Feds Cite Mobile Zoo for Animal-Welfare Violations—Again—After PETA Complaint

PETA Calls for Facility’s Closure After Tiger Is Left to Suffer From Open Wounds, Bears Found Amid Their Own Piled Waste

For Immediate Release:
June 15, 2015

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Notoriously cruel animal exhibitor Mobile Zoo—which has a long history of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) violations—has been hit with new citations from the agency. Following a complaint from PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—complete with visitors’ disturbing photos of an underweight tiger, the USDA inspected the facility and found that in addition to allowing bears and bobcats to languish in dirty enclosures, it had also failed to provide an underweight tiger with a protruding hipbone and open wounds on her ears, which were swarming with flying insects, with veterinary care.

“The animals at the Mobile Zoo have suffered enough as the result of negligence, and as these repeat violations indicate, this neglect will likely continue until the facility is shut down and the animals are sent to reputable sanctuaries,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “Mobile Zoo’s brazen willingness to flout the law is just one reason why PETA urges families to steer clear of roadside zoos.”

According to the May 20 inspection report, which just became publicly available, other enclosures in the facility failed to provide animals with shelter from the wind and rain and contained discarded, rotting garbage—including a large foul-smelling dead fish. An enclosure housing bears contained vomit and diarrhea, which the facility’s staff had neither noticed nor sought veterinary attention for, and animals’ waste was piled up in enclosures. The facility’s staff—which the USDA deemed inadequate to care for the animals properly—had also failed to maintain enclosures, which posed a risk of escape, injury, or death to the animals.

The Mobile Zoo currently faces fines and a potential license suspension or revocation for a host of prior violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including for failing to provide a deer with a puncture wound, a leopard with hair loss and swollen eyes, and a tiger with a bloody cut on her face with veterinary care.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.