Troubled Horry County zoo at center of federal lawsuit has closed amid mounting legal costs
The Waccatee Zoological Farm in Horry County — long the subject of claims by animal rights activists that its inhabitants were living in squalid conditions — has permanently closed amid a lapsed federal license and ongoing lawsuit.
Eyewitness reports included in federal court documents and a lengthy statement issued Sept. 13 by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals say the 34-year-old preserve in Horry County’s Socastee area provide details into the facility’s current state.
A zoo representative was not immediately for comment on Sept. 13.
On Sept. 12, PETA asked U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Dawson III to prevent the zoo from transporting animals from its Enterprise Road location to Zootastic Park in Troutman, N.C. — an operation they described as a “secret animal evacuation.”
Reese Boyd, an attorney for the zoo, said in a filling ongoing expenses related to the lawsuit and other “other considerations” have forced Wacattee’s closure.
Its federal U.S. Department of Agriculture license is also expired and won’t be renewed, Boyd said.
Zootastic was cited by federal regulators in 2021 for failing to provide animals with adequate veterinary care.
“Shipping animals from one shabby outfit to the next prolongs their pain, and in this case, it blocks PETA from gathering evidence about these animals’ suffering,” says PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet said in a statement. “This is a shady stunt designed to keep abused animals from receiving the care they desperately need.”
PETA’s lawsuit under the federal Endangered Species Act and South Carolina’s public nuisance law alleges that Waccatee confines and exhibits more than 460 animals in conditions in which they’re deprived of appropriate veterinary care and other necessities.
After PETA sent Waccatee an official notice warning of its intent to sue, the USDA fined the outfit $7,800 for six alleged federal Animal Welfare Act violations. Over two decades, the agency has cited Waccatee — which PETA calls “the worst roadside zoo in America”—for more than 100 violations of the AWA.
This is a developing story.
This story was originally published September 13, 2022 at 12:00 AM.