Feds Cite Bayou Wildlife Park for Further Failure to Provide Vet Care

Latest Inspection Report Comes as PETA Sues U.S. Department of Agriculture for Renewing Roadside Zoo’s License Despite Violations

For Immediate Release:
June 28, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

The latest inspection report of Bayou Wildlife Park (aka Bayou Wildlife Zoo)—a roadside zoo in Alvin that’s part of a PETA lawsuit—recently became publicly available, and it reveals that despite the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) repeated citations of the facility, including for failing to provide six animals with adequate veterinary care, the animals continue to suffer.

According to the recently released May 15 report, the USDA issued repeat citations to the facility for failing to give proper veterinary care to goats with overgrown hooves—a significant problem that can lead to deep cracks, foot infections, abscesses, and chronic lameness—a limping deer with a hoof that appeared to be twisted, and a female goat with a severely deformed udder that was apparently the result of painful mastitis that was never properly treated. The USDA also cited the facility for three animals’ deaths, including that of a sheep who lay without moving for at least two days before dying without receiving veterinary care and a water buffalo who reportedly drowned. The facility had been previously cited for failing to give vet care to the sheep, whose hooves were so overgrown that he had to walk on his knees.

“Compassionate people can do their part to help animals by never visiting Bayou Wildlife Park or any other ramshackle roadside zoo,” says PETA Foundation Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “The suffering on display here is exactly why PETA is suing the USDA for automatically renewing the licenses of law-breaking exhibitors.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—has filed a lawsuit challenging the USDA’s automatic renewal of federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) licenses to facilities such as Bayou Wildlife Park. 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 Bayou Wildlife Park’s license, the facility was cited for 42 violations of the AWA. During just one inspection, the agency found 19 separate violations, including regarding a cow who was so thin animal’s spine and rib bones were visible. In March, the facility was cited for the deaths of 20 axis deer, including a newborn who had apparently been eaten by buzzards.

The recent inspection report also includes citations for failing to have an appropriate perimeter fence, which the facility suspected allowed a bobcat to enter the premises and kill animals.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.