PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, recently filed a lawsuit against U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue concerning a camel farm in Yuma. Now, the USDA’s latest inspection of the farm has become available. KAWC’s Maya Springhawk Robnett reports…
The lawsuit challenges the USDA’s automatic renewal of federal Animal Welfare Act licenses, even when it knew that some applicants—such as the Camel Farm—were in violation of the act.
According to the just-released two-part April report, the USDA issued repeat citations to the Camel Farm for failing to provide numerous animals with adequate veterinary care, yet the agency still renewed the farm’s license. The farm was cited for failing to supply veterinary care to dozens of animals.
Delcianna Winders for the PETA Foundation says PETA representatives have not personally visited the farm, but their organization has read the USDA reports and seen enough photographic evidence to know there is a problem.
"You don’t need to be an expert to see that an animal is so severely underweight that the bones are protruding," Winders says, "or that an animal’s eye is swollen to the size of a golf ball and they’re not receiving treatment. So, in this case, I don’t think there’s any necessity."
KAWC reached out to the Camel Farm, but farm co-owner Terrill Al-Saihaiti said that she doesn’t want to comment on an ongoing lawsuit. However, Al-Saihaiti did say that the farm is still open for business.
Other facilities implicated in PETA's lawsuit include roadside zoos in Texas, Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina, and Ohio.
