Photos
Birds
A Mississippi kite who had been denied veterinary care after suffering a broken wing sits in a maggot-infested “pet” carrier in which feces and rotten food were allowed to accumulate before being placed in a flight cage. Our investigator later found the remains of what appeared to be the same bird near the area where the dogs from the facility congregated.
Not only did the accumulation of feces place the health and well-being of this baby canary at risk, the primates caged in this room were threatened by cross-species contamination as well.
This baby hawk was kept at AWR, in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Despite having survived long enough to become a juvenile, the bird was later found by our investigator, torn to shreds in a cougar’s cage.
While all three of the kestrels were healthy and able to fly, they were confined to one small cage that was filled with maggots, feces, and rotten meat.
Ironically, the parrot who was routinely defecated on by canaries in the cage above him was named “Lucky.”
Bird cages routinely contained inches of feces, rotten food, and maggots. As if this weren’t bad enough, Azzopardi instructed our investigator to pick out the uneaten seeds that had fallen into this mess and place them back in the birds’ food receptacles!
Rabbits
Many rabbits suffered from untreated eye ailments or were discovered dead in the big-cat enclosures. During one such incident, our investigator watched helplessly as caracals tried to pull a rabbit into their enclosure. The rabbit eventually broke free, but she had been torn open and was in shock; our investigator rushed the rabbit to a veterinarian who put the animal out of her misery.
Caracals
Azzopardi claimed that the cats were too aggressive to be removed while their cages were being cleaned, but the truth was that there was not an adjacent enclosure in which to put the cats! As a result, half-eaten animal parts, feces, and piles of rotten and maggot-infested meat littered the cage.
Charlie’s House & Mercedes
Charlie’s house is clean and spacious, his toys shiny and new.
Chimpanzees and Other Primates
While Azzopardi lived in a clean, spacious home, the chimpanzees and other primates at AWR were forced to live and die in absolute squalor. Azzopardi’s “toys” included a Mercedes 500 SL and a private jet, while all the primates had to play with were old food containers, a few tires, broken toys, and filthy clothes and blankets.
A macaque was forced to drink from this water receptacle.
Edith
Edith sits alone in her garbage-strewn outdoor enclosure, a tire the only form of “enrichment” provided for her and the other social, highly intelligent chimpanzees at AWR.
Delilah
A capuchin named Delilah has torn out much of the hair on her tail, a symptom of mental anguish caused by living in grossly substandard conditions.
Chubbs
Chubbs, who loved to blow kisses to our investigator, was often sad and depressed. He reportedly appeared in several episodes of Monkey Movies, on Animal Planet, and in the remake of Planet of the Apes.
Gibbon Baby
Azzopardi stole this baby gibbon from his mother and exhibited him in a birdcage at a local mall. The infant gibbons mother cried out in distress and desperately tried to protect her baby from harm as Azzopardi fired sedation darts at her through a blowgun. The still-nursing baby screamed and flailed as he was dragged away.
Walter
Evidence indicates that Walter is actually a chimpanzee named Bucky who was born at New York University in 1992 and later given to the Buckshire Corporation, which deals in animals who will be used in experimentation. At just 7 months of age, he was leased to a traveling zoo that used him for photo ops with the public at fairs and carnivals. In 1994, a PETA investigator discovered that Bucky had been returned to Buckshire. He was videotaped rocking back and forth in his cage, his bright eyes reduced to a blank stare. In 1996, Bucky was in the possession of Working Wildlife in Frazier Park, California, and was being used in a German television series. When he became too large to dominate easily, PETA believes that Working Wildlife loaned him as a “breeder” to AWR, where his name was changed to Walter.
Alex
Alex, who died in August 2003, stares into space in utter boredom. The metal resting platform on which he is lying is covered in filth and swarms of flies.
Tigers
Tigers and other big cats were housed in small enclosures with nothing more than a cinderblock box or concrete culvert to shield them from the blazing sun and temperatures of 100F or more. None of the cats was provided with environmental enrichment.
Coyote
An imprisoned coyote at AWR.
Chronic Neglect
These photos were taken after our investigator left AWR. Azzopardi is attempting to skirt responsibility for the disgusting conditions at AWR by falsely blaming PETA for the squalor, when, in fact, filthy water and feces- and garbage-filled cages were the norm.
