Caught Again: More Fines for G.W. Zoo for Unsanitary, Neglectful Conditions for Animals

For Immediate Release:
April 27, 2015

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

It’s bad business as usual at the Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological Park (G.W. Zoo) according to a damning new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection report that PETA has just obtained.

According to the report (which you can view here), inspectors at the facility found two dead rats, one of whom was “extremely decomposed,” in a bin that confined live rats and mice as well as rodent droppings in and near primates’ food and water—all of which are in violation of the minimum standards of animal care established by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Other violations include confining a tiger to an enclosure with no shade. Raw meat was found on top of the shade structures of two other tiger enclosures, an attractant to insects and wild animals, and USDA inspectors found that feed buckets were dirty and not fit to store food safely.

“Inspection after inspection has revealed filthy conditions and neglected animals at the decrepit G.W. Zoo,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “This roadside tourist trap either can’t or won’t clean up its act—and that’s why PETA cautions everyone who cares about animals to stay far away from this facility.”

G.W. Zoo is a chronic violator of the AWA. Last year, the facility was cited for failing to provide veterinary care to four juvenile bears who had suffered from untreated skin conditions for months. It was also cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on March 31 of last year for an October 2013 tiger attack that caused an employee to lose part of her arm and nearly bleed to death. G.W. Zoo 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 between 2009 to 2010.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—maintains a factsheet detailing G.W. Zoo’s long history of cruelty to animals, which can be found here.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.