About the Author

Alan Green is a veteran investigative reporter who was the founding editor of AlterNet, the news service for North America's alternative news weeklies. His reporting has won awards, including the Worth Bingham Prize for his work in New Republic magazine. The centre for Public Integrity, based in Washington, D.C., is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that examines public service and ethics-related issues. Founded in 1989, the centre has completed more than thirty investigative reports, including the 1996 "Lincoln Bedroom" story profiling fundraisers and donors who had stayed overnight in the White House.

Reviews

Remember the last time you took a child to the zoo and cooed over the baby lion? Or the time you stopped at that roadside petting zoo and enjoyed feeding the deer and antelopes? Most of us have similar happy memories of summer afternoons spent observing animals in zoos and game parks. Unfortunately, there is a harsh reality that lies under the surface. Investigative reporter Green, with the support of the Center for Public Integrity, scratched that surface, and the result is this disturbing expos‚ of the trade in exotic and endangered species. Animals are "laundered," given false health certificates and new identities and provenance. They are sold at auction, ending up in canned hunts, nonaccredited and disreputable zoos, or in meat markets. They are dismembered, and their organs are used as aphrodisiacs. They are beaten, tortured, left to die of starvation or dehydration. This shocking book is an eye-opener that belongs in every collection.ÄPeggie Partello, Keene State Coll. Lib., NH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

In a shocking and heartbreaking expos‚, Green examines the fate of unwanted animals cast off by U.S. zoos and theme parks. Many of the nation's leading zoos, he reports, sell their unwanted animalsÄwhether surplus, aging and decrepit, or babies bred for saleÄto supposedly reputable dealers who, in turn, dump the animals onto roadside attractions, unaccredited petting zoos, private hunting parks and bogus sanctuaries that will hand over endangered species to anyone for a buck. Using easily doctored documents, the animals are laundered into obscurity, shunted from opportunistic breeders to wretched menageries, auctioneers, backyard hobbyists and even university research centers. Many of these animals, according to Green, suffer cruel abuse, mistreatment or fatal neglect; some end up as exotic meat on the grocery shelf. He also argues that zoos ignore their own edict by permitting animals to migrate almost uncontrollably into the hands of unaccredited institutions. Working with the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, Green crisscrossed the country, combing thousands of health certificates and interviewing hundreds of people. He tracked smugglers and poachers who traffic in rare species disappearing from their native habitats, which are then sold to "exotic pet" owners. He takes aim particularly at the thousands of Americans who keep dangerous pets like tigers or cougars, inviting human tragedies. A major feat of investigative reporting, this book spells out sensible strategies to clean up this unholy mess, including a proposal that zoos should provide cradle-to-grave care to their denizens. Green's important, eye-opening report could spark a national debate. Photos. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.