An endangered clouded leopard at a Miami roadside zoo owned by a convicted drug trafficker who once inspired Scarface has lost a leg, and a capybara has died - both casualties of breeding attempts that went about as well as you'd expect at a place where the business model is 'let's make money off animals in ways that definitely won't hurt them.'
Federal wildlife inspectors from the USDA visited Zoological Wildlife Foundation (ZWF) on March 30 and found a laundry list of violations: dilapidated enclosures, filthy cages, and water and food contaminated with algae and dead insects. The zoo, which charges $1,500 an hour for offsite 'field trips' featuring alligators, arctic foxes, and ball pythons, is owned by Mario Tabraue - a former cocaine trafficker who served 12 years of a 100-year sentence for his 1989 conviction on narcotics and racketeering charges, and who appeared in Netflix's Tiger King as the probable inspiration for the 1983 gangster movie Scarface.
Animal welfare groups, including PETA, are once again calling for the zoo's closure after the capybara's death and the severe injury to Petra, a female clouded leopard whose leg was mauled by a male during a forced breeding session. According to USDA veterinary medical officer Danisha Bullock, the two leopards were kept in separate enclosures with a shared wall and a guillotine door that had a gap at the bottom. The female apparently reached her paw under the door, and the male attacked it, resulting in the amputation of her entire left leg.
'This facility chases profits at the expense of animal welfare, and animals are paying with their lives and limbs,' said Klayton Rutherford, director of captive wildlife advocacy at PETA. He noted that ZWF then tried to profit from the incident by posting a video of Petra with Tabraue on social media and asking for donations for her veterinary bill and a new home.
The female capybara was found dead on January 1 in an enclosure she'd shared with a male for about six weeks. Tabraue told inspectors he was '100% certain' the male killed the female while trying to mate. The USDA ordered immediate rectification to keep incompatible animals apart permanently, though the agency hasn't confirmed whether a re-inspection has occurred.
Rutherford drew parallels to the recent deaths of dozens of sloths taken from South American rainforests for a planned theme park in Orlando, saying, 'There's no way to run a business like this in an ethical manner that gives the animals what they need to thrive.' ZWF has a history of violations, including a 2021 incident where a lion cub older than 16 weeks bit a child.
'It's hard to be confident in the USDA, but in recent years there has been a shift in the way the public especially views animal welfare,' Rutherford added. 'As a result of increased public awareness and public pressure we are seeing a shift in the way the federal government approaches animal welfare and hopefully that carries over into meaningful change and actual action.'