Chimpanzee Carnage at Zoo Nebraska
Update: PETA Calls On Antelope County Supervisors to Investigate Zoo Nebraska
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection reports recently obtained by PETA through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal Zoo Nebraska’s chronic failure to maintain minimum safety standards, caging requirements, and husbandry practices established by the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Of the more than 130 citations issued in 16 inspection reports between May 2000 and November 2006, 27 were categorized as repeat noncompliances.
Over this period, the USDA cited Zoo Nebraska for failure to provide veterinary care to underweight tigers and primates with excessive hair loss, failure to repair a tiger enclosure to prevent escape, failure to have an adequate perimeter fence and safety barrier around dangerous animals, failure to provide animals with a source of heat during bitterly cold winters, failure to provide primates with adequate environmental enhancement to promote their psychological well-being, failure to provide adequate drainage in enclosures with pools of fecal matter and mud, improper euthanasia, and insufficient access to drinking water. Furthermore, of the 16 inspection reports:
- Six reports cited the zoo for lacking staff members who were sufficiently trained, experienced, and knowledgeable to handle dangerous animals�specifically primates and large felids.
- Eleven reports cited the zoo for structurally unsound enclosures and/or keeping animal enclosures in disrepair, thereby threatening the health and safety of the animals and posing a potential for escape.
- Three reports cited the zoo for failure to have a disaster program with the means to restrain or capture animals and/or having no employees knowledgeable in the operation of the tranquilizer gun. On September 10, 2005, nine months after the second citation, the zoo’s four chimpanzees escaped and three were subsequently shot to death. USDA and media reports indicated that employees did not know how to use the tranquilizer gun.
While roadside zoos are licensed by the USDA, they are not exempt from state and local statutes. Many of Zoo Nebraska’s USDA violations also appear to violate the state’s cruelty-to-animals laws. Rather than relying on the USDA—which has allowed the ongoing animal suffering and dangerous circumstances at the zoo—county officials need to address the situation at Zoo Nebraska through the strict enforcement of state law.
What You Can Do
Contact the Antelope County Board of Supervisors and urge the supervisors to initiate a thorough investigation of Zoo Nebraska for potential violations of state cruelty-to-animals laws. Also politely request that they enact a ban on the private possession of wild and exotic animals to prevent future problems.
Merlin Bolling, Chair
Antelope County Board of Supervisors
P.O. Box 26
Neligh, NE 68756
402-887-4719 (fax)
Update: Swoosie Kurtz Appeals to Governor in Ripley’s Behalf
Emmy winner, two-time Tony Award winner, and Nebraska native Swoosie Kurtz has taken up Ripley’s cause. In a poignant letter pleading for Gov. Heineman’s help in securing Ripley’s transfer to a sanctuary, Swoosie writes: “Ripley is likely consumed with heartbreak over the loss of his companions. He desperately needs to be relocated to a sanctuary where he will be provided with lots of space, a nurturing environment, and special care by experienced caretakers for the rest of his life.”
Background
Zoo Nebraska is an unaccredited roadside zoo in Royal, Nebraska, that displayed four chimpanzees. On Saturday, September 10, 2005, zoo workers failed to properly lock the chimpanzees' cage after cleaning, and all four made a break for freedom. Reuben, Jimmy Joe, and Tyler were ultimately shot and killed. Zoo Nebraska quickly transferred Ripley, the surviving chimpanzee, to an exotic animal dealer's facility in Missouri. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the incident.
This heartbreaking situation is a classic example of how captive chimpanzees in the zoo and entertainment industry are shuffled from one bad situation to another. After outliving their usefulness for movies, TV, and accredited zoos, these four chimpanzees ended up in a barren cage at a shoddy roadside zoo. Because of human carelessness, Reuben, Jimmy Joe, and Tyler lost their lives in a hail of gunfire, and Ripley has been relegated to an equally inappropriate, if not worse, situation.
Chimpanzee Profiles
Reuben
Reuben was born in 1983 at the Saint Louis Zoo in Missouri. At just 1 year of age, he was taken from his family and transferred to the Folsom Children's Zoo in Nebraska, then two years later to Zoo Nebraska, where he spent 14 years alone before the zoo acquired other chimpanzees. Reuben was killed on September 10 when he was shot in the back five or six times with a .357 magnum high-caliber handgun, once more with a .30-06 semi-automatic rifle, and twice more with another rifle.
