Court Sides With PETA; Dade City Zoo Banned From Owning Tigers

DADE CITY, FL — The United States District Court in Tampa has awarded a permanent injunction against Dade City's Wild Things, banning the private animal park from owning or possessing endangered tigers.

The final judgment was handed down late Monday after a three-year court battle in which the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals contended that the Dade City zoo's owners, Kathy and Randall Stearns, violated the Endangered Species Act in the way it treated and cared for its tigers.

In its lawsuit, PETA contended that the Dade City's Wild Things didn't meet the minimum federal standards for the care of animals used in exhibits as established by the Animal Welfare Act.

Among the issues named in PETA's lawsuit, the animal rights group said the Stearns family failed to maintain enclosures and sufficient shelter for the animals, failed to provide adequate veterinary care and mishandled the animals, causing physical harm, stress and discomfort.

The court also agreed with PETA's contention that the Stearns family prematurely separated tiger cubs from their mothers, forcing them to swim with paying members of the public.

The recorded message on Wild Things' answering machine said the zoo is not accepting phone calls at this time. The Stearns family didn't respond to emails and text messages.

The court gave PETA the authority to relocate all the tigers in the zoo's possession to a sanctuary accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.

"PETA has taken out a major player in the cruel tiger cub–petting industry, which fuels the captive-tiger overpopulation crisis," said Brittany Peet, PETA Foundation director of captive law enforcement. "This decision means a new life for the tigers at Dade City's Wild Things, who will soon be able to roam vast habitats, swim in fresh water and live as tigers should for the first time in their lives."

PETA's investigation into Dade City's Wild Things began when a volunteer who worked at the animal park in 2015 and 2016 documented "abusive handling, stressed and sickly animals, and a callous disregard for animals’ welfare."

The witness said cubs were removed from their mothers within hours or days of birth, so they could be hand-reared and get "used to" public handling so they could participate in amenities offered at the zoo such as permitting visitors to pay extra to swim in a swimming pool with a tiger cub.

In June 2017, PETA filed a motion and asked to inspect Dade City's Wild Things. In granting the request for an inspection, a judge ordered Kathy Stearns not to remove any tigers from the property.

A day after the judge issued that order, Wild Things sedated and loaded 19 tigers into a cattle trailer and drove them 1,200 miles to an animal park in Oklahoma. A pregnant female tiger gave birth in the trailer and all three of her cubs died.

Joe Maldonado, director of Oklahoma's Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, testified that the tigers arrived at the park in poor condition with open sores, severe hide fungus and infected toe nails.

Then, wen PETA arrived to inspect Dade City's Wild Things, members were denied access.

Stearns' husband, Kenneth, later bragged about outsmarting PETA and the courts in a video posted on the zoo's Facebook page.

PETA was subsequently granted permission to move the 19 tigers to a 720-acre sanctuary in Colorado.

In January, two more tigers at Dade City's Wild Things were transferred to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

The tigers, named Luna and Remington, were two of the tigers prematurely separated from their mothers to be used in Dade City's Wild Things' "swim with the tigers" program and tiger cub encounter.

Luna and Remington along with the tigers named Rory and Rajah were illegally transferred to another Florida facility during Dade City's Wild Things' attempt to reduce its tiger population before the PETA inspection. Rory and Rajah were shot and killed after escaping from their enclosure there last year.

Video courtesy PETA

"These tigers were taken from their mothers and used as photo props—but now, they'll live out the rest of their days at a lush accredited sanctuary where they can run, climb, explore, and live as tigers should," said Peet. "PETA will keep working until all the animals at Dade City's Wild Things have made it to safety."

PETA covered the costs of the cats' transport and made a donation toward their lifetime care, and Forest Animal Rescue.

U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell ruled that "based on Dade City's Wild Things' misconduct in the case, including the illegal transfer of Remington and Luna," the zoo violated the Endangered Species Act and approved PETA's request for a default judgment.

There's no word on the status of the other animals owned by Dade City's Wild Things including monkeys, otters, sloths, tortoises, an anteater, lions and various other wild cats and zebras.