Monkey Dungeon’ Discovered in US Zoo

When an animal welfare inspector from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) visited Wilson’s Wild Animal Park this summer, she identified no violations.

The federal inspection report for the zoo in Virginia, which is home to about 200 exotic and barnyard animals, was pristine.

But that is not what local law-enforcement officers found the very next day.

Sent by the state attorney general, their observations triggered a search one week later by a team of veterinarians, zoologists and law enforcement officers.

They discovered an array of problems, according to later court testimony, including a pony with a swollen face, maggot-covered meat in the tiger cage, and what a prosecutor described as a “monkey dungeon”.

The chasm between the USDA and local assessments provides a stark illustration of a dramatic decline in federal animal-welfare enforcement amid a deregulation push by the Trump administration.

From 2016 to 2018, the number of USDA citations issued to about 10,000 zoos, circuses, breeders and research labs under its regulation fell by 65 per cent.

The agency attributes the drop in citations, which can lead to fines and revoked licences, to new efforts to work closely with businesses and their veterinarians to correct violations. Former employees have said it is the result of a more lenient approach that puts animals at risk.

The Virginia Zoo was among the facilities that the USDA stopped citing. For years, inspectors documented numerous violations there, including a lion enclosure with walls too short to prevent escape and a concrete-floored bear pen with little more than a tire-swing for entertainment.

Since mid-2018, however, the zoo’s three reports have been clean.