PETA AU Global Issue 3

Saved! Mo and Curly are two of the 75 big cats PETA has rescued.

Revoked and Seized After PETA had urged the USDA to investigate GW for years, Lowe’s exhibitor’s license was finally revoked. He and his wife and two of their businesses are now being sued by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under the AWA and ESA. Based in part on evidence obtained by PETA’s lawyers, including admissions regarding ongoing big-cat breeding (in violation of a court order) and testimony from Jeff Lowe that he housed big-cat cubs and juveniles in his home and let employees take big-cat cubs home with them, and evidence regarding the condition of the lions PETA rescued from him, DOJ officials seized 69 protected big cats from a new roadside zoo owned by the Lowes, Tiger King Park. The feds cited “ongoing Endangered Species Act (ESA) violations” as the reason for the seizure. GW has now closed, and nearly every animal abuser featured in Tiger King is in custody, out of business, or facing lawsuits or charges. The cub-petting industry’s days are numbered.

abuser Tim Stark – who gleefully admitted to beating a leopard to death with a baseball bat – and sued him under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA). In a watershed victory, the court ruled that prematurely separating big-cat cubs from their mothers and using them in public encounters violates the ESA – a precedent that will help PETA take down the cub-petting industry – and ordered the transfer to accredited sanctuaries of all 22 tigers, lions, and hybrids at Wildlife in Need, Stark’s now-closed Indiana roadside zoo. PETA led the rescue, and, in a separate case, Stark was permanently banned from acquiring, exhibiting, or owning any exotic or native animals again. A few days later, PETA confiscated three juvenile lions from GW, run by Joe and Stark’s ex-business partner Jeff Lowe, a habitual animal exploiter. Stark had sent the lions there as cubs in violation of multiple court orders. PETA paid to have them transported to an accredited sanctuary. All three were thin, with flystrike sores on their ears. Nala, the smallest, was suffering from multiple broken bones and severe malnutrition. Today, they’re all thriving.

Joe Moldonado-Passage mug shot: © Santa Rosa County Jail • Mug shot background: © iStock.com/Atstock Productions

Tiger cubs weren’t the only infants traumatized by Tim Stark.

he fled GW. All of them are now living happily ever after at reputable sanctuaries. Take Action Now Help animals by never paying to pet them or pose with them – and never visiting roadside

PETA to the Rescue Not only was PETA instrumental in sending Joe Exotic

up the river – testifying at his trial and presenting the evidence that triggered the investigation into his violations of federal wildlife laws – it also helped rescue 39 tigers and several other animals before

zoos. Help friends and family plan animal-friendly vacations by visiting PETA.org/Vacation for humane travel tips. And go to PETA.org/RoadsideZoos to fill out action alerts to help big cats and other animals suffering at tourist traps.

Saved!

PETA v. the ‘Tiger King’ &We Win!

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Bullied as a cub at Dade City’s Wild Things, Luna is now free to be herself at her sanctuary home.

I t’s been a year since Netflix aired that titillating version of Joe Exotic’s sordid story. With rumors afloat of a second season in the works, here’s a reminder of what wasn’t shown and PETA’s role in taking down the “Tiger King.” Joe Exotic is where he belongs: in prison, after being sentenced to 22 years for trying to have a big-cat activist murdered and for many crimes against wildlife, including shooting five tigers in the head to make room for others he took money to board at his now-defunct Oklahoma roadside zoo.

Joe also churned out big-cat cubs, telling PETA that he sold them to people he knew would bash them in the head with a hammer when they grew too big for photo ops. Many newborns were only hours old when taken away from their mothers and dragged around the US so that people could pay to pet and pose with them. Citing Joe’s more than 200 violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), PETA pushed the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) not to renew his license and brought the same tenacity in targeting other lowlifes in Joe’s orbit.

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acted on alarming information about his Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Memorial Park (GW) and sent an undercover investigator to document the real story at the decrepit hellhole that he billed as “an upscale zoo for rescued animals.” Shocking, Rampant Abuse PETA’s investigator found dead, dying, and injured animals; grossly crowded conditions; a lack of basic necessities; and untrained workers who broke up fights by beating animals with rakes and shovels or blasting them with fire extinguishers.

PETA Takes Out the Trash PETA filed complaint after complaint against serial

PETA was onto Joe Exotic (real name: Joseph Maldonado-Passage) long before this. In 2006, PETA

Global

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ROYAL FLUSH

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