If anyone needed a reminder about how horribly the notorious Jambbas Ranch treats animals, a newly released report from a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection of the Fayetteville, North Carolina–based roadside zoo reveals that the agency has cited the facility yet again for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

USDA Takes Steps That Get Animals Nowhere

According to the report, the USDA inspector observed a "very thin" rabbit who was "dehydrated," "reluctant to move," and "too weak to reach [the] tall water can" in the cage. The rabbit also suffered from overgrown nails, ear mites, and inflamed ears, which Jambbas had only "treated" with Vaseline. The inspector also observed an abrasion on one of the rabbit's footpads, which Jambbas had not even noticed, let alone treated—nor had the facility noticed that the animal was dehydrated, even though his or her skin was "tenting" (a loss of elasticity seen in cases of fluid loss).

In 2012, PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund joined concerned Fayetteville-area residents in filing a lawsuit challenging the USDA's renewal of Jambbas' license to exhibit animals since applicants must demonstrate AWA compliance. Yet despite this latest violation—and despite additional evidence of AWA noncompliance given to the agency by PETA—the USDA once again renewed Jambbas' license on May 4!

To challenge this latest rubber-stamping of Jambbas' license in the face of a violation found by its own inspector, PETA and the other plaintiffs will be seeking to amend their complaint in the lawsuit against the USDA. In January, a court denied a motion filed by the USDA seeking to dismiss the suit so that the agency could continue with "business as usual"—a business based on animals' abject misery.

How You Can Help

PETA won't rest until all the animals at Jambbas Ranch have bright futures, just as Ben the bear now does. Please urge USDA officials to revoke Jambbas' license immediately and offer them the chance to live out their lives with pride and contentment.

With cruelty as blatant as that displayed at Piccadilly Circus, it is no surprise that the circus is the subject of a whistleblower's report that provides the basis for a PETA complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The complaint details allegation of the circus's habitual physical abuse of animals and systematic failure to provide veterinary care, among other apparent violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

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Cruel Whip

In the affidavit, the whistleblower asserts that while working during the circus's Waterbury, Connecticut, performances, Piccadilly's general manager, Zachary Garden, beat a zebra named Ziggy after the animal jumped out of the performance ring during an evening performance.

During the beating, Ziggy was reportedly held in place by the general supervisor, known as Bucket, while Garden "forcefully [struck] Ziggy with a tiger stick—an approximately 3' long plastic or fiberglass stick with a blunt metal end—with such force that the zebra fell to his front knees and then fell over sideways." Once Ziggy got up, according to the whistleblower, Garden struck him "with great force at least two more times," and the zebra "vocalized loudly and in a strained manner" at the start of the beating and then turned silent. After this beating, Ziggy returned to his cage. 

Animals would be physically punished whenever their performances were "slightly off," and Garden would "strike animals using the handle of a 10'-12' lunge whip when they did not perform their act perfectly," according to the whistleblower. The whistleblower further alleges that Garden struck a camel named Thor—who is approximately 1 or 2 years old—in the right eye with the whip handle because the camel was standing a short distance away from where he was expected to stand, causing the eye to bleed. Furthermore, according to the statement, when a camel named Reece fails to sit in training sessions for the end of performances, Garden uses the whip handle "to beat him on the legs until he oblige[s] or force[s] him down so hard that he … get[s] cuts on his knees."

Left for Dead

The whistleblower also alleged that:

• A handler "repeatedly kick[ed] a goat" while the animal was being loaded into a truck.
• A sheep with a broken leg—possibly from when a Piccadilly worker slammed a separating gate onto her leg or when she fell in the truck—languished without any veterinary care for at least two weeks.
• Animals did not receive veterinary care during the entire duration of the whistleblower's time with Piccadilly—a period of more than nine months—which is especially concerning given the deaths and injuries that reportedly occurred during transport.
• In December 2012, a llama named Spot "appeared to begin dying." Over the course of a single day, Spot developed uncontrollable diarrhea and was unable to stand, yet he "received no veterinary [care]," was not even moved from the pile of his own waste in which he was lying for five to six hours, and ultimately died.
• On or about April 1, 2012, a baby goat named Salem was taken into the woods, per Garden's instructions, after being apparently paralyzed in a transport accident. Garden was reportedly made aware of the fact that Salem was alive and suffering after he was taken into the woods, but he didn't provide the animal with veterinary care.
• A tiger, Rain, allegedly "constantly has a cut on her nose from rubbing it on the bars of the cages" but receives no veterinary care, even though a USDA inspector explicitly told Garden that her injury must be treated.
• While in Piccadilly's winter quarters in Ocala, Florida, this past winter, Garden reportedly instructed an employee to carry a dying sheep into the woods "and leave him to die."

