Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Zoo worker Paul Bond feeds apples to white-tail deer Tuesday in the petting zoo at the Chattanooga Zoo.The federal agency charged with animal welfare in zoos, USDA’s Animal and Plan Health Inspection Service, will be looking into allegations of problems at the Chattanooga Zoo at Warner Park.
“We received an anonymous complaint and entered it into our complaint log on Jan. 14, 2011,” said David Sacks, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “We will handle this as we would any other formal complaint. We will send an inspector to the facility to look into the allegations contained in the complaint.”
Darde Long, director of the Chattanooga Zoo at Warner Park, said the zoo welcomes the oversight and also has asked USDA to come in and do an inspection.
“We did it to be proactive,” Long said.
The zoo has had seven animal deaths in the past month, including Hank — the zoo’s famous chimpanzee and longtime resident — whose former keeper says the ape was healthy in May.