Photos: Animals Suffer, Pant in the Heat at The Camel Farm

PETA Calls for Investigation, Animals’ Release to Reputable Sanctuaries

For Immediate Release:
June 13, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Last week, a visitor to The Camel Farm, a roadside zoo in Yuma that’s a subject of a federal lawsuit filed by PETA, took photos and video footage of flies swarming around a camel’s face and eyes as well as a large growth on the animal’s chest—a condition that has apparently continued without adequate veterinary care for over a year. The eyewitness also reported that several animals were panting in the 108-degree heat and trying to find shade and that dilapidated enclosures appeared to put animals at risk of injury.

In response, PETA sent a complaint this morning calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate The Camel Farm and hold it accountable for any violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) that it may find.

“No reputable animal-care facility would fail to provide adequate veterinary care for a fly-covered growth on a camel’s chest for over a year, let alone leave animals to pant and hunt for shade in 100-degree heat,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “The Camel Farm should move these animals to reputable sanctuaries where they’d receive the care that they need.”

The USDA has repeatedly cited The Camel Farm for failing to provide the camel with the chest growth and dozens of other animals with adequate veterinary care. PETA has filed a lawsuit that challenges the USDA’s automatic renewal of AWA licenses to facilities such as The Camel Farm. The AWA prohibits licensing a facility that can’t demonstrate that it’s operating in accordance with the act, but in the year before the USDA renewed The Camel Farm’s license, the facility was cited for 33 violations of the AWA.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—has also asked the Arizona Game and Fish Department not to renew The Camel Farm’s zoo license in light of its history of AWA violations, which are also violations of state law.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.