What You Can Do

Please never attend a performance by Piccadilly or any other circus that uses animals. 

Update: Today, The Washington Post ran a cover story highlighting PETA's efforts to stop the U.S. military from killing thousands of goats and pigs each year in crude medical training drills. As the newspaper points out, a bill that was signed into law last month requires the Department of Defense to submit to Congress by the end of this week a detailed strategy and timeline for the phase-out of these deadly exercises. This is the first time in history that Congress has passed a bill that protects animals from abuse in military training exercises. Please take a moment to write to the Department of Defense and urge it to act quickly to phase out these barbaric exercises.

Originally posted on January 4th: 

The year has just begun, but already 2013 has seen an exciting first for animals! President Barack Obama has just signed into law a bill that requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to create a strategy for replacing the shooting, stabbing, and dismembering of animals in military training drills with non-animal methods. This is the first time in history that Congress has passed a bill that seeks to protect animals from being abused in military training exercises.

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The Camera Shot Seen 'Round the World

Last year, people were outraged when PETA released disturbing, never-before-seen undercover footage showing live goats as they were stabbed, had their organs yanked out, and had their limbs broken and cut off with tree trimmers during a military training drill, all while the animals moaned and kicked.

Multitudes of you contacted your representatives demanding that these archaic forms of "training" end and that the abusers who were caught on video be held accountable. You won. Under a provision in the newly signed National Defense Authorization Act, the secretary of defense has less than two months to present Congress with a strategy for phasing out the use of animals in trauma training. And the people who were caught on camera abusing goats were cited for violations of the Animal Welfare Act. 

Dummies Are Smarter

High-profile military veterans Oliver Stone, Bob Barker, and Gideon Raff have all joined you in asking the DOD to modernize its training program by replacing its deadly animal laboratories with more reliable methods such as human-patient simulators. These realistic models can breathe, bleed, talk, and even "die," and trainees can perform procedures on them over and over again until they master lifesaving skills.

While this monumental law requires the secretary of defense to create a plan to phase out the use of animals, it does not mandate a specific date by which animal training methods must end. Help us keep the pressure on by e-mailing the secretary of defense and other DOD and Department of Homeland Security officials and urging them to switch to superior non-animal training methods immediately.

Records just released to PETA by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that notorious elephant exhibitor Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT) was cited by the agency in late August 2012 for violating the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), following a complaint submitted by PETA.

Perilous for Pachyderms—and the Public

According to its newly released inspection report, the USDA cited HTWT for failing to comply with the AWA requirement that a knowledgeable and experienced handler have direct control and supervision of elephants during public exhibition. 

Not only do elephant rides endanger humans and elephants, they're also cruel. After Animal Defenders International released video footage showing that adult and baby elephants cried out in pain as HTWT trainers repeatedly struck them with sharp metal-tipped bullhooks and shocked them with electric prods in 2011, numerous venues severed all ties with the company. It's simply unconscionable for fairs and other attractions to keep hosting HTWT given its history of abuse and endangerment.

What You Can Do

Please join PETA in urging the San Diego County Fair to join the ranks of the Orange County Fair, the Santa Ana Zoo, and the L.A. County Fair and stop hosting HTWT or any other providers of elephant rides.

Update: After reviewing evidence submitted by PETA, the National Institutes of Health has reprimanded the University of Colorado–Denver (CU) for repeatedly violating federal animal welfare guidelines in its laboratories, criticized it for not reporting the problems, and ordered the university to repay grant money used for noncompliant experiments on animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's investigation into CU's laboratories is still underway.

Originally posted January 29:

It's starting to feel like déjà vu: PETA has once again filed formal complaints with the federal government about the abuse of animals in laboratories at the University of Colorado–Denver (CU). Through a state open-records request, PETA has just learned that the same neglect and incompetence that we documented there in a 2007 investigation are still occurring.

