NBJ Zoo Wants to Traffic in Endangered Animals: PETA Says No Way

PETA Calls On Feds to Reject Permit-Renewal Application, Citing Facility’s History of Animal-Welfare Violations

For Immediate Release:
April 25, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Spring Branch, Texas –

This morning, PETA submitted formal comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in opposition to an application from the NBJ Zoological Park (NBJ Zoo), a roadside zoo and animal dealer in Spring Branch with ties to the canned-hunting industry, seeking the renewal of an Endangered Species Act (ESA) permit to traffic in endangered animals, including gibbons and lemurs.

In the comments, PETA points out that NBJ Zoo’s long history of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act includes recently depriving an endangered lemur of adequate veterinary care for approximately one month after her hand was torn off in a fight with cagemates. Its history of premature deaths includes that of an endangered lemur who died of unexplained causes just days after birth and those of six imperiled antelope who died within a single year, five of whom NBJ claims died from “weather.” The facility also has a history of selling primates to suppliers to the pet trade.

“Endangered animals should be protected from suffering and dying in roadside zoo cages or being sold off as ‘pets,’” says PETA Foundation Vice President of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. “Issuing this permit to the NBJ Zoo would fly in the face of the spirit, letter, and purpose of the Endangered Species Act, and PETA is calling on the authorities to throw this application right into the recycling bin.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes several inadequacies in NBJ’s ESA permit application, including the following:

In response to the mandate that the applicant provide a specific description of the way in which the proposed activities will help conserve the species, NBJ wrote only, “I am a Breeder/Broker.”
Instead of providing full résumés for all staff members who will work with the endangered animals, as required, NBJ simply provided the name of its “Ranch foreman” and wrote, “He is very qualified.”
In response to the requirement for documentation showing that endangered animals are being managed in order to maintain genetic vitality, NBJ merely stated that it doesn’t “inbreed.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.