For Immediate Release:
July 5, 2017
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Wilmer, Ala. – Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews on former Mobile Zoo employee Lori Wolting’s arrest on cruelty-to-animals charges this morning:
The fact that a former Mobile Zoo employee has been charged with 13 counts of cruelty to animals just weeks after the former owner pleaded guilty to 14 counts of cruelty and less than a year after the facility lost its license to exhibit animals just goes to show the systemic disregard for animals’ lives at this now-defunct roadside zoo. PETA argued for years that conditions there constituted cruelty and worked to get the animals out of these abusers’ clutches and into sanctuaries. PETA hopes the authorities have seized the animals Wolting took from the zoo and will place them in reputable sanctuaries so that they can finally receive the care that they need.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—has documented the numerous animal-welfare violations at The Mobile Zoo and rescued several animals who had been kept there, including chimpanzee Joe and several bears.
