USDA CLEARS GW EXOTIC ANIMAL PARK

There have been a lot of questions and accusation since 2006 regarding a doctored PETA video claiming that our park and staff abuse our animals. This video has recently been blasted throughout the internet by a facility in Tampa, Florida that is also claiming we abuse our animals. Not only does this anger us, but it saddens us to think that anyone would think we would commit such atrocities.

The G.W. Exotic Animal Park was founded to protect and care for exotic animals that were found in abusive and dire situations, or were just no longer wanted by their owners. Some we have taken in from other facilities that could no longer afford to care for them.

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The owner of an exotic animal park in Wynnewood says his park has been cleared of wrongdoing, despite the claims of PETA. The USDA conducted a surprise visit at the GW Exotic Animal Park this week.

POSTED: The Oklahoman November 10, 2006

By Josh Rabe

WYNNEWOOD - Local and federal investigators found no evidence of wrongdoing at the G.W. Exotic Animal Park, despite claims made by an activist group last week that animals were abused and neglected by park employees.

"We are not going to pursue any charges with the Garvin County District Attorney's office," said Steve Brooks, the county undersheriff.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a video clip Nov. 2 that the group said proves animals there were suffering, abused and malnourished. A park volunteer working for PETA used a hidden camera to capture video between February and June.

Brooks said investigators reviewed video supplied by PETA on Wednesday, but "there was no criminal wrongdoing we could find."

An inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture spent Monday combing the park for violations, but none were listed on an inspection report provided by the park.

"I never had anything to worry about because I hadn't done anything criminal," said Joe Schreibvogel, park manager. "I didn't do anything immoral, either."

During the time the employee worked at the park, federal inspectors visited the park twice and found none of the violations PETA claimed to have uncovered, according to inspection reports.

"There is no way a USDA inspector is going to come into this park twice and not find some of the things PETA claims were going on," Schreibvogel said.

One violation noted:
The only violation noted by the USDA was a fence that surrounded the park that was not tall enough to keep outside animals from getting into the park. The fence should have been 8 feet tall.

The park issued PETA's volunteer, Mike Steinberg, a written warning in May for violating USDA food preparation guidelines for the animals. The park also supplied a written test Steinberg took to become a park volunteer. His answers contradicted PETA's claim that animals at the park were malnourished.

Schreibvogel said the few video clips released by PETA misrepresented the park by showing only injured animals and using comments made by park employees out of context.

Behavior not tolerated:
He said he watched the video Wednesday and was upset by the conduct of several employees. He said all but one of the employees shown in the video already had been fired for other infractions of park rules.

"There's no way in five months they could get Joe on tape saying we don't feed the animals or get Joe on tape beating an animal because that's not the way Joe does business," Schreibvogel said. "I don't tolerate that kind of behavior."

POSTED: Wynnewood Gazette Thursday, November 9, 2006

G.W. Park Is exonerated by USDA of PeTA allegations"Just cleaning up the rumors"
By Larry Russell

On November 2, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) made allegations to the press and TV media that GW Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood is "more a hellhole than a sanctuary" and that the U.S. Department of Agriculture should permanently revoke GW's exhibitor license. Film provided by PETA'a undercover investigator had clips shown on the internet that were completely out of context. Example: A goat with one horn knocked off was suffering and left unattended. In truth the goat, which lost is horn fighting or butting some inanimate object, was treated by the park's veterinarian and later euthanized because the topical medicine kept draining out through the sinuses.

Example: A tiger being hit by an employee using a rifle butt. In truth, a group of tigers were sedated in order to move them to their new compound at the back of the park. When one tiger lied down drowsy and the other tigers went after it, and the employee used the butt of the tranquilizer gun to keep the others off of it and from killing it.

Also not shown on the internet clip was that the employee wadded through the cage of awake tigers to save the drowsy one.

Example: A lion had its leg torn off by two new tigers in the neighboring pen. In truth, the animals were trying to fight, the lion got its front paw through the dividing fence, and the tigers tore its leg to the point the vet thought it would be better to be amputated. Joe Schreibvogel told the Gazette that the incident was documented and reported to the vet and the USDA. Both the vet and the USDA recommended the tigers be Euthanized because they were so Psychotic from their former treatment as performers they would always be a danger to both animals and humans. The injured lion is well, back in his big cat habitat and in perfect health. The destruction of those two tigers does not change the statistics on GW's kill rate of four percent annually, a figure that has been sustained since the park's opening seven years ago, and always for humane reasons. A phenomenal success story since so many of the park's rescued animals are in such bad shape when they arrive in Wynnewood.

GW Park desisted two years ago from accepting dead or dying livestock for animal food. The danger of disease from hooved stock was something the park did not want to take a chance on. The park is licensed to do carcass rendering but prefers to use mostly commercial animal food. Schreibvogel told the Gazette that it is still a constant problem that people come in the dead of night to leave a dead animal or a dying one tied to a fence. Such was the case with the horse with the broken leg. Park personnel spen tdays trying to locate the horse's owner. Area vets had no records to indicate the horse had been treated hereabouts. The horse was suffering and so it was put down, and the meat was used to feed the big cats.

