Feds Cite The Camel Farm for Yet Another Vet-Care Failure

Latest Inspection Report Reveals That Facility Let Goat With Swollen Face Languish in Apparent Pain

For Immediate Release:
June 18, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

The latest inspection report of The Camel Farm has just become publicly available, and it reveals that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited the facility for failing to provide an animal with adequate veterinary care—this time, a goat who had prominent swelling on the side of her face. The inspector noted that the animal was “vigorously shaking [her] head …. which likely indicate[s] the animal is experiencing pain or discomfort,” yet no veterinary evaluation or treatment had been sought, even though the staff was aware of the goat’s condition for days.

The Camel Farm has been cited over and over again for failing to provide animals—including some who hadn’t been seen by a veterinarian for months, if ever—with adequate veterinary care. In just one inspection report from April 2018 alone, the USDA cited the facility for violations involving a coatimundi who’d been unable to put weight on one leg for months, a fennec fox with hair loss and inflamed skin, a camel with a fly-covered growth on his chest, and an excessively thin sheep. Eleven other animals had overgrown hooves. The Camel Farm was also cited seven times for failing to provide a goat who’d been lame for over a year with adequate veterinary care. In 2017, a veterinarian recommended either additional diagnostic tests or euthanasia. After months of inaction, the facility chose the latter.

“The Camel Farm has shown time and time again that it either can’t or won’t provide the animals in its custody with proper care,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “This poor neglected goat is exactly why PETA urges everyone to steer clear of this ramshackle roadside zoo and any other operation that puts suffering animals on display.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—filed a lawsuit challenging the USDA’s automatic renewal of federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) licenses to facilities including The Camel Farm. The AWA prohibits licensing a facility that can’t demonstrate that it’s operating in accordance with the act—and in the year before the USDA renewed The Camel Farm’s license, the facility was cited for 33 violations of the AWA.

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