Seedy exhibitors must sleep with one eye open, as a result of PETA is all the time maintaining tabs on roadside zoos that topic animals to depressing exploitation. Rules supposed to offer protection to animals at roadside zoos are alarmingly insufficient—however as we’ve observed, many of those abysmal amenities can’t even meet the bottom-of-the-barrel minimal requirements of care.
We make certain that roadside zoos don’t get off scot-free by way of contacting government once we obtain pointers from involved people or once we see purple flags on social media.
Each time we alert officers to abuse and forget at a roadside zoo, we get one step nearer to shutting it down. We’ve uncovered operations for denying animals good enough area and enrichment, for failing to supply animals with wanted veterinary care, for confining animals to filthy enclosures, and for different obvious federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations—and during the last two years, we’ve observed a promising spike in citations and inspections from the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) that stemmed from our personal court cases.
PETA Has Stirred Bother for Those Roadside Zoos
Arbuckle Desolate tract Park
Sooner than PETA raised an alarm a few roadside unload in Davis, Oklahoma, known as Arbuckle Desolate tract Park, it had already been cited for condemning a lemur to solitary confinement, inflicting the extremely social primate—who, in nature, would reside in a gaggle of as much as 25 people—to tempo from mental misery. It was once additionally cited for failing to supply animals with veterinary care and for it sounds as if neglecting a number of animals who have been underweight, together with a critically skinny llama who had died sooner than a veterinarian arrived.
In December 2023, following a PETA grievance, USDA officers cited the crummy outfit when inspectors discovered uncovered electrical cords in a parrot enclosure, a platform in a tiger enclosure that had uncovered sharp issues, and emus and peacocks who didn’t have blank ingesting water.
Challenge Survival Cat Haven
A sham “conservation” group in Dunlap, California, Challenge Survival Cat Haven places large cats on show in order that vacationers can gawk at them. Following a tip from PETA, federal officers cited the ability over the unsafe shipping of a 6-week-old cougar kitten—who, in nature, would have nonetheless been nursing and finding out learn how to hunt. Consistent with the inspection file, the kitten was once sitting at the laps of group of workers and at the ground of a shifting car.
3 Monkeys Photograph Emporium
A shoddy appeal in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, 3 Monkeys Photograph Emporium exploits clever, curious monkeys in photograph ops—a miles other image from their herbal habitats, the place they might be swinging on branches and socializing with their buddies and households.
A USDA inspection that stemmed from a PETA grievance printed that group of workers had positioned capuchins on shoppers’ shoulders for a photograph shoot with out making sure direct keep watch over of the animals, risking damage to each them and shoppers. Officers additionally seen an otter pacing alongside an enclosure wall and tossing her head, most probably because of psychological anguish.
Utah Reindeer
Utah Reindeer is a sleazy operation that treats delicate reindeer like vacation props, renting them out for occasions and photograph ops right through the Christmas season. After PETA alerted officers to the deaths of 2 reindeer, Jingle and Peppermint, who have been hit by way of automobiles when they escaped from a trip trailer right through shipping, the USDA slapped the industry with an authentic caution.
TNT Exotics
The USDA cited TNT Exotics, a depressing roadside petting zoo in Shelbyville, Indiana, for a couple of violations, together with for housing a spider monkey by myself—which will reason excessive tension to those extremely social animals. Officers additionally noticed enclosures that have been caked with feces, reside mice and flies in a sloth enclosure, and a turkey who had suffered feather loss after being .
Keep Some distance Away From Roadside Zoos and Different Merciless Vacationer Traps
PETA’s message is obvious: So long as animals endure at roadside zoos, we’ll paintings relentlessly to close those amenities down. You’ll urge roadside zoos to ship those animals to respected sanctuaries by way of taking motion underneath: