Feds Asked to Terminate Notorious Animal Exhibitor’s License

PETA Urges Authorities to Pull Animal Welfare Act License of Abusive Roadside-Zoo Owner Jeff Lowe

For Immediate Release:
May 1, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA has filed a request urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to terminate or deny the renewal of notorious animal exhibitor Jeff Lowe’s Animal Welfare Act license, which is up for renewal on May 4, on several grounds, including that Lowe—who was recently arrested in Las Vegas for illegal possession of wild animals—has violated numerous local laws governing the ownership of exotic animals.

In the letter, PETA points to an investigation of Lowe by law-enforcement officials in Las Vegas that resulted in charges of unlawful possession of wild animals, including at least two tiger cubs and a lemur he kept in solitary confinement. In addition, a tiger escaped from Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (G.W. Zoo) in Oklahoma, which Lowe owns, and was fatally shot.

“This man isn’t fit to hold an Animal Welfare Act license,” says PETA Foundation Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “And the USDA should strip him of it before more animals are harmed.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that G.W. Zoo’s history of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act also includes many citations for having filthy, wet, unsafe, and dilapidated animal enclosures. In 2016, three tiger cubs were discovered roaming unsupervised in a house at the facility, and as recently as last June, the USDA was investigating the roadside zoo for dozens of tiger cub deaths.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.