PETA after Amarillo Wildlife Refuge

[Loonman]

Lying again.

When will they stop lying?

http://www.kamr.com/Global/story.asp?S=1590127

AMARILLO -- PETA has filed a formal complaint with the Texas Attorney General against the Amarillo Wildlife Refuge. The animal rights organization says the condition the animals live in are deplorable. The owner of the refuge says the video and the pictures in peta's possesion - were all staged by a PETA employee.

PETA says when no one is watching the owner of the Amarillo Wildlife Refuge he lets his animals live in filth. But when we arrived the chimpanzee habitat looked clean. PETA has an answer it says things get cleaned up when the public arrives or when the USDA comes to makes sure standards are met. A PETA spokesperson said, "We would like to see their non-profit status revoked and we would like also to see the united states department of agriculture to confiscate the animals and put them in a true sanctuary."

The owner of the wildlife refuge says he always tried to keep the primate cages clean. But he says the person who took the video of dirty cages is also the person who's job it was to keep those cages clean. That person also worked for PETA. Charles Azzopardi, Amarillo Wildlife Refuge Owner said, "She left the chimps dirty and we couldn't believe what she was doing and we've hired her. But of course now I realized what was going on, she fabricated this."

PETA made several other allegations. The organization says Azzopardi breeds many of the animals, and Azzopardi says absolutly and is licensed to do so by the state. The PETA investigator also says she saw animals with injuries and sores that didn't get medical attention. And when we got to the refuge we saw a chimp with a cut that was bleeding. Azzopardi said, "There's one he's got a scratch and we put peroxide on it this morning. Sometimes they get scratched. They play. They play rough. They're a chimp."

In this story it's PETA's word against the owner of the wildlife refuge. Part of what PETA wants is the refuge to lose its non-profit status. Azzopardi says let them take it. He says no one gives him donations anyway. He says he put almost a million dollars of his own money into the wildlife refuge. He says PETA can take away the non-profit status if they want but he won't give up his animals.