Shalom Wildlife Zoo seeks to ID person who climbed barrier fence
WEST BEND, Wis. - The operators of Shalom Wildlife Zoo in West Bend say they need your help.
A Facebook posted to the zoo's page on Tuesday, May 25 stated the following:
"A terrorist group disguised as an animal rights group posted on their Facebook page this past Saturday a video of this person climbing over the 4' high chainlink barrier fence that completely surrounds the bobcat exhibit. The person then reaches into the cage and pets the male bobcat."
The post goes on to say, "This selfishly motivated group's agenda is to shut down all zoos. They are willing to do and use any means possible including illegal activity to do so.
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"If you are visiting Shalom and you see anyone step or climbing over any barrier please notify the front desk immediately, the telephone number is on the zoo/rule map you receive when entering the zoo."
Zoo officials say any person who crosses over a barrier fence will be reported to the sheriff's department for legal action – and banned from the zoo for life.
The group Roadside Zoo News later issued a statement following this episode:
"Today Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary made a post calling Roadside Zoo News "A terrorist group disguised as an animal rights group." The post was in response to a video we shared of a zoo visitor hopping a fence and reaching in to pet their bobcats on Saturday.
"To be clear, no representative of Roadside Zoo News has ever visited Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary. The video of the woman petting the bobcat was sent to us by a zoo visitor and if Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary had reached out to our page for information, we would have shared with them that we also have a second video that includes the trespasser’s name. Since they did not have the decency to contact us, and they’ve blocked our representatives on social media, we’ll share the video here.
Shalom Wildlife Zoo: Don’t blame your shoddy animal enclosures and the lack of supervision of the animals at your roadside zoo on an animal welfare organization when the true terrorists are roadside zoo owners like you who keep hundreds of exotic animals captive to make money."