For information about Edith, another chimpanzee abandoned by the Saint Louis Zoo, visit http://www.peta.org/Automation/AlertItem.asp?id=981.
Jimmy Joe
Jimmy Joe was torn from his mother's arms as a baby and sold as a pet, then shuffled around to various exotic animal breeders before ending up at Zoo Nebraska in 2001. In a statement given to police about the shooting death of the chimpanzees, a zoo employee commented on Jimmy Joe's loyalty to his family:
"I then saw Jimmy gather up his chimp family to go back and Tyler went the wrong way—he went by the Activity Center being fired at. I did not see the final shot. But I heard him cry out! I then saw Ripley and Reuben head back down toward their home and I saw Jimmy go far left. He was protecting them like he always did. The next thing I heard along with everyone in the office [were] rounds of guns going off."
Jimmy Joe was shot at least twice with a .357 magnum high-caliber handgun and once with a Ruger mini-14 semi-automatic rifle and was finally killed by a rifle shot as he was trying to raise himself up from the ground.
Tyler and Ripley
Tyler and Ripley were both discarded by the entertainment industry once they got too big and strong to reliably perform in TV and movies. Tyler died after being shot four or five times in the chest from a distance of approximately 10 yards. During the chaos, Ripley managed to return to his cage and was the only chimpanzee who survived the shootout. The next day, Zoo Nebraska transferred Ripley to Savanahland Educational Park in Missouri.
Savanahland Educational Park
Savanahland Educational Park is a deceptively named facility that breeds and buys exotic animals, tears baby animals away from their mothers so that they can be hand-raised, and subjects animals, including babies, to the stress of being exhibited at public events. For $250, Savanahland will take a baby chimpanzee to your birthday party. Savanahland advertises animals for sale in Animal Finders' Guide, a trade publication for exotic animal breeders and dealers. Savanahland's activities glamorize the private ownership of exotic animals, inspiring the public to obtain wild animals as pets and thereby fueling the trade in exotic animals. Savanahland is nothing more than a roadside zoo that blatantly exploits exotic animals. It is not an appropriate facility for Ripley.
Ripley Deserves Retirement
After witnessing his friends gunned down around him, Ripley was torn from familiar surroundings and sent to live among strangers in Missouri. Ripley deserves to live the rest of his life at a sanctuary that will provide him with an environment that more closely resembles life in the wild and where caretakers will offer comfort, social enrichment, and a stable chimpanzee-family group. Several wonderful sanctuaries have offered to take Ripley, including a facility where Ripley's father and companions he knew before arriving at Zoo Nebraska are living. It is only right that Ripley also be given the opportunity to retire with dignity and with the comfort of friends and family.
What You Can Do
Please contact Zoo Nebraska's director and Board of Directors and politely ask them to immediately transfer Ripley to a true sanctuary where he can spend the rest of his life in peace, safety, and a natural and enriched environment with his family members. It is important to keep your pleas polite and thoughtful. Rudeness and accusations will not help to improve Ripley's situation.
Ken "Jr." Schlueter, Director
Zoo Nebraska
P.O. Box 26
Royal, NE 68773
402-893-2002
402-893-3081
zoonebraska@frontiernet.net
Board of Directors
Jerry (JR) Peterson
1008 O St.
Neligh, NE 68756
402-893-4964
Earleen Jensen
P.O. Box 57
Royal, NE 68773
402-893-5462
wheels@bloomnet.com
Kip and Stacey Smith
11101 S. 216th St.
Gretna, NE 68028
402-332-4190
kip5@prodigy.net
Justin Jensen
R.R. 1 Box 105
Royal, NE 68773-9741
402-893-5462
wheels@bloomnet.com
Marvin Young
52160 868 Rd.
Royal, NE 68773
402-358-5457
Lucille Haskins
P.O. Box 95
Royal, NE 68773
402-893-3052
Gene Carstens
401 N. Pine
Norfolk, NE 68701
402-379-2511