The records show that during just the past two years, at least 60 animal welfare incidents—dozens of which may constitute violations of federal law and guidelines—have occurred, including the following:

• A worker broke a rabbit's back as the rabbit struggled against the worker's restraint. The paralyzed animal was still used in an experiment before she was finally killed.
• Experimenters induced cancer in animals and then ineptly cut off the resulting tumors, leaving the animals—who were given no pain relief—with large, gaping wounds.
• Live mice and rats were found in a freezer where dead animals were discarded.
• Twenty guinea pigs died or were killed after a worker injected them with an antibiotic intended for rats.
• A careless employee threw a box of live animals into the trash, leaving the animals to die slowly.

Based on PETA's undercover investigation, in 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited CU for serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act and also issued the university an official warning letting it know that it would be fined $10,000 per incident if it were found violating the law again. It's time for the government to follow through on that warning and stop CU's abuses for good.

How You Can Help  

Please ask the federal government to stop funding cruel animal experiments and to put your tax dollars toward modern, humane non-animal research methods.

PETA has submitted a 64-page petition, which includes case studies, photographs, and expert statements, to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asking the agency to create and apply specific regulations for bears held captive in appalling conditions by exhibitors, dealers, and research facilities. By allowing bears to be kept in squalid cages and concrete pits and denied everything that is natural and important to them, the USDA is clearly failing to ensure anything close to humane treatment of captive bears, in violation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

Changing the Regulations to Reflect Reality

Last month, PETA successfully used legal action to rescue a bear named Ben, who was kept for six long years at Jambbas Ranch in a cramped cage with a concrete floor. Ben was fed dry dog food once a day and spent most of his waking hours pacing the few square feet allotted to him. Despite Ben's obvious suffering and multiple complaints from PETA and others, USDA inspectors failed to cite Jambbas for violations related to Ben. In state court, however, a judge ruled that the conditions in which he was being kept constituted cruelty to animals, proving that the federal AWA isn't preventing cruelty to captive bears.

While Ben's story has a happy ending, hundreds of other bears will continue to languish in squalid conditions unless the USDA takes action. Roadside zoos like Jambbas and the Cherokee Bear Zoo account for the majority of USDA licensees with captive bears. These shabby facilities keep bears in tiny barren cages or concrete pits with woefully inadequate space, lack of physical or mental stimulation, and inappropriate diets and in conditions that deny the bears any opportunity to engage in natural behavior, such as hibernating and foraging. Because their needs aren't being met, many bears in roadside zoos spend most of their time pacing, cage-biting, and head-butting, which experts agree are signs of distress.

Bears Need Their Space—and Much More

Bears have a natural life span of up to three decades, and some species can have a home range of thousands of miles. According to the International Zoo Yearbook, "[I]t is recognized that bears are extremely difficult and challenging creatures to manage in the captive environment"—just as challenging, according to studies, as primates. For example, in a study of 33 carnivorous species, bears showed the most evidence of stress and psychological dysfunction in captivity. An Oxford University study ultimately concluded that "the keeping of naturally wide-ranging carnivores should be either fundamentally improved or phased out." But the requirements for bears' care currently fall under the AWA's minimum regulations for a wide variety of unspecified species, and the USDA is failing to use these generic regulations to protect bears.

In addition to a specific prohibition on keeping bears in abysmal concrete pit–style enclosures, PETA has proposed regulations that would require that bears be furnished with naturalistic habitats, dens for nesting and hibernation, pools for bathing, enough room to forage and explore, enrichment, and other elements that would improve bears' mental and physical well-being.

What You Can Do

Speak up for bears in captivity! Please join PETA in urging the USDA to formulate bear-specific standards to be added to the AWA.

Update: Rather than follow in Rio Rancho's compassionate footsteps, the New Mexico State Fair has decided to allow Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to perform on the state fairgrounds from June 1 to 3 despite Ringling's long history of animal abuse and the vocal opposition of many citizens. You can express your disagreement with the state fair's decision by calling the general manager of the state fair, Dan Mourning, at 505-222-9739 and politely telling him that Ringling should not be allowed to perform on the state fairgrounds. You can also follow up your call with an e-mail to Mourning.

Ringling just got its bell rung, courtesy of Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The circus was scheduled to perform in the city in June, but because of Ringling's sordid history of violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and its recent $270,000 fine from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the city refused to issue Ringling a permit to perform.

