Notorious Local Roadside Zoo to Get Visit From PETA After Death of Honey the Bear

For Immediate Release:
August 5, 2025

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA is hitting the gas on a mobile message reminding everyone to steer clear of Holtsville Ecology Site following whistleblower allegations that animals died after suffering from painful ailments and even froze to death at the roadside zoo. According to the whistleblower, the roadside zoo—which sits atop a former landfill—failed to protect animals from freezing temperatures and denied veterinary care to Honey the black bear and other animals who died.

PETA’s mobile billboard will circle between the Brookhaven Town Hall and the Holtsville Ecology Site on three dates, beginning on Thursday, that coincide with Brookhaven’s Town Board meetings, during which animal defenders from Humane Long Island will push officials to shut down the seedy facility.

According to several former employees, the Holtsville Ecology Site—which is operated by the Brookhaven Highway Department—frequently kept Honey in a tiny, barren enclosure, where she reportedly suffered from broken and rotted teeth, chronic urinary tract infections, and displayed signs of severe stress, such as swaying back and forth. Other sick and neglected animals who allegedly recently died at the facility include a goat with a large abscess on his neck, a skunk suffering from cancer, a crow infected with West Nile Virus, and at least half a dozen parakeets who froze to death.

“This landfill-turned-roadside zoo reeks of incompetence as animals imprisoned there reportedly suffered from treatable ailments before dying slow, painful deaths,” says PETA Foundation Senior Director of Captive Wildlife Debbie Metzler. “PETA is calling for this hellhole to be permanently shut down, the survivors to get the care they desperately need, and everyone to avoid roadside zoos as if lives depended on it, because they do.”

PETA’s mobile billboard truck will circle between the Brookhaven Town Hall, located at 1 Independence Hill, in Farmingville, and the Holtsville Ecology Site, located at 249 Buckley Road, from 9 a.m. to  5 p.m. on August 7, September 11, and October 2.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any 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.