Veterinarian: Remove all animals from Iowa zoo

Source: USA Today Network

Veterinarian: Remove all animals from Iowa zoo

USA Today Network
Grant Rodgers, The Des Moines Register 12:47 a.m. EDT October 6, 2015

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A northeast Iowa zoo that’s come under fire for deaths of tigers and lemurs in its care should have all its animals “rescued” and sent to sanctuaries, a California veterinarian told a judge on Monday.

The testimony opened the trial in a federal lawsuit against the owners of Manchester’s Cricket Hollow Zoo brought last year on behalf of several Iowans who reported seeing animals suffering in small pens filled with feces and buzzing with flies. Tom and Pamela Sellner, the zoo’s owners, have argued in court documents the claims against them are exaggerated.

But Jennifer Conrad, a Santa Monica veterinarian, testified to Chief Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles in a Cedar Rapids courtroom that the Sellners regularly fail to take steps to protect their animals from disease and injury. Conrad testified that five tigers have died at the zoo since June 2013. None of their bodies were lab-tested to find a cause of death.

Such an exam, known as a necropsy, is crucial to detecting and protecting other zoo animals from potentially fatal infections, said Conrad, who primarily works with big cats and exotic animals who work in Hollywood. That oversight, combined with reports of things like animals drinking putrid water, makes it “predictable” that the hundreds of animals at Cricket Hollow could be injured, she said.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/06/veterinarian-remove-all-animals-iowa-zoo/73430352/

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From last year:

Manchester Zoo Owners Seek Lawsuit Dismissal


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Pam Sellner holds a boa constrictor, just one of the many exotic animals she and her husband, Tom, owns at their Cricket Hollow Zoo in Manchester. After the situation in Ohio when tigers and bears were running loose, some concerns arose in response about owning those types of animals. Sellner says they are approved by the US Department of Agriculture and have an exhibitors license. Randy Dircks(SourceMedia Group News)
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Associated Press

July 21, 2014 | 10:02 pm


MANCHESTER, Iowa (AP) — The owners of a Manchester zoo, sued for allegedly mistreating animals, have asked a judge to dismiss the case.

Tom and Pam Sellner, owners of Cricket Hollow Zoo were sued by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a California-based advocacy group, in June. Several area residents claim to have witnessed poor, unsanitary living conditions for zoo animals and have joined the lawsuit.

. . .

Allegations focus on violations of the Endangered Species Act and point to the treatment of lemurs, tigers, lions, and gray wolves.

An attorney for the advocacy group says the organization wants the animals moved to a sanctuary.

http://www.kcrg.com/subject/news/manchester-zoo-owners-seek-lawsuit-dismissal-20140721