People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has once again filed a complaint against the roadside zoo, Tregembo Animal Park, in Wilmington, North Carolina after receiving a video from a concerned citizen showing animals that appeared to be in distress.
"A concerned citizen recently visited Tregembo and contacted PETA to report some concerns. They provided video of a limping monkey, animals with suspicious hair loss, and a bobcat that appears to be blind," said Carney Anne is Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement at the PETA Foundation, in a report from WHQR.
The said video contains footages of several animals pacing and circling. This behavior of animals is oftentimes seen as an indicator of inadequate space and mental distress. Some of the animals seen circling around their tiny, chain-link fence enclosures include a fennec fox, a serval, a bear, a capuchin monkey and patas monkeys.
Aside from the circling animals, the video also showed a guenon monkey limping from what appears to be an injury. The video also featured a fox and a donkey that are suffering from hair loss. Additionally, there's footage of a bobcat that appears to have difficulty seeing and may be visually impaired or blind. PETA noted that the condition of the bobcat may be the result of an untreated condition of illness and certainly warrants veterinary evaluation.
Officials of the zoo disagree with PETA's interpretation of the video, saying that the video itself is misleading. Sherry Tregembo, the owner of Tregembo Animal Park, addressed the complaints citing several explanations for the animals' behavior and appearance.
Sherry noted that there is nothing wrong with the limping monkey, who apparently likes to hop around on one foot and been doing it for 20 years. The alleged hair loss of a donkey and a fox is actually their winter coats shedding, while the bobcat is already 15 years old and confirmed to be blind.
This is not the first time PETA requested the US Department of Agriculture to inspect the Tregembo Animal Park. In 2015, the zoo received a citation from the USDA due to a violation of the Animal Welfare Act. The citation was made when the zoo failed to attend to the veterinary needs of a bear with facial lesions.
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