A private zoo in Virginia stands accused of abusing and neglecting dozens of animals to the point of death – and then leaving their body parts around the facilities.
Source: WSLS 10/YouTube
Authorities searched Natural Bridge Zoo’s property recently and discovered an atrocious situation. Habitats were “filthy” and lacked sufficient food or water to adequately care for the animals. So it should be no surprise that many animals didn’t survive.
The dead animals at the zoo included a white Bengal tiger that the zoo had euthanized, a monkey, a lemur, a llama, a mandrill, an alligator, a Burmese python, five cranes, and seven servals.
But that didn’t even include the body parts. Officials found several zebra legs and a zebra pelt, a giraffe’s head, giraffe skin, two tails, three legs, five bags of “frozen giraffe feces,” the pelt of a bongo, and a mandrill’s head. There were also specimens preserved in several jars on-site.
For the animals that remained alive, their lives were pure misery. One staff member shared that Asha the elephant spent her nights chained inside a ramshackle barn, often both sleeping and standing in her urine.
During the day, she was forced to give rides to hundreds of visitors. On one day, in particular, documents show the zoo made Asha carry 191 different guests.
Please sign this petition to demand authorities shut down Natural Bridge Zoo and ban its owners from working with animals in the future!
This article by Mathew Davis was first published by One Green Planet on 19 December 2023. Image Credit :Momo5287/Shutterstock.
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