PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:
November 22, 2005

ANOTHER CHIMPANZEE MISHAP AT METROZOO CAUSES CONCERN AND CRITICISM TO MOUNT
ARFF Calls On Feds To Investigate Tragic Death Of Young Chimpanzee

(Florida) - Today, the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF) and Congressman Robert Wexler fired off urgent letters to Dr. Elizabeth Goldentyre, regional director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) animal care division, urging her to investigate reports that a young male chimpanzee died after being transferred from the Miami Metrozoo to Busch Gardens in Tampa.

Amid ARFF’s campaign to encourage Miami Metrozoo to adopt a policy of lifetime care for animals, the organization is asking the USDA to launch a thorough and objective investigation into the young chimpanzee’s death and to pursue charges and penalties if the zoos have violated any provision of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

ARFF received a tip from a former zoo docent that on November 8, 2005, a healthy, 7-year-old chimpanzee named Kutosha was shipped on a truck in Florida’s blistering heat and humidity, from the Miami Metrozoo to Busch Gardens in Tampa because he was considered surplus. It was reported that the chimpanzee was not accompanied by any of his caregivers or staff from the Miami Metrozoo, and that by the time the truck finally arrived at Busch Gardens, the young chimpanzee was not moving and had a high temperature. Additionally, that Busch Gardens immediately euthanized the animal and a necropsy was reportedly inconclusive.

Based on the information provided, ARFF believes that the tragic death of Kutosha likely violates the AWA which requires that animals be provided proper care in transit.

“The recent death of this young chimpanzee highlights what appears to be an utter lack of concern for the well being of animals by Miami Metrozoo”, according to ARFF Captive Exotic Animal Specialist and Primatologist Holly Bowman. “Shipping a young and terrified chimpanzee in a crate in the back of a truck without any of his caregivers is just unimaginable.”

Last year, ARFF first began to call Miami Metrozoo’s animal care policies into question when investigators discovered their former chimpanzee star, Edith, languishing in a filthy underground cement pit in Texas. Edith was dumped at the deplorable roadside menagerie after she had outlived her income generating potential. The plights of both Edith and Kutosha point to a far too common practice by the nation’s most respectable zoos: dumping unwanted animals with little regard for their welfare.

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