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Cricket Hollow Zoo owners face fines or jail after Iowa Supreme Court rejects contempt appeal

on Fri, 04/08/2022 - 20:57   by Clark Kauffman

by Clark Kauffman, Iowa Capital Dispatch
April 7, 2022

A tangled and contentious five-year legal odyssey involving the owners of eastern Iowa’s shuttered Cricket Hollow Zoo may finally be near an end.

The Iowa Supreme Court this week rejected zoo owners Pamela and Thomas Sellner’s efforts to set aside a judge’s finding that they were in contempt for having refused a court order to surrender the animals at their roadside attraction in Manchester.

The contempt ruling calls for the Sellners to pay $70,000 in fines. If payments are not made toward the fine, the Sellners will have to serve a one-day jail sentence for each animal that was not recovered from their zoo, for a total of 140 days.

Court records indicate no payments have been made on the fine.

Animal experts slam Cricket Hollow Zoo care, conditions; testimony in suit seeking to close facility

on Fri, 06/19/2015 - 01:07   by Editor

Tigers, lions, wolves and African wild cats at Cricket Hollow Zoo near Manchester "are suffering inhumane living conditions that result from owners, zookeepers and veterinarians who lack the expertise, the experience and the resources to care for captive wildlife," a California vet with 21 years of experience in caring for such animals says.

USDA slow to certify its own reports; delay stalls lawsuit seeking closure of troubled eastern Iowa zoo

on Fri, 05/29/2015 - 21:52   by Editor

A lawsuit seeking closure of a troubled Manchester, Iowa zoo for Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations has been stalled by failure of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to certify its own inspection reports released last year through a Freedom of Information Act request.

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