Video Shows Suffering, Panting Animals at Sportsmen’s Club

PETA Offers to Find New Homes for Suffering Animals, Calls On Feds to Investigate After Concerned Citizens Blow the Whistle

For Immediate Release:
July 29, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Armed with photos, video footage, and concerned citizens’ reports of animals in need of urgent veterinary care at the Union County Sportsmen’s Club, PETA has reached out with an offer to help the club transfer all the animals there to reputable animal-care facilities. PETA has also sent an urgent letter calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate promptly and ensure that the animals receive immediate care.

Animals at the facility include Dillan, a morbidly obese Asiatic black bear who is confined to a concrete-floored cage—which can itself lead to serious physical maladies—and engages in a stereotypical rocking behavior, a sign of extreme psychological distress. He appears to suffer from numerous painful dental problems, including multiple missing or fractured teeth, advanced gum and dental disease, and severely exposed tooth roots. Additionally, an overweight raccoon was seen panting and appeared to be suffering from heat stress, a bobcat was obese, and a quail’s head was missing feathers. There were excessive amounts of feces and algae buildup on the walls and floors of many cages.

“This bear is suffering every single day that he goes without emergency dental surgery for his broken, exposed teeth,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “PETA is urging the Union County Sportsmen’s Club to shut down its menagerie and transfer the animals to reputable facilities where they’d receive the care that they desperately need.”

The USDA has repeatedly cited the club for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act, including for failing to provide Dillan with adequate veterinary care for a broken tooth, failing to address his abnormal rocking behavior, and forcing him to live on a concrete slab—the same issues captured in the eyewitness video footage. Other previous violations include failing to provide animals with sufficient nutrition—leading to the death of five fawns—and allowing such a large amount of feces to accumulate in Dillan’s enclosure that he couldn’t move without touching it.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.