Florida Traveling Zoo Under Fire for Big-Cat Cub Dealings

PETA Alerts Authorities to Jungle Safari’s Interstate Receipt of 4-Week-Old Neonatal Tiger Cub

For Immediate Release:
June 15, 2017

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

PETA has sent a complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) concerning Jungle Safari, a traveling zoo based in Trenton, which apparently arranged for the interstate transfer of a 4-week-old tiger cub—who was forcibly and prematurely separated from her mother—in apparent violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

According to a certificate of veterinary inspection issued to the notorious Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (aka “G.W. Zoo”) in Oklahoma, Jungle Safari arranged for the tiger cub’s transfer from G.W. Zoo. USDA policy acknowledges that neonatal cubs (baby animals 4 weeks of age or younger) are not able to regulate their body temperatures and have an underdeveloped immune system, placing them at risk of disease and infection.

“Tearing tiger cubs away from their mothers in order to ship them across the country and use them for unscrupulous purposes such as photo ops puts these baby animals’ lives at risk,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “PETA is calling on federal authorities to crack down on Jungle Safari and any other business that profits from young animals’ misery.”

Jungle Safari also apparently arranged for the transfer of a 5-week-old tiger cub—but the destination on the certificate was the Oklahoma shopping mall at which the G.W. Zoo–affiliated Neon Jungle exhibits and sells “playtime” with tiger, bear, and wolf or wolf-dog hybrid cubs and a lemur. PETA is asking the USDA to investigate this transfer.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—has also asked the USDA to investigate facilities in Illinois, Oregon, and Wisconsin that have received neonatal big-cat cubs from G.W. Zoo and to investigate G.W. Zoo for transferring these animals. PETA has also asked the USDA to investigate why G.W. Zoo’s veterinarian repeatedly signed off on these transfers and has asked the Oklahoma Veterinary Board to hold her professionally accountable.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.