Owner of Maryland’s Runaway Zebras Is Charged With Animal Cruelty
Oct. 20, 2021
The owner of the three zebras that escaped from a farm in suburban Maryland in August, delighting residents and stealthily evading efforts to corral them, was charged with three counts of animal cruelty on Tuesday, the authorities said.
The charges against the owner, Jerry Lee Holly, came a month after one of the wayward zebras was found dead in an illegal snare trap, and a day after another zebra that hadn’t escaped was found dead inside Mr. Holly’s enclosure.
Mr. Holly, 76, of Upper Marlboro, Md., was charged after three of his zebras escaped from a privately owned farm on Aug. 26, Prince George’s County prosecutors said in a charging document. The animals were part of a zeal, as a bunch of zebras is sometimes called, of about 40 that had been brought to the farm from Florida that month.
The authorities accused Mr. Holly in the charging document of failing to provide a zebra with food and proper shelter, and of depriving a zebra of necessary sustenance and inflicting unnecessary pain. Each of the animal cruelty counts, which are criminal charges, carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/us/maryland-zebra-jerry-holly-charged.html?