Workers Ordered to Kick Cubs, Conceal Insurance policies From Public; PETA Recordsdata Complaints With Federal, Native Authorities
For Instant Launch:
July 31, 2023
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Speedy Metropolis, S.D. – Scaring mom bears out of their dens with bottle rockets whereas standing by with shotguns and operating chainsaws “so the moms can’t hear the infants screaming”—that’s how staff at Bear Nation U.S.A. stole cubs from their moms earlier than placing them on show on the roadside zoo, as revealed in footage from a new PETA undercover investigation. Staff, one in every of whom described the method as “stealing kids and taking them to a white van” and “just a little bit dangerous on the morals,” had been warned to not talk about it with prospects, as a supervisor instructed in an e-mail, “Chorus from going into … element that might be offensive to the general public. … [G]uests don’t have to know the whole lot of the reality.”
In nature, cubs stick with their moms for at the very least 16 months—however PETA’s exposé reveals that Bear Nation U.S.A. forcibly separated them after they’re not more than 8 weeks previous and saved them in cardboard containers. The cubs had been flaunted to a gaggle of youngsters, though the supervisor acknowledged that the animals had been “scared.” Weeks later, the supervisor instructed PETA’s investigator to “kick [the cubs] down” and to “pinch their nostril as arduous as you f***ing can” in the event that they bit. A senior employee famous that “the longer you maintain these guys, the extra of a d**okay they’re going to be as they develop.”
Staff at Bear Nation U.S.A. additionally used firecrackers to separate 4-week-old wolf pups from their moms in order that they, too, might be exhibited to the general public, and grownup animals on the roadside zoo had been denied enough veterinary care, together with a skinny 17-year-old fox named Mama who seemed to be in ache and was lacking an in depth quantity of fur. When the supervisor lastly sought look after her practically 11 weeks after PETA’s investigator raised issues, a veterinarian euthanized her and located that she had widespread most cancers.
“Screaming cubs and mourning moms are Bear Nation U.S.A.’s bread and butter,” says PETA Basis Director of Captive Animal Welfare Debbie Metzler. “Technology after technology of bear households are torn aside by the sordid roadside zoo trade, and PETA urges everybody to steer clear of any enterprise that makes use of susceptible child animals as props.”
Staff had been additionally injured on the roadside zoo. PETA’s investigator was bitten and scratched on the arms, one bear “rip[ped] out a piece” of a employee’s leg, one other swatted at and lacerated the employee’s heel, and a cub “beat the s*** out of” a 3rd employee’s face. That employee mentioned animal bites are “one thing you … get used to.”
Accordingly, PETA has submitted proof to the U.S. Division of Agriculture, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Workplace, and the Occupational Security and Well being Administration looking for investigations into obvious violations of legal guidelines concerning animal welfare, neglect, endangered species, and employee security.
PETA—whose motto reads, partly, that “animals aren’t ours to make use of for leisure”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For extra data on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please go to PETA.org, hearken to The PETA Podcast, or comply with the group on Twitter, Fb, or Instagram
