Another Roadside Zoo - Another Case of Cruelty

worldanimalnews.com/another-roadside-zoo-suspected-widespread-mistreatment-animals/

These stories really fry my ass when I read them for so many reasons. Zoo's are meant to be educational, informative, and safe for visitors and animals alike. They are supposed to have the animal's health and well being looked after and are supposed to provide a clean, well maintained space for animals to live and roam while enclosed. Unfortunately, roadside zoos often disregard all of these things for the sake of profits. Small, cramped enclosures, lack of veterinary care, and animals that are obtained illegally are all common among these pop up zoos. With that in mind, this takes us to Indiana where PETA recently visited Maple Lane Wildlife Park and discovered a slew of problems regarding animal welfare.

​PETA filed a complaint with the USDA regarding their findings and want the roadside zoo investigated after discovering several problems with the roadside attraction. These problems included a bear that appeared to be struggling to walk, a tiger with an ulcerated lesion, monkeys that were displaying obvious signs of emotional distress, and small, cramped spaces. All of these things are direct disregard for the animals and their welfare.

What's especially interesting is that this is not the first time the USDA has been involved with Maple Lane. In 2011, they were slapped with official warnings regarding lack of veterinary care, lack of clean space for animals, and lack of maintained safe enclosures for animals. Considering all of these things, is it really surprising that PETA discovered what they did at this attraction? Not at all.

Despite all of this, there's a much bigger picture here that needs to be addressed. With this and really any roadside zoo or attraction, it seems that there is a real problem with accountability. This roadside zoo in particular has apparently received official warnings several times since 2011 and yet here they are, operating without addressing a single issue. Animals continue to live in unsafe, dirty enclosures. They're apparently still lacking veterinary care and are still displaying signs of distress and emotional torment. So how does this happen?

Things need to get a lot stricter and punishments must start being doled out to prevent further neglect and abuse. It's evident that the USDA is aware of the issues with this zoo but their warnings are falling on deaf ears. This investigation by PETA proves that since their original warnings in 2011, nothing has changed. What do these official warnings even mean as far as accountability? Clearly they're a problem under the law, so why is nothing being further done about these problems? 2011 - 2017 is a long time. That's 6 years that Maple Lane has been warned repeatedly and continued to operate at the same level. This is not acceptable by any means. 

In my opinion, there needs to be much more focus put on offering fines, punishments, and deadlines to rectify the problems. Had there been appropriate pressure put on Maple Lane in 2011, who's to say they'd even be operating at this point? Those animals could have been in a sanctuary somewhere by now if more had been done or at the very least cared for by a veterinarian. The USDA needs to step up their investigations and do more to ensure change.

Every single official warning doled out to a roadside attraction NEEDS to have a penalty attached to a timeline. For example, lack of veterinary care is a serious problem when you consider the animal's well being right? There should be a 30 day period for the attraction to hire a proper veterinarian and show evidence of this before the deadline or face hefty fines putting their business at risk or ultimately shutting them down. There's no other way to do this.
​Without appropriate punishment and accountability being addressed, these poor exotic animals will continue to suffer while people unknowingly pay into their torture.

What do you guys think? Do you think the USDA needs to step things up? Leave your comments on twitter, fb, or here of course!


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