Positive response
Camel Farm sees attendance bump after PETA comments
The Camel Farm, a petting zoo and breeding facility located south of Yuma, has seen a little bit of a bump in attendance in the days since animal-rights group PETA announced it was targeting its state licensing, its owner said Friday.
Terrill Standley Al-Saihati said a few visitors said they were coming in out of anger at the national group, and the comments on the attraction’s Facebook page have been overwhelmingly positive.
“The whole thing with PETA really hit me hard. You start seeing the word spreading, the buzzing. All the kind comments of the supporters are, it’s like a balm to a wound,” she said. “And I want to thank everybody. It’s been a nightmare,” she said.
The group announced Monday, in a press released headlined “Damning photos show filth and animal suffering at The Camel Farm,” that it was asking the Arizona Game and Fish Department not to renew the facility’s zoo license for 2018, due to allegations of dirty or inadequate animal enclosures, lack of veterinary care and supervision of visitors interacting with animals on display, and other issues
The PETA investigation included violations noted in a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection
and photographs taken at the attraction by a “concerned citizen.”
Al-Saihati said Monday the farm received its USDA permit in December, but it was not clear whether the state renewal had been issued. On Friday she said it had arrived the day before. “When Ben (Standley, her brother and the farm’s full-time operator) came in with the mail yesterday, there was the license. So that was a relief,” Al-Saihati said.
Chris Bedinger of the District 4 regional Arizona Game and Fish Department office in Yuma said Friday that the license issued by his department pertains to Arizona wildlife, while the livestock is under USDA’s purview. “Most of the animals documented in the photos are not covered by our permit but rather a separate permit issued by the USDA,” he said.
Brittany Peete, PETA Foundation’s director of captive animal law enforcement, told the Yuma Sun for a Tuesday story the organization had the option of contesting the Camel Farm’s state license if it did get renewed for this year. A PETA spokesman, David Perle, said he had no new information on the case Friday.
The farm, 15672 S. Avenue 1E, currently has nine camels, Al-Saihati said, having sold many others over the last few years in order to earn money for the farm. “We’re trying to hold onto our females so we can build the herd back up,” she said. As a result admission fees currently make up around half of the revenue.
She said Zo, the camel discussed in both the USDA and PETA reports due to a growth protruding from his chest that the USDA and her local vet both want to be removed, still appears to be healthy and happy for a 16-yearold camel nearing the end of the average life span for his species, and his cinematic roars fill the threeacre zoo.
She said she is seeking a veterinarian outside of the area who can either offer a second opinion or remove the tumor, but hasn’t had any success yet, and putting such a large animal under anesthesia for such a procedure has its own risks: “My vet said it should be removed, but he doesn’t want to do it.”
Camels are the main draw, but they’re greatly outnumbered by the about 150 sheep and goats on the property, she said. Other animals include tortoises, horses, a zebra, exotic birds and more.
She said she and the four other people who work on the farm do their best to comply with the USDA’s recommendations, but at times inspectors take notes of things who have never proven to be a problem.
For example, “They have a lot of hypothetical language about sharp points and how they can hurt an animal, but in all of their inspections there are no reports of injuries consistent with running into a sharp object,” she said.
Some of the photos published by PETA were misleading, Al-Saihati said, making a shelter appear smaller than it actually was, or using shots of pens which appeared to have feces on the floor, but they were actually rocks intentionally put there for hooved animals to wear down their feet. Some were in need of a hoof trim when the USDA came, and the farm was working on that, she added.
And there are some regulations that she just disagrees with, including a requirement that animals interacting with the public be monitored at all times.
“I would have to pay four people to stand out in the sun for six hours, and do nothing. And we’re struggling as it is,” she said.
She and Standley, her brother, said they’re not sure how much longer they’ll be able to afford to keep the 31-year-old attraction open. All of the current staff has at least one other job to make their own ends meet, Standley said.
Courtney Van Zuiden, who visited the Camel Farm in January and left a positive Facebook review, said in a Facebook message that she had heard about the PETA criticism, but is an animal lover herself and the only thing she noticed that had been alleged in the report was a need for some animals to have a hoof trim, but there could be reasons for that, she said.
“From what my family saw all these animals are in good condition,” she said. “None of the animals have any kind of eye infections, nasal discharge, fecal matting, or open wounds. They also are in ideal body weight with clean living conditions. I would say the farm is respecting the animals by caring for them well.”