As the the fines of $25,000 against the park, those accrued over a period of years, and all were for facility deficits, such as proper fencing. The USDA has never faulted the park for its care of the animals it has rescued. I have seen USDA reports on the park for the past year, and no non-compliance was found. One inspection occurred in April when the PeTA investigator was employed by the park and working undercover. On Monday, November 6, the USDA paid GW Animal Park a surprise visit and spent seven hours going over the park with a fine-toothed comb.

As one investigator told Schreibvogel, "There's no way you could have cleaned this place up overnight or put healthy weight on these animals." I have been in and out of GW Park dozens of times, often without their prior knowledge that I was coming. On every visit I have been amazed by the park's growth and improvements and the homes they have provided for animals down to their last chance when they arrived here. I've had my heart broken over the rescue stories and the pictures I've taken. I was there in 2006 when Dr. John Jameson did a root canal on Hercules, a mountain lion whose fangs had been sown off by his previous owner. I did a story on the three Siberian bears rescued from a closed van in Purcell during the hottest part of the summer. I saw Joe and his staff agonize over the possibility they might have to return the bears to their former owner, and saw the months of love and care it took to nurse those pitiful, starved creatures back to health. I saw the alligator from Mill Creek the park took in in the dead of winter and provided a tank in the barn with a heat lamp. As with the Siberian Bears, that rescue was at the request of the Wildlife Department who never reimbursed GW Park so much as a dime. That didn't matter: the park never asks for a payment for a rescue, and they never sell animals for profit. All that in contrast to PeTA, whose kill rate of "rescued" animals in 2005 was 90.7 percent with only 6.8 pets adopted. We're talking here about a not-for-profit foundation that rakes in around $24 million a year from animal-loving donors and avoids over $3.5 million in federal income tax. If anyone's license should be revoked, it's PeTA's.

The FBI lists PeTA as domestic terrorists right along with the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front because their members are interchangeable, and PeTA helps foot the bill for ELF and ALF to commit felonies against institutions, restaurants and their fellow Americans, and then helps to pay the defense attorneys and brags about it.

No one is a bigger animal lover than I am, and as such I can't help but wonder why PeTA isn't putting its money where its mouth is and offering to help sanctuaries like GW Park instead of trying to steal away their donors for their own personal gain. GW Park has received at least 100 derogatory calls and e-mails since PeTA's most recent attack. Most have been death threats, which authorities are investigating. The damage to reputation and loss of productive time to GW Park has been enormous. The media in Oklahoma City certainly haven't helped. They were quick to jump on PeTA's allegations, but they're surely slow off the mark to broadcast the park's exoneration of those allegations by the USDA. The one exception is News Channel 4, and that station is to be commended.

POSTED: Pauls Valley Democrat Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Poor, Pathetic PETA does it again
By Jeff Shultz

I hate wasting good column space on a group such as PETA. You remember them don't you? They're the group of animal lovers who encouraged college students to drink beer instead of milk. They're also the ones who tried to get the name of Slaughterville changed to Veggieville. Most recently they made allegations that the G.W. Animal Park in Wynnewood was mistreating the animals they care for. The allegations prompted a surprise visit by the Department of Ag, who, after the pop quiz visit, said PeTA's allegations were baseless because they found nothing wrong at the park, So, I really hate taking the time and effort to give PeTA any type of mention in the Daily Democrat. But PeTA has shown their true colors in their most recent gaffe. By now you've heard of the plight of Colorado and Oklahoma Panhandle ranchers during the most recent snow storms. The winter weather blast has left thousands of cattle stranded in the cold with no way to get food to them, at least by land. The same goes for some of the beautiful wildlife in Colorado such as elk and longhorn sheep herds. So the National Guard has been dropping bales of hay to the cattle and wildlife in an effort to keep them from starving. The operation is an expensive one, especially considering the price of hay these days. Hay is a precious commodity due to the drought. So, a Denver classic rock station decided to start raising money to help defray the costs of the hay drops. Their fund raising efforts were going good, but they needed more.

That's when someone suggested they call PeTA, who, they thought, would come to the rescue of the cattle and wildlife with a hefty donation. After all, PeTA isn't some poor charity. They got lots of donations from some very wealthy people who believe in their cause. Imagine the radio disc jockeys' shock when a spokesperson for PeTA not only turned down their request for aid, but debated with them why they shouldn't give money to this worthwhile cause. When she was told about the huge cattle herds that were starving to death, she said those ranchers should have built a shelter for the cattle.

First, no barn in the world could hold 340,000 cattle. Second, the disc jockeys weren't talking about protecting the cattle from the weather, they were talking about feeding them. Even if there was such a huge shelter to house the cattle, ranchers still couldn't get in there to feed them. Her response was, "You're going to save them, and then in six months they're going to be killed and end up on someone's plate. So I don't know that it's really the most noble cause."

The spokesperson added that wild animals caught in the blizzard's wake -- the same animals PeTA routinely criticized hunters for bagging--also weren't worth spending PeTA's money to save. "It's an act of God," she said. "There's really nothing to be done." In response to PeTA's refusal to send aid to the cattle and wildlife, Colorado's governor called PeTA "a bunch of losers" and "frauds." He added, "Don't send your money to PeTA." I couldn't agree more.