Kategorie: Animals

After PETA alerted the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to several animals in need of urgent veterinary care at the despicable Indian Creek Zoo in Michigan, the agency took action, inspecting the hellhole and issuing a penalty of $13,500 for multiple alleged violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

Indian Creek Zoo is no stranger to incompetence: It’s received 18 citations since 2015 for failing to meet the AWA’s minimum standards. The violations in the citation and penalty—dated between November 11, 2020, and August 3, 2021—include the following serious medical concerns:

• A rabbit and a tayra had hair loss and red, inflamed skin.
• Multiple deer were underweight, and one had overgrown hooves as well as diarrhea so severe that it had stained the animal’s legs.
• A goat was limping, with a painful, swollen leg joint.

Indian Creek Zoo failed to address these problems adequately and didn’t communicate the conditions of sick animals to its attending veterinarian. These animals should never have been allowed to suffer this way.

Indian Creek Zoo Is Dangerous

Enclosures at the roadside zoo were so poorly maintained that they were a danger to humans and other animals at the facility. A baboon reached through a gap in an enclosure and then grabbed and bit an employee. In addition, a porcupine escaped and was never found. Indian Creek Zoo was cited for both incidents, but the sheer incompetence on display underscores why the facility should never be trusted with the lives of animals or the public.

Ugly Ties to Other Roadside Zoos

In March 2021, Indian Creek Zoo received Peanut, a weeks-old bear cub, from Don Fuller, a shady animal dealer in New York. Peanut had been torn away from her mother and then shipped—surely afraid and traumatized—630 miles to Indian Creek Zoo. Mere days later, the facility apparently thought it was appropriate to ship little Peanut another 400 miles in state to Oswald’s Bear Ranch, a hellish death trap for bears, which profits from using them as photo props. Oswald’s has a reputation for dozens of apparently premature bear deaths and has been known to send bears to slaughter—but Indian Creek Zoo allowed this notorious facility to purchase Peanut anyway.

Peanut was just 3 months old when she died at Oswald’s, and Indian Creek Zoo shares responsibility for her death.

Never Support Roadside Zoos

Supporting roadside zoos with your money, time, and attention allows scumbags to turn a profit from animal abuse. The owners of these establishments are always concerned with their bottom line first and animals’ well-being second, if at all—which is why Indian Creek Zoo, Oswald’s Bear Ranch, and other lousy businesses are hotbeds of animal suffering and misery, constantly incapable of meeting even the basic needs of animals. Learn more about roadside zoos here.

You can help animals at Oswald’s Bear Ranch—the despicable facility where Peanut suffered and died just last year—by speaking up. Please urge it to send the remaining bears to accredited sanctuaries before more of them die.

SeaQuest is a chain of direct-contact shopping mall aquariums that confine wild animals to crummy enclosures for stressful public encounters with gawking humans.

Wild animals don’t want to interact with humans, and subjecting them to a barrage of unnatural, direct-contact encounters is not only stressful for them but also dangerous for everyone involved. To make matters worse, SeaQuest staff are demonstrably unfit to handle wildlife appropriately and often don’t closely monitor the public’s interactions with animals.

SeaQuest clearly knows all these things, as there have been many injuries to visitors and staff members at a number of its locations across the country, resulting in negative customer reviews and several federal citations.

But the company still hasn’t ceased its dangerous operations.

So PETA is pushing back yet again.

On November 7, we filed a massive complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), calling on the agency to investigate SeaQuest and the Austin Aquarium—another seedy indoor mall petting zoo—over unfair trade practices in apparent violation of federal law. Our groundbreaking complaint alleges that the companies promote dangerous, direct-contact encounters with wild animals, which have caused a substantial number of physical injuries to unsuspecting customers.

Many incidents have occurred at SeaQuest locations, including the following:

• At SeaQuest Littleton, a pufferfish bit an 8-year-old child; an Asian water monitor named Spartacus bit an employee; an iguana jumped onto a child’s chest and “got a claw inside her mouth”; an iguana jumped onto an employee’s shoulder and caught a nail under the person’s eye; iguanas have bitten visitors on multiple occasions; a pacu bit a child; a porcupine pufferfish bit a patron, who later reported numbness and difficulty breathing; and a pig bit a visitor, who reportedly had to go to urgent care.
• At SeaQuest Fort Worth, an iguana latched onto the arm of a 3-year-old boy, who had to be rushed to the hospital to receive stitches; a capybara bit the hand of a child who had reached over the side of an enclosure; a fish bit a toddler’s fingers; a sloth bit a visitor while staff weren’t fully monitoring the encounter; and an Asian small-clawed otter injured customers, even after the USDA cited the facility over previous injuries involving this animal.

• At SeaQuest Trumbull, a pig bit a customer’s finger, a kinkajou scratched a child’s face while jumping for a bowl of food, and an otter bit two children.
• At SeaQuest Utah, an Asian small-clawed otter bit a guests’ thumb, a kinkajou bit a guest, and a coatimundi named Gus bit a visitor and an employee.
• At SeaQuest Roseville, a sloth bit a guest during an encounter. That year, several of the animals at the facility were diagnosed with diseases that could spread to humans, including ringworm, chlamydia, and toxoplasmosis.
• At SeaQuest Las Vegas, a coatimundi reportedly scratched a boy, who was then taken to the hospital. In addition, a kinkajou bit an employee and a small-clawed otter named Chip bit an employee during a presentation.

PETA’s Urging the FTC to Take Action

The FTC Act prohibits unfair or deceptive trade practices. SeaQuest and Austin Aquarium market themselves as safe, family-friendly operations while encouraging customers to engage directly with wild animals, who can behave unpredictably and can potentially be carrying transmissible diseases. Customers continue to be injured by animals while engaging in activities that SeaQuest and the Austin Aquarium encourage.

PETA’s complaint asserts that the direct-contact encounters offered by these facilities cause a substantial number of physical injuries to consumers and therefore are unfair trade practices that violate federal law. We’re calling on the agency to investigate both companies over these alleged unfair trade practices.

Here’s What You Can Do

While PETA has worked tirelessly to expose SeaQuest for its cruel exploitation of animals—from providing local officials with evidence of animal deaths to putting up a giant “bloody” billboard near a SeaQuest location—10 of its facilities are still open to the public. But you can help us shut these miserable operations down.

Never visit SeaQuest, the Austin Aquarium, or any other dubious mall aquarium or roadside zoo. If you have been injured at a SeaQuest location, be sure to report the incident to local officials and contact PETA.

Click the button below to take action against SeaQuest: