Facility's Failure to Take Protective Measures Following Advance Warning of Flood Directly Violates State Law, Says Group
For Immediate Release:
June 21, 2012
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Duluth, Minn. -- PETA sent a letter to Duluth City Attorney Gunnar Johnson today urging him to ensure that appropriate charges are filed by officials in the deaths of 14 animals who drowned after being left in their enclosures during Wednesday's massive downpour and flash flooding. In its letter, PETA points out that despite an advance warning about heavy rains and flash flooding, zoo officials left a donkey and several sheep, goats, and birds in enclosures that flooded when nearby Kingsbury Creek flooded its banks. PETA contends that the zoo was surely aware that the animals faced such danger since the same creek caused flooding at the facility in 2010.
"It's difficult to imagine the terror that these animals experienced, having no way to escape as the water engulfed them," says PETA Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. "The zoo failed to take necessary action to safeguard these animals' lives, and those responsible must be criminally charged."
Minnesota's animal protection laws define "cruelty" as "every act, omission, or neglect which causes or permits unnecessary or unjustifiable pain, suffering, or death" and state that anyone who deprives any animal of necessary shelter or causes or allows any animal to be unjustifiably injured or killed is in violation.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA's letter to Duluth City Attorney Gunnar Johnson follows.
June 21, 2012
The Honorable
Gunnar Johnson
Duluth City Attorney's Office
411 W. First St., Rm. 410
Duluth, MN 55802
Dear Mr. Johnson:
We hope this letter finds you well.
PETA is an international animal rights organization with more than 3 million members and supporters globally. This letter concerns a June 20, 2012, incident during which a number of animals confined to the Lake Superior Zoo (7210 Fremont St., Duluth)—including a donkey, six sheep, four goats, a snowy owl, a turkey vulture, and a raven—were reportedly allowed to drown. Even though the city had been issued a flash-flood warning the evening prior and even with having already experienced such an event in 2010, zoo officials still failed to take any effective measures to protect the animals from this horrific fate.
We believe Lake Superior Zoo's negligence to be a violation of Minnesota's cruelty-to-animals statute, Chapter 343.29, which defines "cruelty" as "every act, omission, or neglect which causes or permits unnecessary or unjustifiable pain, suffering, or death" and which provides that anyone who deprives any animal of necessary shelter or causes or allows any animal to be unjustifiably injured or killed is in violation.
On behalf of our thousands of members in Minnesota, we respectfully request that your office do everything in its power to ensure that those responsible for this predictable, preventable tragedy are charged appropriately.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
We hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Kristin Simon
Senior Cruelty Caseworker
Cruelty Investigations Department