Will Feds Allow Deadly 'Wildlife Center' to Breed Animals in Captivity?

PETA has filed formal comments with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS) opposing an application by Serenity Springs, a disreputable Colorado-based pseudo-sanctuary, for a permit to breed captive endangered animals.

YayAdrien | cc by 2.0

It’s hard to imagine any facility less qualified to meet the requirements for a breeding permit under
the Endangered Species Act. Serenity Springs has an appalling record of
mortalities—by its own admission, approximately
one-third of its animals have died in
the past five years. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), many of these deaths involved improper handling and/or denial of
veterinary care—and the agency has dozens of charges for Animal Welfare Act
violations pending against Serenity Springs.

Canadian Starhawk | cc by 2.0

In the FWS filing, PETA also notes that the permit
application contains misleading and incomplete statements about animals’ deaths.
For example, the death of a tiger named Nala is conspicuously omitted from the
required list of mortalities. According to the USDA, Serenity Springs manager Nick Sculac (who
is not a veterinarian) diagnosed Nala as having cancer and then, rather than
obtaining veterinary care for her, gave the tiger “three doses of a
sedative, unsuccessfully attempted to inject Nala with euthanasia solution, and
ultimately killed Nala by cutting her
throat, and reported to Colorado officials that Nala had died of natural causes.”

What You Can Do

Next time you pass any roadside zoo, please just keep on driving—these cruel operations stay in business only
because people patronize them.