People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ “expert witness,” wildlife consultant and behavioral specialist Jay Pratte covered up a cheetah...
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ “expert witness,” wildlife consultant and behavioral specialist Jay Pratte covered up a cheetah attack at a facility he worked at in Canada and got his friend’s dog killed in the process.
The “expert” is used by PETA in cases where they are attempting to seize animals from privately owned zoos, exotic pet owners and smaller preserves — including in Tiger King star Tim Stark’s case.
PETA was allowed to seize all of Stark’s animals from his park, Wildlife in Need, after a lengthy court battle. He maintains that the organization got at least 20 percent of his beloved animals killed by doing so.
Pratte was the curator at Canada’s Polar Park from 1992-1994, according to a copy of his resume
Under his “expert” leadership, a 19-year-old girl, Jacky Ouellette, and a 12-year-old child were placed in charge of weeding inside and around the cheetah enclosure. On July 13, 1993, the two young people stepped inside the cage to clear thistles, something which they were apparently used to doing, though Pratte maintained that the girl was lying and that she was not supposed to be in there.
The teenage girl was attacked by the big cat named Tango.
“He bit my legs first and then he jumped on me, pulling my shoulders down, and bit me on my neck. He was continuously biting on my neck and trying to pull me down,” Ouellette told the Edmonton Journal.
Instead of reporting the attack as it actually happened, Ouellette says that Pratte told her to lie and say that she was attacked by a stray dog — warning that if she told the truth, the cheetah might be euthanized.
Stark was quick to point out this massive failure on Pratte’s part, since the behavioral specialist had been PETA’s expert witness against him claiming that he did not properly care for his animals.
“The cheetah attacked the 19-year-old and ended up doing pretty good damage to her because she ended up with 41 stitches, I think it was,” Stark said during a Facebook live about the information he had obtained. “Jay Pratte immediately made up a story and made the girl feel guilty enough to go along with it by saying that if the truth came out they would kill the cheetah.”
WARNING: this video contains highly explicit language (story continues below):
Stark continued, “so Jay Pratte lied and lied and lied about this coverup.”
The story only gets more grim from here.
Now, Pratte needed a dog to fit the story that they had concocted. Unfortunately, he had been looking after a friend’s chow chow at the park while they were out of town. The health inspectors were told that this dog, whose care he was entrusted with, was the stray that had wandered in and bit the worker.
His friend’s dog was taken by animal control and Pratte didn’t say a word to stop it.
“They euthanized the dog because they told law enforcement that the dog was just a stray that came in and attacked the girl,” Stark said. “Now, remember, this is the same person that is PETA’s expert witness on everything.”
“He stated that he wasn’t going to allow a cheetah to lose its life because that was one of his favorite animals of all time,” Stark continued to explain.
Indeed, Pratte is quoted saying just that to the Edmonton Journal.
Jay Pratte is a Liar by Cassandra Fairbanks
“When someone is attacked by an animal, the animal is almost always put down,” Pratte told the Edmonton Journal at the time. “We’re talking about an endangered species here. We’re talking about my favorite animal in the whole world that had never actually shown any tendency toward aggression.”
The “expert witness” for PETA explained that since the county had already taken the dog, there was no reason for him to come clean and put the cheetah in danger — even though the pup belonged to his friend.
Normally, in cases like this in Canada, the dog would have been held in observation for ten days to watch for signs of rabies before being returned to the owner. However, since Pratte had told them that it was a stray, the innocent dog was simply killed for his compounding lies.
Eventually, Pratte was confronted and came clean about his cover-up in a letter published in the newspaper.
“So I guess if it’s about Jay Pratte it’s not privy to anyone else, but Jay Pratte and PETA think they have the right to come into everybody else’s places and facilities and stick their noses in everyone else’s business,” Stark said in response.
Pratte claimed that the reason he was protecting the cheetah was because the species is known to have a poor tolerance to stress and disease, which can kill them.
“Well, let me explain something to you, you worthless f— piece of s—, every animal you all steal from anybody’s facilities — whether it be a tiger, a monkey, a raccoon, or whatever — has those same types of bonds with their people. So, it puts them in stress, but oh, you PETA people don’t give a s— about any of that do ya?”
Stark, who ran the Wildlife in Need preserve in Indiana, has had all of his animals seized by PETA — and they are now looking to take his home after being awarded $750,000 by an apparent activist-judge for the legal fees they incurred while targeting him.
Though the extremist organization was allowed to take all of his animals and livelihood, Stark has never been charged for animal cruelty or abuse.
“We have proof that some of my animals were dead before they ever got to the Indianapolis Zoo, two hours away. We also have 100 percent confirmation that some of the animals they sent to other places are also dead. They’ve already killed about 20 percent of my animals,” Stark said. “But I was the bad guy because I will stand up to anybody and everybody?”
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