PETA Statement: Shady Roadside Zoo Deserves Visit From Authorities

For Immediate Release:
December 11, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Myrtle Beach, S.C. – Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet in response to news reports that search warrants were served today at Myrtle Beach Safari, a roadside zoo in South Carolina operated by notorious animal exhibitor Bhagavan “Doc” Antle.

Bhagavan “Doc” Antle has a rap sheet of federal Animal Welfare Act violations a mile long, exploits cubs for the big-cat petting industry, has ties to unscrupulous characters like convicted murder-for-hire and big-cat trafficking culprit Joe Maldonado-Passage, and uses animals for harmful hands-on encounters, photo ops, and publicity stunts. PETA has been on his case for years, and it’s long past time that authorities paid him and his shady business a visit.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” and the group opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

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Media Response Team.

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 Ingrid E. Newkirk

“Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?” READ MORE

— Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA President and co-author of Animalkind