Community Corner

PETA, Turtle Back Zoo Exchange Jabs on Bird Deaths Suit

The zoo's acting director said PETA is inaccurate in its claims, but the animal rights group reiterates its charge that parakeets weren't protected.

The acting director of West Orange's Turtle Back Zoo said last week the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made inaccurate characterizations of the zoo and its treatment of birds in its June 27 lawsuit filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The animal rights group, however, isn't buying it.

PETA's suit claims that several hundred birds died at Turtle Back because of abuse and neglect. The group, via its website, called on the USDA to “actually do its job to protect these animals.”

An investigation by the activist group reported more than 500 parakeets died in a two-year period from starvation or parasitic infestation at the zoo. It also claimed a penguin died after being featherless for two years.

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But Turtle Back Acting Director Brint Spencer, formerly general curator at the zoo, told The Alternative Press that only "approximately 400" birds died. He also took issue with PETA calling the zoo a "roadside attraction."

David Perle, a spokesman for the nonprofit animal rights organization, said Spencer's response doesn't change the group's view or lessen its concerns.

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"Whether the number of birds who died at Turtle Back Zoo was more than 500, as a whistleblower reported to PETA, or 'approximately 400,' as Turtle Back claims, this is far too many preventable parakeet deaths," Perle told Patch. "As Turtle Back has acknowledged, many of these birds died from a parasite that they contracted from consuming the feces of infected raccoons or opossums. 

"According to [a] whistleblower, after Turtle Back discovered the source of the illness—feces entering the aviary through its wire-mesh roof—it still took the zoo more than two months to have the roof covered to protect the birds, and birds continued to die during this unnecessary delay," he continued. 

"The bottom line is that Turtle Back Zoo and the U.S. Department of Agriculture both failed these parakeets—the zoo by wholly neglecting its legal responsibility to protect these birds."

Essex County Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. spoke out via email against the animal-rights group's legal action after news of the suit became public June 27.

“It is irresponsible on the part of PETA to claim our birds have been starved or kept in inferior conditions when we have built an on-site veterinarian hospital, and twice received accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums," DiVincenzo said. 


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