PETA Cites Federal Investigation Into Animal Suffering, Safety Issues, Anti-Educational Lessons for Kids
For Immediate Release:
December 14, 2011
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Mooresville, N.C. -- PETA has written today to every school district in North Carolina urging them to end all field trips to Mooresville–based Lazy 5 Ranch. In the letter, PETA points out that Lazy 5 has been repeatedly cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for violations of federal laws regarding the neglect of giraffes, sheep, deer, and other animals at the tawdry, unaccredited roadside zoo. Government records reveal that the USDA has cited Lazy 5 Ranch 21 times since June 2010, and the department has launched a formal investigation of the facility for violations of law. Lazy 5 has also been cited on safety grounds for allowing children to come into close contact with dangerous animals.
"Lazy 5 Ranch is the last place that youngsters should visit, unless they want a lesson in how not to keep animals," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "This deplorable roadside zoo exposes kids to cruelty and disease and illustrates how not to treat intelligent, feeling animals."
The following are just some of the problems at Lazy 5 Ranch:
- A giraffe's hoofs are so overgrown that the animal can barely walk—a painful condition that has gone untreated for more than a year.
- A deer was left to languish with a pendulous abdominable mass for more than month after Lazy 5's own veterinarian and a consulting vet both recommended euthanasia.
- The USDA cited the facility for failing to provide adequate veterinary care to 14 unshorn sheep who suffered heat distress after temperatures reached into the 90s.
- A deer suffered from a 4-inch-diameter open wound that was covered with flies.
S. Loren Cole, Ph.D., a prominent ecologist and professor, explains that at facilities such as Lazy 5 children will learn "a little bit about how animals behave when living in a contrived, alien environment but they will learn virtually nothing about how animals typically live in their native habitat." Cole further observed that children "will also learn, from watching animals held captive in cages, that, as a human, the life force and the basic quality of life of other [beings] do not need to be respected." (emphasis added)
For more information and to view video footage, please visit PETA's blog.