Notice of Intent to Sue Sent to Texas Roadside Zoo for Violating Endangered Species Act

Contact: media@aldf.org

DALLAS — The Animal Legal Defense Fund sent notice to a Texas roadside zoo and current chairman and executive director for allegedly violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The facility, the Animal Legal Defense Fund argues, violates the ESA’s “take” and “transfer” provisions by harming, harassing, and killing numerous animals — including nine lions and tigers who have died there since 2018 — and by transferring members of endangered and threatened species across state lines without the necessary permits.

Extensive photographic and video evidence, first-hand observations, and government analyses — including an official warning issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — indicate that animals at the roadside zoo believed to be protected by the ESA are mentally and physically suffering. Instances highlighting the roadside zoo’s lack of adequate care for the animals in its facility are detailed in USDA inspection reports, public records, and first-hand accounts of withheld or delayed care. They include a puma who was euthanized days after he began dragging his leg around his enclosure and became immobile, a tiger  who stopped eating and was found dead in his cage, a tiger who was euthanized after developing a distended abdomen and rejecting food, a tiger who had a cyst the size of a quarter in her abdomen that grew over multiple weeks to the size of a dinner plate before rupturing, and a tiger who refused to eat after transferring to the facility before ultimately passing away after spending hours in the rain and laying on his side in his own urine. The roadside zoo also keeps two ESA-protected ring-tailed lemurs, highly social animals who typically live in groups, isolated in separate enclosures with insufficient opportunities for enrichment and play.

“Our notice to the Texas roadside zoo comes after documented instances of inadequate care — including from the USDA — in clear violation of the ESA as animals continue to suffer needlessly without adequate housing, species-specific nutrition, timely veterinary care, or opportunities for enrichment,” says Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells. “We are prepared to file a lawsuit if violations at the facility are not appropriately addressed.”

The notice letter also alleges that the roadside zoo has violated the “transfer” provision of the ESA by failing to obtain applicable permits from the Secretary of Interior for its acquisition and transfer of endangered animals. For instance, in the past three years alone, the roadside zoo has acquired at least six protected animals out-of-state and transported them in interstate commerce. The roadside zoo acquired three tigers in December 2018, and three additional tigers in March 2019, each from Doc Antle of Netflix’s Tiger King in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The ESA protects any members of species defined as “endangered” or “threatened” from myriad activities that cause them injury, death, or other types of harm. In 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit unanimously affirmed the lower court’s decision applying the ESA to protect endangered animals in captivity — setting precedent for future challenges. This precedent setting case was filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund in 2014 against Cricket Hollow Zoo, a roadside menagerie in Manchester, Iowa, related to inhumane treatment of Siberian tigers and lemurs.