After pair escape confinement, one cub dies when car strikes
By David Kilby, Special Writer
SPRINGFIELD — The escape of two 8-month-old hyena cubs from Animal Kingdom Zoo once again has raised concern for the troubled facility.
Mayor Denis McDaniel focused in on the issue at the Springfield Township Council meeting Feb. 7, saying he was informed about the escape of the hyenas by a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter. The newspaper published an article on the incident Jan. 20.
The animals fled from the zoo just before Christmas and one died.
”I didn’t know anything about the escaped hyenas,” Mayor McDaniel said, adding he was told one hyena was hit by a car and the other was captured by fish and game management and returned to the zoo on Jacksonville-Jobstown Road.
”One of my concerns is hyenas eat any animal that will let themselves be eaten, and that includes humans,” he said. “They eat bones, and they eat flesh. They don’t leave anything.”
He added that if this was an isolated event, it wouldn’t bother him, but, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer article, the zoo has amassed 200 citations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the last 12 years, including 50 in 2012.
Alluding to a fire in 2011 that killed Bridget Sipp, wife of the zoo’s owner Burton Sipp, Mr. McDaniel said he’s thinking, “What’s next?”
Complications regarding jurisdiction over the zoo have proved to be an obstacle in the past, Mr. McDaniel said, but he added the township should do something about the zoo and look into creating an ordinance that specifies restrictions on such establishments.
Mr. McDaniel said large cats, bears and venomous snakes are not allowed in the zoo, but that leaves it open for hyenas and wolves.
Councilman Peter Sobotka said some of the violations from the USDA were related to poor cage construction, poor protection of the public and improper feeding of the animals, mentioning some of the animals are fed cereals and popcorn.
”It’s just a pattern of trouble,” Mr. McDaniel said, adding that during another major fire in 2011, a wall fell on a giraffe that eventually died from its injuries.
”There aren’t many zoos in the state, and there are even fewer that are accredited zoos,” Councilman Anthony Marinello said. “But I’m sure that they all have compliance requirements.”
Council members mentioned that Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, which is run by Essex County, received USDA accreditation in 2006.
”It’s not easy,” Mr. McDaniel said.
He mentioned Mr. Sipp is “financially strapped, and when you’re financially strapped, you take shortcuts.”
Springfield Police Chief Eric Trout said he remembers a monkey from the zoo biting a child, and another monkey from the zoo named Fred escaping for weeks.
He also recalled an incident a few decades ago where a visitor was trampled to death by a beefalo, a cross between a domestic cattle, Bos Taurus and American Bison, when the zoo exhibited the animal. The visitor was found to be responsible for antagonizing the beefalo before being trampled, council members said.
Chief Trout said that when the hyenas escaped last month, no one from Animal Kingdom notified the Springfield Police Department, and the incident was brought to the police’s attention by the driver who ran over the one hyena at approximately 6 a.m. Dec. 22
The driver had been traveling on Jacksonville-Jobstown Road — where the cub was struck.
”We have to sit down with the USDA and say, ‘We know there is a problem here, but what are our options?’” Mr. Marinello said. “The USDA may only have jurisdiction over the safety of the animals, not the safety of the people. That may fall to us.”

