Judge Details Parade of Horrors at Maryland Zoo [View all]
BALTIMORE (CN) — Slamming the “fetid and dystopic conditions” of a Maryland zoo, a federal judge ordered Thursday that any animals that managed to survive must be transferred to a sanctuary.
U.S. District Judge Paul Xinis released his findings following a six-day bench trial in Baltimore between People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Tri-State Zoological Park of Western Maryland.
His 47-page opinion includes more than two dozen pictures of squalor, documented by PETA in a two-year undercover investigation.
“The uncontroverted testimony reflects that every animal at issue suffered under Tri-State’s living conditions,” Xinis wrote.
Among photos of dung-splattered cages and animal necropsies, Xinis noted, “Filth and feces dominate Tri-State.”
“Rotting vegetables spilled over large receptacles, decaying meat sat in piles outside the kitchen and in the furnace room under the nearby reptile house, and decomposing carcasses were left for days in the enclosures for the tigers and lions,” he added.
PETA contends that the conditions it uncovered beginning in 2014 are typical of many private parks. More formal inspections followed before the group filed suit in 2017 under the federal Endangered Species Act.
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