Federal License for Farm at Walnut Creek Must Not Be Renewed, Says PETA

Recent Citations for Public Endangerment and Failing to Provide Animals With Adequate Veterinary Care Prompt Request

For Immediate Release:
August 7, 2014

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Just weeks after the release of a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection report revealing seven additional citations for repeat violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) at the notorious Farm at Walnut Creek roadside zoo in Sugarcreek, PETA has sent an urgent letter calling on the USDA not to renew owner Henry Hampton’s exhibitor’s license for either Walnut Creek or Lazy 5 Ranch, his facility in North Carolina.

As PETA notes in the letter, which was sent today, renewal of Hampton’s license requires that he demonstrate compliance with the AWA—and Hampton has been cited dozens of times for repeatedly violating the AWA at the facilities, often for failing to supply animals with adequate veterinary care and for allowing visitors to come into direct, unsupervised contact with animals.

“PETA’s motto says, in part that, ‘animals are not ours to use for entertainment,’ and Henry Hampton’s long rap sheet of Animal Welfare Act violations is one example of why,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “Since Henry Hampton can’t—or won’t—meet the most minimal standards of animal care, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is obligated to stop renewing his exhibitor’s license.”

Henry Hampton’s history of failing to provide animals with adequate veterinary care includes leaving at least two giraffes to suffer from painfully overgrown hooves—for at least 14 months in one case and for at least 17 months in the other—and being repeatedly cited over the course of 17 months for the condition of a baboon who was suffering from a swollen and often oozing eye. Other incidents cited by the USDA include failing to prevent a visitor to Lazy 5 Ranch from placing a small child on the roof of his car so that the child could feed a giraffe. This citation came just two years after a camel bit a child at Lazy 5, where there was no barrier and no attendant present to prevent contact with the animal.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.