CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Three primates suffered frostbite while enduring freezing conditions this year at an exotic animal farm operated by a North Carolina county commissioner who has been cited for multiple repeated by federal inspectors.
The latest citations, involving a black and white lemur, a de Brazza’s monkey and a capuchin, were issued in March by the US Department of Agriculture against Lake Norman Zootastic Park, The Charlotte Observer reported.
“The lemur’s hand was injured and remains contracted while the De Brazzas and the Capuchin lost the end of their tails,” according to a copy of the federal inspection report, obtained by animal welfare group PETA.
Scottie Brown, the Iredell County commissioner who owns the park outside Charlotte, did not respond to a telephone message from the newspaper on Thursday.
In another case, the inspector saw a young howler monkey “hugging a live electrical cord that was connected to a heating pad inside its enclosure”. It could have hurt or killed the monkey, the inspector wrote.
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The USDA also cited Zootastic for treating animals without a veterinarian present, allowing visitors unsupervised access to some animals and failing to document its purchase or disposal of at least a dozen animals, according to inspection reports.
Federal officials ordered Zootastic to fix all issues by the end of March, but did not fine the park for the violations.
In August 2021, a USDA inspector found maggots had eaten the flesh of three wolves and exotic squirrels showing signs of “self-trauma,” according to the newspaper.
An exotic Prevost tricolor squirrel, native to Southeast Asia, had a superficial wound that Zootastic did not report to its attending veterinarian, the inspector noted in his report.
The squirrel recently had its tail amputated at a veterinary hospital “due to apparent ongoing self-trauma,” the inspector wrote. Another Prevost squirrel had had its tail amputated for the same reason, the inspector wrote.
As of summer 2021, the USDA had inspected Zootastic 27 times since 2014, agency records reviewed by the Observer show. Inspectors cited the zoo for various animal welfare violations during 14 of the visits, according to the documents.
In 2016, the USDA fined the zoo $7,450 for nine infractions, including a poorly constructed enclosure that let a kinkajou escape. A zoo cub killed the rainforest mammal, inspection records show.
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