Aurora residents raise animal welfare concerns around petting zoo at street festival

Yorkregion.com
June 6, 2016
By Teresa Latchford

An Aurora man’s report of poorly treated animals at a petting zoo has caused a social media frenzy.

Aurora resident Jonathon Cole has attended the Aurora Street Festival for 15 years and has never had a poor experience until yesterday when he, his girlfriend and younger sister discovered a kangaroo at the petting zoo run by Tiger Paw Exotics laying on its side and foaming from the mouth.

“We were in shorts and t-shirts and were very warm,” he said. “Here was this kangaroo in direct sunlight with a bone dry water dish. It was very upsetting and my little sister was crying because it looked like he was dying.”

He immediately pulled out his phone and took a photo because he felt it was something he had to bring attention to. There were other animals with minimal shade from the sun including rabbits huddled in one corner of a cage and two porcupines fighting for the small patch of shade in their pen, according to Cole. There was also minimal bedding in the pens to help protect the animals from the concrete they were standing on.

Cole then confronted the owner of Tiger Paw Exotics, Tim Height, about the animals not having water or shelter from the sun. Cole claims Height didn’t give him any answers, nor did he make an attempt to remedy the situation.

Height has yet to return yorkregion.com’s requests for comment.

Cole decided to take matters into his own hands and report the situation to the OSPCA. He received a phone call back an hour later informing him an OSPCA officer had attended the site and the animals were given shade and water.

OSPCA inspector Brad Dewar confirmed the organization received a complaint and an officer attended the site to address the concerns. He said he couldn't comment specifically on whether or not the OSPCA has had past complaints about Tiger Paw.

“What I can as is that the concerns that were brought to our attention were immediately addressed,” he said. “This information will be handed over to one of our zoo inspectors for follow up.”

“I want to spread the word as much as possible because these things shouldn’t happen,” Cole said.

His pictures and posts on social media haven’t gone unnoticed, and he plans to contact the organizers of the street festival at the Aurora Chamber of Commerce and Aurora Mayor Geoff Dawe to hopefully get petting zoos banned from operating in the town.

The chamber’s phones have been ringing off the hook all morning as residents call to voice their concerns.

The chamber did not hire the petting zoo, chamber spokesperson Crystal Walsh said. A local business signed up to participate in the festival and organized the petting zoo as part of its parking lot event.

“It was very upsetting for us to see the images and hear what was happening as we don’t condone animal cruelty,” she added. “We will engrain this in our policies moving forward so this won’t happen again.”

A conversation with the business that hired the zoo has been had and Walsh confirmed the Tiger Paw will not be coming back next year. She also said it is unlikely there will be any kind of petting zoo next year at the festival.