Urging USDA to Revoke AWA Exhibitor License from Jason Clay (2024)

On February 27, 2024, the Animal Legal Defense Fund submitted a complaint urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to investigate and revoke, or refuse to renew, the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) exhibitor license for convicted wildlife trafficker Jason Clay, who is doing business in Texas as two entities, Franklin Drive Thru Safari and East Texas Zoo & Gator Park.

As recently as November 2023, Clay was cited and fined over $5,000. And in December 2023, he pleaded guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act for illegally transporting an endangered juvenile chimpanzee across state lines.

In the past two years, Clay has had AWA violations on four separate inspections of his facilities.

Documented violations include:

• Failure to maintain records for the acquisition of 37 animals and the disposition of 24, including a jackal, zebra, savannah cat, and muntjac.
• Inability to ensure that his facilities provide adequate potable water, including in an enclosure containing 23 animals.
• Neglecting to prevent injuries, such as a pig with long hooves curling upward on their hind feet, which “can lead to discomfort, pain and crippling in animals.”
• inadequate veterinary care resulting in deaths to at least a pygmy hippo and a giraffe, as well as servals with hair loss and an aardvark who was missing the tip of their tail.
• Failure to maintain structural integrity of enclosures, such as nail heads and screws protruding from wooden surfaces inside the capybara and bird enclosures.
• Failure to maintain a safe and effective pest control program, resulting in a large amount of flies on and around the feed trough in a petting zoo area containing goats and zebu.

This is the second complaint filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund with the USDA demanding Clay’s license be revoked or not renewed. The first was filed in January 2022. In April 2022, the Animal Legal Defense Fund also filed a complaint to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), urging the agency to inspect and appropriately enforce workplace safety laws with regard to Clay in response to ongoing OSHA violations and a resulting animal attack causing substantial injuries to an employee at his East Texas Zoo and Gator Park facility.

What action has been taken: The Animal Legal Defense Fund sent this complaint to the USDA urging the agency to end its licensing of Jason Clay, a criminal wildlife trafficker who is using an AWA exhibitor license to do business in Texas as two entities, Franklin Drive Thru Safari and East Texas Zoo and Gator Park.

Why this action is important: Laws only work to protect animals if they are enforced. The Animal Legal Defense Fund holds government agencies accountable when they fail to uphold the minimal protections animals have under the law. In this case, the USDA has documented Jason Clay’s inability to comply with the law and he has pleaded guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act  — his license should be revoked.