Feds Slam Austin Aquarium With Official Warning After Slew of Customer Injuries
For Immediate Release:
August 1, 2025
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Just-released federal documents reveal that the beleaguered Austin Aquarium was issued an official warning by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) after multiple customers were injured by animals—a step the agency takes only after the most egregious violations of federal animal welfare laws.
According to the July 3 report and other USDA documents, between June 2022 and May 2023, an adult at the Austin Aquarium was jumped on, bitten on the face, and scratched on the lip by a ring-tailed lemur, requiring medical attention; a child was bitten by a kinkajou, also requiring medical attention; and another child was bitten by a ring-tailed lemur. The report also cites the facility for installing feeding tubes in an otter exhibit, which could allow unsupervised customers to put foreign objects into the enclosure or touch the otters, posing a risk to both the animals and the public.
“When stressed and suffering wild animals are forced to endure a constant barrage of noisy customers and grabbing hands, some of them will inevitably lash out,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Wildlife Rebecca Smudzinski. “PETA urges everyone to stay far away from seedy roadside zoos and mall aquariums like Austin’s, for the animals’ safety and their own.”
This is the second official warning issued by the USDA to the Austin Aquarium—in 2022, it received its first official warning for two animal bite incidents. In addition to the litany of federal citations the operation has racked up for customer injuries, an undercover PETA investigation revealed lemurs and otters exhibiting signs of severe psychological distress—the otters also in a cramped enclosure—and that injured and dying animals were left to suffer without veterinary care.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—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.
