Update: Court Orders Roadside Zoo to Pay Thousands More to PETA

For Immediate Release:
October 14, 2021

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA has just won another victory in its successful federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) lawsuit against Tri-State Zoological Park and its associates: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has now granted PETA’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in conjunction with Tri-State’s appeal, which it lost earlier this year. The court’s order included the full amount that PETA requested—$57,949.28—and follows a previous order for fees and costs by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, bringing the total amount that Tri-State must pay PETA to $114,605.05.

Meanwhile, PETA and concerned citizen Constance Collins are pressing ahead with another lawsuit arguing that Tri-State’s documented failure to provide animals with adequate veterinary care, proper food, clean water, and other basic necessities violates state law and constitutes a public nuisance. PETA’s goal is to get every animal out of Tri-State and into suitable facilities where they’d finally receive attention from animal care experts.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.