It’s one that legal experts and even the USDA say might be in violation of the law: He’ll continue to make money off his animals by showing them to the public-but the business will be online and on television instead of in person at his zoo.Īfter closing Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park to the public, on October 5, Lowe moved all the animals to a new facility, Tiger King Park, in Thackerville, Oklahoma. Typically, this would mean the end of his business-there’s little point in keeping animals that don’t return a profit on their upkeep costs. In response to the suspension, which was set to last for 21 days, Lowe announced in the post that he was forfeiting his license. Lowe describes the USDA’s accusations as “a litany of falsehoods.” The USDA “has folded to the pressures from PETA and continue to make false accusations against me,” he wrote in an August 18 Facebook post. Jeff Lowe declined to comment on the USDA’s suspension of his license, saying by email, “We’re suing the USDA so we can’t share anything at this time.” He has told his 189,000 Facebook followers that the findings are false and that the welfare concerns are drama stirred up, in his words, by “loony” animal rights people. outnumber those in the wild-here’s why it’s a problem.) “He’s one of the leading reasons we’re continuing to have tigers bred” for roadside zoos around the U.S. “In terms of tiger exploitation, Lowe is one of the top players,” says Delcianna Winders, director of the Animal Law Litigation Clinic, at Lewis & Clark Law School, in Portland, Oregon. On August 17, the USDA suspended Lowe’s license to exhibit animals to the public, as part of an official enforcement action against him and his wife, Lauren Lowe, for allegedly violating the Animal Welfare Act.Īnimal welfare advocates praised the action. The corpses were attracting biting flies that inflicted bloody wounds on the ears of nearby tigers, bears, and wolves. Boone demanded that Nala see a veterinarian immediately.īoone and Cunningham also documented two arthritic wolves caged on a concrete floor, a grizzly bear with her bones clearly visible beneath her skin, a fisher cat with a lame leg, and the bodies of two tigers buried under a pile of burned rubble. The young lion was barely moving and had discharge coming from her eyes and nose, Boone wrote in the inspection report. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector Bonnie Boone found her lying in mud, “lethargic, depressed and thin.” Boone and colleague Debbie Cunningham were conducting a routine inspection of the zoo, which exploded in popularity after it was featured in Netflix’s Tiger King. Ten months after Lowe introduced Nala on social media, U.S. “How many likes can our little cutie Nala get?” the caption said. Jeff Lowe, owner of Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, in Oklahoma, posted a photo of lion cub Nala to Instagram in August 2019. The big cats include protected tigers, lions, tiger-lion hybrids. Department of Justice announced that it has seized all 68 big cats and one jaguar from Jeff and Lauren Lowe’s Tiger King Park.
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