ANIMAL WELFARE CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST THE WILD ANIMAL ORPHANAGE IN TEXAS RIVERDALE, Md., May 24, 1999--The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently charged licensed animal exhibitors Ron and Carol Asvestas, doing business as the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio, Texas, with violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
"It is the role of our inspectors to examine individuals and organizations that are licensed by the USDA for any violations of the AWA," said W. Ron DeHaven, deputy administrator for animal care with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a part of USDA's marketing and regulatory programs mission area. "In every case, the health and safety of the animals is our primary concern."
APHIS inspectors found that the Asvestases failed to:
--Properly ventilate a primary enclosure used to transport a tiger;
--Construct and maintain primary enclosures used to transport animals so as to provide sufficient space to allow each animal to make normal postural and social adjustments with adequate freedom of movement;
--Maintain programs of disease control and prevention, euthanasia, and adequate veterinary care under the supervision and assistance of a doctor of veterinary medicine.
--Provide veterinary care to animals in need of care;
--Maintain structurally sound housing facilities for animals in good repair so as to protect the animals from injury, to contain the animals, and to restrict the entrance of other animals;
--Store supplies of food and bedding so as to adequately protect them against deterioration, molding, or contamination by vermin;
--Make provisions for the removal and disposal of animal wastes so as to minimize vermin infestation, odors, and disease hazards;
--Maintain structurally sound housing facilities for nonhuman primates in good repair so as to protect the animals from injury, to contain the animals securely, and to restrict the entrance of other animals;
--Provide animals kept outdoors with adequate shelter from inclement weather; and
--Store supplies of food for nonhuman primates in a manner that protects them from spoilage, contamination, and vermin infestation.
APHIS inspectors conduct inspections of licensees to ensure compliance with the Act. Any violations that inspectors find can lead to civil penalties. The AWA requires that regulated individuals and businesses provide animals with care and treatment according to standards established by APHIS.
The standards include requirements for recordkeeping, adequate housing, sanitation, food, water, transportation, exercise for dogs, veterinary care, and shelter. The law regulates the care of animals that are sold as pets at the wholesale level, transported in commerce, used for biomedical research, or used for exhibition purposes.
# NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like an interview concerning this or any other AWA related issue please contact Jim Rogers or Jamie Ambrosi at the numbers listed above.
USDA news releases, program announcements, and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the APHIS Home Page by pointing your Web browser to http://www.aphis.usda.gov and clicking on "APHIS Press Releases." Also, anyone with an e-mail address can sign up to receive APHIS press releases automatically. Send an e-mail message to majordomo@info.aphis.usda.gov and leave the subject blank. In the message, type subscribe press_releases
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Local agency charged in animal deaths Group not planning to challenge suspension, fine By Russell Gold Express-News Staff Writer When a zoo in Spokane, Wash., lost its lease in 1996, the board of directors had to scramble to find new homes for the animals. Two tigers and two cougars were among the hardest to place.
Wild Animal Orphanage, a San Antonio animal sanctuary, agreed to take them, sparing the large cats from euthanasia.
Relief quickly turned to grief, however. By the time the charter plane returned to San Antonio, both tigers and one of the cougars had died.
The fiasco raised enough eyebrows the United States Department of Agriculture decided to open an investigation.
Two months ago, the government brought charges against Wild Animal Orphanage, citing numerous willful violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
The agency has proposed a $12,000 fine and a 90-day suspension of WAO's exhibitor license.
WAO director Carol Asvestas called the charges "ridiculous," but she said there are no plans to fight them through the courts.
"I don't want to spend money on an attorney and go to a hearing and take away from the animals that I have in my care. I'm not about to do it," she said.
Asvestas said she wrote to the USDA explaining how deficiencies have been remedied.
The charges come as WAO is expecting a shipment of 60 sooty mangabeys and 40 stump-tailed macaques from the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center near Atlanta.
"Any tiny deviation from a perfect world and you are going to get a citation," Yerkes spokeswoman Kate Egan said. "It is not going to change our relations with them."
The USDA brought charges against 39 organizations in fiscal year 1998 for animal-welfare violations, said agency spokesman Jim Rogers. Based on a review of recent actions, complaints are usually against animal dealers and circuses, not animal sanctuaries.
The charges against WAO claim the sanctuary used crates either too small or too little ventilation to move the tigers and cougars.
In a series of follow-up visits to the sanctuary, inspectors cited WAO for improper cages, failing to remove animal waste and not maintaining a distance between the public and animals.
WAO operates a sanctuary off Loop 1604 near Sea World.
Tours of the facility are offered to the public during most of the year.
The sanctuary houses more than 200 animals, including chimpanzees, tigers, brown bears, foxes and a large collection of domestic cats.
Asvestas said the charges were all minor infractions.
"We are not guilty of anything that literally affected the animal's welfare," she said.
Why the tigers and cougar died is not entirely clear.
Asvestas brought three crates to Spokane ^W two metal military surplus crates used by the Army to move German Shepherds and a wooden box built by WAO. She placed both cougars in one of the crates. Each full-grown tiger had its own crate.
"At no time did I feel the crates used were so small as to cause the deaths of the animals, even though they were slightly cramped,"
Asvestas stated in an affidavit given in 1997.
Kevin Rogers, a veterinarian from Spokane, has a different recollection.
Talking about one of the tigers, Brown said, "his head was cricked around and he was basically stuffed in the box."
The other tiger also did not fit. "The crate had to be stood on its end and shaken to get the cat in there enough to close the door," he said.
After the crates were secured, they were placed on a
19-seat twin engine turbo-prop plane. One of the cougars was sitting up during the flight, said Ron Stotz, the pilot. The three other cats did not budge an inch.
"I never saw any motion. They were zonked, maybe too zonked," Stotz said. "They were laying there with their tongues hanging out."
The two tigers and one of the cougars were dead upon arrival in San Antonio, eight hours after leaving Spokane. An
8-year-old female cougar named Dandi survived the trip.
An autopsy by local veterinarian Larry Ehrlund was inconclusive, but in his necropsy report he said his findings suggested the animals had died of respiratory failure related to sedation and obesity. He also found "a blood tinge discharge from the mouth and nares (nostrils)."
Asvestas brought ketamine and other anesthetics to Spokane to sedate the animals. She injected Dandi before Rogers arrived.
Whoever injected the other three animals is disputed.
Rogers said Asvestas and another WAO employee determined the dosage.
Asvestas blames Rogers for giving the two tigers and the cougar a lethal dose.
Rogers said he was struck dumbfounded when he learned there would not be a veterinarian on the plane trip back to San Antonio.
"We were all devastated by the incident," said Carol Snyder, former director of the Spokane zoo.
Friday, May 14,1999
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http://www.expressnews.com/pantheon/news-bus/metro/0201btlc1.shtml Retired lab primates cause health concerns By Russell Gold <rdgold@express-news.net>; Express-News Staff Writer A tiger bought as a cute cub that grew from playful pet into a muscular feline with deadly claws. A chimpanzee abandoned by a roadside zoo. Giving these castaways a new home is the bread-and-butter business of animal sanctuaries.
A primate sits in a cage at the Wild Animal Orphanage, which has drawn concerns over plans to house simians that can carry an HIV variant. Photo by Delcia Lopez/Staff A San Antonio sanctuary has expanded that business to include retired laboratory primates.
Some applaud this as a humane way to retire primates bred for use in experiments. But others worry that putting these animals in unregulated sanctuaries could be dangerous. Some primates carry diseases fatal to humans.