Feds Asked to Terminate Cruel Tiger Exhibitors’ License

PETA Urges USDA Motion After Massive Cats Left in Journey Crates

For Fast Launch:
November 5, 2021

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Sarasota, Fla. – As a result of tiger exhibitors Judit and Juergen Nerger left large cats in small journey crates illegally and ditched six tigers at a roadside zoo in Sarasota when their tiger present enterprise failed, PETA sent a letter right this moment to the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) urging the company to terminate their federal Animal Welfare Act license. The Nergers had beforehand saved tigers in Illinois, however by shifting them to Florida and failing to alert the USDA, the couple evaded federal inspections for years.

Within the letter, PETA factors to a recent report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee indicating that the Nergers lacked authorization to maintain tigers in Florida, but unlawfully saved six of them at Massive Cat Habitat & Gulf Coast Sanctuary, the place Juergen Nerger informed the proprietor “that he supposed to depart the nation and depart his cats behind.” Whereas there, 5 tigers have been saved in cramped crates, and the state facilitated the animals’ switch of possession to Massive Cat Habitat, which organized for them to be shipped to Tennessee-based Tiger Haven—a disreputable facility the place an 18-year-old practically misplaced her arm throughout a tiger assault this 12 months.

“As soon as their tiger reveals collapsed, these circus exhibitors left tigers in cramped crates for months and deliberate to desert them altogether,” says PETA Basis Director of Captive Animal Regulation Enforcement Rachel Mathews. “To forestall the Nergers from harming animals once more, PETA is urging the USDA to terminate their license.”

PETA—whose motto reads, partly, that “animals are usually not ours to make use of for leisure”—estimates that there are fewer than 10 exhibitors routinely displaying large cats in circuses and festivals within the U.S., proof that the general public has misplaced curiosity in merciless, outdated acts that exploit wild animals.

PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For extra data on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please go to PETA.org or observe the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.