Updated October 2019 Vincent Von Duke is a sixth-generation circus trainer based in Lakeland, Florida who presents a traveling big cat show called Close Encounters of the Exotic Kind at Shrine circuses and fairs throughout the eastern United States. Von Duke formerly trained big cats for a circus which closed in the late 1980’s. When…
PETA Alerts USDA to Unlicensed Doug Terranova’s Recent Circus Performances September 10, 2019 Contact: David Perle 202-483-7382 Kaufman, Texas – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) permanently revoked the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) license of Doug Terranova, a Kaufman-based animal exhibitor, on August 30 and ordered him and his company to pay a total of $64,700 in…
At a USDA Big Cat Symposium in Fort Worth, Texas on March 26, 2003, Kay Rosaire gave this advice on stage: “To keep a tiger off you, you just poke ’em real hard with a pitchfork a time or two and show ’em who’s boss. Then they’ll get the message.” Big Cat Habitat and Gulf…
Jungle Safari AKA The Zoo Pat and Robert Engesser Jungle Safari (formerly known as Engesser’s Exotic Felines, Luce Enterprises, The Zoo, and Endangered Species, Inc.) is a privately-owned traveling petting zoo which spends 9 months of the year displaying big cats and their cubs in the parking lots of malls and shopping centers. Although it…
Dade City’s Wild Things has been sued by the USDA for mistreatment of cubs used in pay to play schemes, such as swimming with cubs.