Caught Again: Feds Find Sick, Neglected Animals at Lazy 5 Ranch

PETA Complaint Leads to More Animal-Welfare Violations for Roadside Zoo

For Immediate Release:
April 13, 2015

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Following a complaint from PETA, notorious animal exhibitor Lazy 5 Ranch has been slapped with a new round of citations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) after inspectors found sick and injured animals apparently left to languish without proper veterinary care—including a sheep with an obvious limp and a pregnant camel who appeared to have difficulty breathing. Other animals were caged in squalid or unsafe enclosures. The USDA has cited the facility in the past for issues that include allowing several giraffes to suffer from painfully overgrown hooves for more than a year.

“As authorities have documented again and again, animals imprisoned by Lazy 5 Ranch are neglected and suffering,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “PETA is calling on caring people to look elsewhere for family-friendly entertainment and avoid visiting any roadside zoo.”

According to the new inspection report, goats and sheep at Lazy 5 Ranch were found housed in crumbling enclosures, putting the safety of the animals at risk. A barn holding giraffes reeked of urine, a danger to the animals’ respiratory health. One lemur was found housed alone with no enrichment, and a camel hadn’t received any veterinary care for a likely painfully swollen udder. The facility has also been cited dozens of times for violating federal animal-protection laws, including for allowing a giraffe to get her head stuck in an improperly closed gate, which caused her death, and allowing a baboon to suffer from a swollen and oozing eye for at least 20 months.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.