African lionesses Jonwah and Njjarra have been removed from a roadside zoo in northern Iowa, and now reside at an animal sanctuary in Colorado. Cricket Hollow Zoo in Manchester has relinquished ownership of the animals after a settlement with the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
ALDF accuses the unaccredited zoo of keeping animals in “cramped and deprived conditions.” The organization says it also believes a third Cricket Hollow lion died due to harsh surroundings.
Court documents filed by ALDF claim Cricket Hollow allowed fly-laden food waste and animal feces to build up in small, barren cages, and also allege that the zoo did not stop visitors from taunting one of the lions.
"The Cricket Hollow Zoo was a place where large animals like lions and tigers go to die for lack of proper veterinary care," says ALDF attorney Jeff Pierce.
Pierce says that based on eyewitness testimony and video evidence, the lions' situation was grave.
"One of them, Jonwah, was clearly boney. She was panting. She was hunched in a very unnatural way that would suggest that she couldn’t stand or sit properly," he says.
This is the second lawsuit ALDF has brought against Cricket Hollow. In February, the organization won a civil case, which resulted in four tigers and three lemurs being rehomed.
Both cases were filed under the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits rare animals from being harassed, harmed, pursued, hunted, shot, wounded, killed, trapped, captured or collected. The African lions were not part of the first lawsuit because they did not become an ESA-protected species until January 2016.
Cricket Hollow declined to comment. But a Facebook comment from the zoo posted Monday states, "Today my heart breaks...The lioness' (sic) were darted and loaded to make a trip across the country to make money for animal rights activists. They are nothing more than trophies to them."
The post also says, "(ALDF) are vile, evil, lying people who enjoy hurting others. God will be their judge."
