G.W. Zoo Cited for Denying Adequate Vet Care to Badly Injured—Now Dead—Bear

For Immediate Release:
May 22, 2014

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has just issued a new citation to The Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological Park (G.W. Zoo) in Wynnewood, Okla., involving the failure to provide a bear—who was apparently left to languish and bleed in a dirt-floor cage for two weeks after allegedly being mauled by another bear—with adequate veterinary care.

A visitor to the facility had first told PETA that the bear was extremely lethargic and appeared unable to stand. PETA got the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation out the following morning, and the USDA paid a visit to the zoo the next day. The USDA’s citation—which was just released—indicates that nonveterinary G.W. Zoo staff attempted to stitch up the bear’s 4- to 8-inch wound, rather than calling on a veterinarian to treat the animal, and the bear was ultimately euthanized.

G.W. Zoo is a chronic violator of the federal Animal Welfare Act—it had previously just been cited on March 10 for failing to provide four juvenile bears who suffered from untreated skin conditions for months with adequate veterinary care. G.W. Zoo operator Joseph Schreibvogel was also cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on March 31 for an October 2013 tiger attack that caused an employee to lose part of her arm and almost bleed to death. Schreibvogel is currently the subject of at least three USDA investigations, including one for the deaths of two tiger cubs in May 2013 and another for the deaths of 23 baby tigers over a seven-month period from 2009 to 2010.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.