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August 25, 2023
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David Perle 202-483-7382
Littleton, Colo. – PETA simply received a U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) inspection document of SeaQuest’s native aquarium and petting zoo revealing {that a} sugar glider named Luna needed to have part of her tail amputated after it become entangled in a work of chain in her enclosure, leading to a essential quotation from the federal company.
SeaQuest Littleton’s commercial of glider encounters. Credit score: PETA
“This sugar glider’s ordeal is but extra evidence that inclined animals are in peril of being maimed or worse each and every minute they spend confined at SeaQuest,” says PETA Basis Director of Captive Animal Legislation Enforcement Michelle Sinnott. “PETA urges everybody to keep away from those shady operations, which churn out animal welfare violations like they’re competing for the identify of ‘maximum infamous.’”
Luna’s ordeal is the newest in a string of failings at SeaQuest Littleton. The ability was once cited previous this yr after staff ignored a dose of 3 drugs they have been intended to manage to every other sugar glider. It was once additionally cited for failing to handle a rabbit enclosure, which had uncovered mesh and different probably hazardous fabrics. In 2021, the USDA cited the ability after a wallaby held there was once not able to flee an aquarium tank and drowned, and in 2018, a sloth was once burned via a warmth lamp—two times.
The chain’s operation in Trumbull, Connecticut, closed completely previous this month following a lot of PETA lawsuits and after it racked up a couple of USDA citations, together with for incidents during which a staffer hit an otter with a steel bowl, rabbits have been left with out meals or water, an otter bit a kid, and enclosures have been stuffed with feces and particles. The gang needs the chain’s different places—together with the only in Littleton—to practice swimsuit.
PETA—whose motto reads, partially, that “animals aren’t ours to make use of for leisure”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more info about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please discuss with PETA.org or practice the crowd on Twitter, Fb, or Instagram.