For immediate release:
August 24, 2021
Contact:
David Pearl 202-483-7382
Miami – After PETA notified the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) of Instagram posts describing dangerous public encounters with lion cubs at the Mario Tabraue Zoological Wildlife Fund (ZWF), King of tigers shame, the agency has accused the institution with numerous quotes for failing to comply with the minimum requirements of the federal animal welfare law. According to the report just published, lion cub bit a client and the ZWF allowed public contact with the young lion, which, the report notes, “could pose a danger to society.”
“Taking the cubs away from their mothers and giving stressed animals on their knees to strangers is a sure way to disaster,” says Debbie Metzler, deputy director of PETA’s Animal Bondage Law Enforcement. “PETA encourages kind people to avoid any business that uses baby animals for support.”
PETA notes that this is not the first time a visitor to a ZWF has been bitten by an animal. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) also issued a written warning to the roadside zoo on November 2, 2020, after a child was bitten by a young chimpanzee named Limbani. The FWC advised the ZWF to immediately stop allowing public contact with the 40-plus pound chimpanzee, but data from social media shows that the institution has since allowed the public to maintain full contact with him, even as he got bigger and more dangerous.
The recently published report also mentions that the ZWF does not have a primate enrichment program. The USDA previously referred to a roadside zoo in connection with its primate habitat: it confined two incompatible primates together, and one macaque chased and bit the other, leaving it with bleeding wounds.
PETA, whose motto is in part that “the animals are not ours to be used for entertainment” – opposes arrogance, a worldview focused on human superiority. For more information on collecting news and reporting on PETA investigations, please visit PETA.org or subscribe to the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram…