For Quick Launch:
April 28, 2023
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Miami – A just-released report from the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) reveals that the company lately slapped former drug kingpin Mario Tabraue’s Zoological Wildlife Basis (ZWF) with crucial citations over an incident wherein a lion cub bit a customer and two incidents—reported to the feds by PETA—wherein company inched perilously near tigers and a clouded leopard.
The report explains {that a} lion cub sank his enamel right into a visitor’s arm throughout a public encounter, describing the animal as “scared” and “apprehensive.” It additionally factors to social media posts detailed in PETA’s tip, revealing that the roadside zoo had permitted a customer to enter a clouded leopard’s enclosure and maintain the unrestrained animal and {that a} visitor had positioned their hand in opposition to the fence of a tiger enclosure that had completely no security barrier. Earlier accidents at ZWF occurred when a chimpanzee bit a toddler—prompting the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee to situation a warning—and when a lion cub bit a buyer throughout a public interplay, amongst different incidents. The USDA cited the roadside zoo after a macaque chased and bit one other monkey, leaving her with bleeding wounds, and issued a penalty to ZWF after a tiger bit off a development employee’s finger.
PETA notes that the incidents occurred earlier than the current passage of the Huge Cat Public Security Act, which bans public contact with large cats, and that the park continues to restrict animals in depressing, insufficient situations. On the similar inspection, the company cited ZWF for failing to maintain a number of enclosures clear and in good restore, noting “extraordinarily broken” wooden in a jaguar enclosure and “giant holes” close to a gate for porcupines.
“ZWF has an extended historical past of exploiting animals to lure in paying guests, who’re then uncovered to hazard and even allowed to be bitten,” says PETA Basis Director of Captive Animal Welfare Debbie Metzler. “PETA urges the general public to keep away from this shoddy outfit of Tiger King infamy, the place stressed-out animals stay in squalor.”
PETA—whose motto reads, partly, that “animals will not be ours to make use of for leisure”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For extra info on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please go to PETA.org, take heed to The PETA Podcast, or observe the group on Twitter, Fb, or Instagram.