Owner of Maryland’s Runaway Zebras Is Charged With Animal Cruelty

The proprietor of the 3 zebras that escaped from a workplace successful suburban Maryland successful August, delighting residents and stealthily evading efforts to corral them, was charged with 3 counts of carnal cruelty connected Tuesday, the authorities said.

The charges against the owner, Jerry Lee Holly, came a period aft one of the wayward zebras was found dormant successful an amerciable snare trap, and a time aft different zebra that hadn’t escaped was recovered dormant wrong Mr. Holly’s enclosure.

Mr. Holly, 76, of Upper Marlboro, Md., was charged aft three of his zebras escaped from a privately owned workplace connected Aug. 26, Prince George’s County prosecutors said successful a charging document. The animals were portion of a zeal, arsenic a bunch of zebras is sometimes called, of astir 40 that had been brought to the workplace from Florida that month.

The authorities accused Mr. Holly successful the charging papers of failing to supply a zebra with nutrient and due shelter, and of depriving a zebra of indispensable sustenance and inflicting unnecessary pain. Each of the carnal cruelty counts, which are transgression charges, carries a maximum punishment of 90 days successful jailhouse and a good of up to $1,000.

Mr. Holly could not beryllium reached connected Wednesday astatine respective numbers listed nether his name. The charges against him were reported by WUSA.

After the zebras were reported “at large” successful August, Mr. Holly told region carnal services officials that helium had “no program to recapture the zebras,” according to the document.

A spokeswoman for the Maryland Natural Resources Police said connected Wednesday that the bureau was inactive investigating to find who acceptable the trap that killed the archetypal dormant zebra. The zebra’s “completely decomposed” assemblage was recovered conscionable extracurricular Mr. Holly’s enclosure successful Upper Marlboro, which is astir 20 miles southeast of Washington, according to the charging document.

The zebra astir apt died of dehydration aft it was stuck successful the trap for a fewer days, according to Rodney Taylor, the main of the Prince George’s County Animal Services Division, who filed the charges.

“The carnal should person been seen oregon heard portion it was dying from being caught successful the snare if the caretaker had attended to the zebras,” helium wrote successful the document.

The 2nd zebra, which died wrong the enclosure, “had been deceased agelong capable that it had entered the rigor-mortis stage,” the papers said.

Animal power officers learned astir the 2nd dormant zebra aft idiosyncratic successful a quality chopper noticed the carnal successful Mr. Holly’s enclosure, Linda Lowe, a spokeswoman for the Prince George’s County Department of the Environment, said successful a connection connected Wednesday.

The region authorities are investigating however the 3 zebras ran distant and are inspecting Mr. Holly’s workplace each fewer days, Ms. Lowe said.

The remaining runaways, which Mr. Taylor said “pose a menace to the community,” person been eking retired a beingness successful the Maryland suburbs, acold from the grasslands of eastbound and confederate Africa.

There has been nary shortage of zebra sightings, arsenic the animals person crossed backyards, done streets and railroad tracks. Linda Pennoyer, the politician of Upper Marlboro, said earlier this period that the animals had go section “celebrities,” their each determination documented connected societal media.

Mr. Taylor did not respond to emails and telephone calls connected Wednesday afternoon, but successful an interrogation successful September, helium said that helium did not cognize wherefore Mr. Holly had been keeping zebras successful Maryland, and that they were not portion of a zoo oregon different exposition.

According to Prince George’s County tribunal records, Mr. Holly was the plaintiff successful a 2005 suit against the region carnal power officers. It is unclear what the lawsuit was about.

Agriculture Department records bespeak that Mr. Holly kept a scope of chaotic animals connected his farm, including black-handed spider monkeys, dromedaries, mandrills, reddish kangaroos, brownish lemurs, capybaras and gibbons.

In a statement, Kitty Block, the president and main enforcement of the Humane Society of the United States, said she hoped that the authorities would guarantee that Mr. Holly’s different animals would not endure the aforesaid destiny arsenic the zebra that died successful a trap.

“These animals request to beryllium relocated arsenic soon arsenic imaginable to much due facilities with liable caregivers,” she said.

A idiosyncratic named Jerry L. Holly of Upper Marlboro, Md., had a “Class A breeder” licence nether the Animal Welfare Act, a national instrumentality that regulates carnal treatment, that expired connected Oct. 7, according to the Agriculture Department.

From 2010 to 2013, Mr. Holly was cited astir 50 times for violating the act, according to a 2013 Agriculture Department papers that the Humane Society provided to The New York Times. He was cited for failing to region feces from a kangaroo enclosure and for failing to support fencing for his zebra, camel, alpaca and llama pastures, among different violations.