PETA criticizes Yuma zoo over alleged neglect
Animal rights group points to citations against Camel Farm
A longtime Yuma zoo has come under fire from PETA for what the animal rights group says is chronic neglect of its animals’ need for shelter, veterinary care and other basic needs, including overgrown hooves and lack of protective shade structures.
The national organization, officially known as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a press release Monday it was reiterating a call for the Arizona Game and Fish Department to not renew the agency’s zoo license, originally communicated to the agency on Jan. 9.
“What was really alarming to us at PETA were the extremely lengthy USDA inspection reports, and the type of violations that the Camel Farm was being cited for repeatedly. And those are citations which suggested the animals were being subjected to severe neglect at the Camel Farm,” said Brittney Peet, director of captive animal law enforcement at PETA.
Ben Standley, the Camel Farm’s operator, said the zoo license expires annually on Dec. 31, and its application for renewal was approved. “I just knew it was renewed, that’s a Fish and Game license,” he said. “If it wasn’t renewed, they’d have been out here a long time ago.”
He said there are approximately 200 animals at the farm, including camels, sheep, goats, donkeys, pigs, water buffalo, birds, fennec foxes, coati, tortoises, donkey hybrids and more. In previous years there have been up to 500. He said about 50 percent of the animals have been “adopted” after they were brought into the facility.
Standley said the animals are fed fresh alfalfa twice daily from a 33-acre field he grows next to the Camel Farm, where visitors can pet and feed them, and the field is visited by many families and school groups. The Camel Farm is located at Avenue 1E and County 16th Street.
“It only takes one person to call in about something, 99 percent of the people here love the place, so, it
takes one person.” he said.
Chris Bedinger, information and education program manager for Arizona’s Game and Fish Department’s Region IV, including Yuma, said an application for renewal was received, but he does not know whether it has been approved.
“Honestly that’s the only information we have right now, that we did receive an information request from PETA related to the Camel Farm, we relinquished everything that we had, which would just have been the application for renewal,” he said. The person who would have more access to information is out this week, he added.
Materials released by PETA included a Feb. 16 report from a U.S. Department of Agriculture site inspection conducted 10 days earlier. obtained through the public records request. Dr. Naomi Sismour, veterinary medical officer for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, confirmed Monday the inspections did take place.
The inspection was a routine visit. It found one female sheep was “excessively thin, with protruding hip bones, spine and ribs.” A nursing mother and baby camel didn’t have access to water because there was a hole in their bowl and a hose was broken; the bowl was replaced by farm staff during the visit.
Ben Standley said of the female goat, “That was one of the 20-some-year-olds that we’ve got, we’ve got her quarantined and on a special diet and all that. They want to euthanize her and I don’t like that, that’s one of the original sheep I’ve had here, I bottle-fed her 20-some years ago.
“We’ll put her out of public view, but I won’t put her to sleep unless she needs it, and I don’t think she does. She’s getting around good, she’s just old.”
The report also noted a dromedary camel with a large growth on his chest; a goat which had not been bearing weight on his leg and also hadn’t been during an inspection a year earlier; a goat with overgrown hooves and an abnormal gait; five more goats and three pigs with overgrown hooves; one goat with an area of hair loss under one eye and a fennec fox with hair loss on the knuckles and long nails which needed trimming. Also, members of the public were allowed to pet and feed the animals and were not continuously monitored.
Various issues were found with animal enclosures, including excessive mud and/or feces, gaps in chain-link fencing, fencing of irregular height, holes in ceilings and floors, screw heads and other objects which could injure animals. A gopher carcass was found in one goat pen, while exposed baling twine and cobwebs were found in others.
In addition, no program of veterinary care or records of the animals at the facility were available for review. Most of the violations noted by the USDA were labeled “repeat” offenses. The report said the farm had to correct the violations by Feb. 16, but it’s unclear from the report sent by PETA whether a re-inspection had been conducted or what the results were.
PETA also released photos taken by “a concerned citizen” Feb. 25 that included the hooves and enclosure of a cow not mentioned in the USDA report, along with other animals said did not have enough shelter or had excess feces in their pens.
Cassandra Standley, Ben Standley’s daughter who lives on the property, said Monday, “The pigs are getting their hooves trimmed today, so that’s not an issue, that’s been in the makings to have done for over a week now. The cow, for her we had to reach out to a vet to get a sedative, because she’s a wild cow, and that’s already been done, and the USDA is not really even concerned with (that) right now,” she said.
An Arizona Game and Fish inspector came to the farm “a couple days ago,” them.” She said the farm’s she said, and cited a couple license through USDA had of issues with inadequate been renewed in December shelter from the wind and without difficulty, and a other elements. couple of shade structures
She said all animal pens cited by Game and Fish last are cleaned daily, so she’s month had been repaired not sure how any could
before a followup visit by have excess feces. “The pens are not giant pens the agency. where they can roam, and Al-Saihati said she wanted they don’t have grass, because to contact the agencies there’s reasons for and their attending veterinarian, that, with maintenance,” and “the family was she said. really shocked and upset at
A post on The Camel this.” Farm’s Facebook page mentions The farm was closed for a a GoFundMe campaign few years before reopening for the camel with a to the public in 2005. growth, cited by the USDA “We closed for three or and PETA. It says the four years and we tried to camel is a 15-year-old male rebuild everything, but I name Zo, born and raised
had no money, so I used the on the farm, and needs to go to California for surgery stuff people donated. Some on the growth. of the chain-link might be
The farm was started 31 6 feet, some might be 8 feet years ago by Terrell Standley in places on a pen or something, Al-Saihati, who at the because that’s what time was married to a man they donated,” Ben Standley from Saudi Arabia and the said. couple was populating the It appears to be wellregarded farm with animals from his by most visitors, homeland. She continued with a 4.5 user rating on to maintain it after he left, Yelp and a 4.8 rating on with the help of her brother Facebook. Ben Standley, who moved Cassandra Standley said his family down to Yuma
some visitors come with from Oregon. It has been open to the public since their own presumptions of about 1990. how animals should taken
She said Monday in a care of, which may or may Facebook message, “we not work in the desert environment were blindsided by this of Yuma, and PETA press release, we don’t ask any questions of have heard nothing from the staff.