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An endangered clouded leopard had a leg amputated and a capybara died following botched breeding attempts at a controversial Miami roadside zoo owned by a convicted drug trafficker featured in the Netflix documentary Tiger King.
Federal wildlife inspectors found multiple other violations during a March inspection at Zoological Wildlife Foundation (ZWF), including dilapidated, insecure or unsafe housing conditions for wild animals, filthy cages, and water and food contaminated with algae and dead insects.
The zoo, which charges $1,500 an hour for offsite “field trips” showing off animals including alligators, arctic foxes and ball pythons, is owned by Mario Tabraue, a former cocaine trafficker who served 12 years of a 100-year sentence for his 1989 conviction on narcotics and racketeering charges.
Tabraue appeared in the hit 2020 Netflix series Tiger King that focused on the shady world of exotic animal trading, and was presented as the probable inspiration for the cult 1983 gangster movie Scarface.
Animal welfare groups renewed calls for the closure of ZWF after the capybara’s death and severe injury to Petra, a female leopard whose leg was mauled by a male that staff were attempting to mate her with.
“The facility chases profits at the expense of animal welfare, and animals are paying with their lives and limbs at this hideous roadside zoo,” said Klayton Rutherford, the director of captive wildlife advocacy at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta). “We’ve seen time and again that animals are injured, humans are injured, in businesses like this, including specifically at ZWF.”
A veterinary medical officer from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) made an inspection visit on 30 March and cited the incidents involving the leopard and capybara, which took place in January, as critical violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The law requires animals housed with or near each other to be compatible.
“The clouded leopards did not live together but had been put together for the purpose of breeding,” wrote Danisha Bullock, the medical officer.
“In this instance, the two were in separate enclosures with a shared wall and guillotine door that had a gap at the bottom. The licensee believes that the female clouded leopard reached her paw into the enclosure of the male via the gap under the door, and the male clouded leopard then attacked the female’s paw.
“The injury resulted in the amputation of the entire left leg of the female clouded leopard.”
Rutherford said ZWF then tried to profit from the incident, posting to social media a video of Petra, the zoo’s oldest leopard, with Tabraue, and asking for donations for the veterinary bill and to build her a new home.
“This former drug kingpin with a lengthy criminal history runs this zoo where essentially the business model is based on forcing wild animals, often baby wild animals, into dangerous direct contact public encounters,” he said.
“These businesses rely on denying wild animals everything that is natural to them. A facility offering hands-on encounters with wild animals is a telltale sign they’re not doing what’s in the best interest of animals, they’re interested in lining their pockets.”
Bullock wrote that the female capybara was found dead on 1 January in an enclosure it shared for about six weeks with a male, with ZWF hoping the pair would breed.
“The licensee stated he was 100% certain that the male killed the female while trying to mate with her,” Bullock wrote. “Animals housed in the same primary enclosure must be compatible. Animals shall not be housed near animals that interfere with their health or cause them discomfort.”
The USDA ordered immediate rectification to ensure incompatible animals were permanently kept apart. The agency did not respond to an inquiry about whether a re-inspection had yet taken place.
An email from the Guardian to a media contact listed on the ZWF website was returned as undeliverable. The zoo did not respond to questions sent to two general email addresses.
Rutherford said the ZWF incidents had parallels in the recent deaths of dozens of sloths taken from South American rainforests for exhibition at a planned theme park in Orlando.
“There’s no way to run a business like this in an ethical manner that gives the animals what they need to thrive,” he said.
“These citations, the closure of Sloth World before it even got off the ground, the closure of Miami Seaquarium, all are examples of the larger problem, that these businesses are not compatible with animal welfare.”
ZWF has a history of previous violations and incidents, including injuries to handlers and guests. A “critical citation” in July 2021 followed an incident four months earlier in which a lion cub older than 16 weeks bit a child.
“It’s hard to be confident in the USDA, but in recent years there has been a shift in the way the public especially views animal welfare,” Rutherford said.
“As a result of increased public awareness and public pressure we are seeing a shift in the way the federal government approaches animal welfare and hopefully that carries over into meaningful change and actual action.”
