needed veterinary care to giving them drinking water,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Michelle Sinnott. “PETA encourages everyone to stay away from it and other roadside zoos.”
The USDA previously cited Animal Haven Zoo for violating the AWA after it transported a vulnerable 3-week-old tiger cub to a local school and failed to provide veterinary care for an alpaca who had been left with a 6-inch-by-3-inch clipper wound after shearing.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