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Just last year, Rio Rancho added a provision to its animal ordinance barring any animal shows that had been fined by the USDA in the past five years or cited for violating the AWA in the last three years. Since Ringling just paid the largest fine in circus history last year and racked up 10 violations of the AWA in the past three years, it certainly didn't pass muster. PETA has sent a thank-you letter to the city.

Ringling's Next Move—and How to Stop It

Now Ringling is trying to haul "The Cruelest Show on Earth" to the state fairgrounds in Albuquerque. PETA is appealing to the Tingley Coliseum at the fairgrounds, detailing Ringling's long history of animal abuse and urging the venue to block the circus just as Rio Rancho has.

What You Can Do

Call state fair officials at 505-222-9700 and politely urge them not to allow Ringling to perform. You can follow up your call with an e-mail to the general manager of the state fair, Dan Mourning.

You might recall that last fall, PETA convinced Simon Property Group, the largest real estate company in the country, to ban exotic-animal exhibits at all its properties. At one mall that Simon owns in Winchester, Virginia, Cole Bros. Circus makes an annual appearance during the city's Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, which means that Cole Bros. would have to skip this city altogether or use only human performers in its show—no animals whatsoever.

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To our surprise, that is just what the circus is doing! The Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival announced that Cole Bros. had created "a new-concept circus in 2012 entitled 'Circus of the Stars' that they feel will be just as dazzling and just as amazing as previous circuses." I'm of the opinion that seeing a circus replete with daring and funny human performers would be considerably more exciting than watching frightened, abused animals forced to do silly tricks.

Cole Bros. has a long history of repeatedly violating the Animal Welfare Act and recently incurred a $15,000 fine after PETA filed two complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding the physical safety and psychological well-being of two of its elephants. It was also forced to pay $150,000 for illegally selling endangered elephants to someone wholly unable to provide them with proper care, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. 

But this humans-only circus is a great start toward making Cole Bros.' abuse of animals a thing of the past, and PETA will continue working to have venues host only the circus's animal-free performances.

In a moving TV news report about two bear cubs orphaned near Cherokee, North Carolina, who were rehabilitated and released into their native habitat, Cherokee Chief Michell Hicks commented, "It makes you feel good to know that you were able to help an animal that was in an unfortunate situation." PETA wants Chief Hicks to feel even better, so we're asking him to help other bears in unfortunate situations: those who are languishing in Cherokee's squalid bear pits. 

Unbearable Conditions

The three roadside zoos on the reservation—Cherokee Bear Zoo, Chief Saunooke Park, and Santa's Land—have all received numerous U.S. Department of Agriculture citations for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including failing to provide veterinary care, feeding bears moldy food, exposing bears to electrical outlets and sharp metal, and leaving bears' fur caked with feces.

But despite the citations, the bears are still kept in barren concrete cages, where they exhibit neurotic behaviors brought on by the stress of intense confinement, such as pacing, walking in circles, crying, and begging tourists for food.

What You Can Do

Chief Hicks said the rehabilitation of the bear cubs showed the kind hearts of the Cherokee people. Ask him to extend that compassion to all bears by working to close the Cherokee bear pits and retire the animals to sanctuaries.

Update: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ordered Cole Bros. to pay a $15,000 penalty for its numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

After receiving complaints from PETA about the cruel and neglectful treatment of elephants Tina and Jewell, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has now formally charged Cole Bros. Circus  and its owner, John Pugh, for numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including the following:

• Failure to provide adequate veterinary care to an underweight elephant with a protruding spine and emaciated body
• Failure to employ personnel who were adequately trained and capable of caring for the elephants
• Transferring elephants, against the recommendations of an elephant specialist, to an unlicensed exhibitor who lacked the skills and training to adequately care for them
• Failure to provide adequate enclosures for the elephants

In addition, Cole Bros. Circus and Pugh were charged with exhibiting animals without a license, employing a tiger handler who lacked adequate training, and illegally dealing in tigers.

The charges follow the seizure of Jewell and subsequent surrender of Tina in 2009 after the circus was slapped with a $150,000 fine for illegally selling the elephants in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Tina and Jewell were rehomed at a zoo, which, while not ideal, is a considerable improvement over being trucked across the country in chains and cramped, stuffy trailers.

Wherever the circus goes, you can bet that animal suffering goes with it. Please leave these cruel shows off your summer itinerary and choose animal-free circuses instead.

 
Written by Michelle Sherrow