The U.S. Department of Agriculture has filed a complaint against the Pasco County zoo, Dade City Wild Things.

The complaint lists various instances going back to 2010 where the USDA says Wild Things violated the Animal Welfare Act, stating that the zoo “has continued to mishandle animals, particularly infant and juvenile tigers, exposing these animals and the public to injury, disease, and harm.”

The complaint took issue with the zoo’s main attraction, the ability for patrons to swim with tigers.

Randy Stearns, head trainer at Wild Things, said the claims are outrageous.

“We’ve been doing the swims with the tigers now for a decade with zero incidents with the public or animals,” Randy said.

The filing lists instances throughout the years of tigers being ‘visibly stressed,’ experiencing ‘obvious discomfort’ and Randy ‘pulling the tigers tail.’ Randy said the situations are taken out of context.

“We’ve had people take video of literally a cat opening up his mouth to get a toy and they’ll crop out the toy and say ‘oh he’s screaming or yelling and things like that,” Randy said.

Randy said he has no doubt about what his organization does.

“We believe what we’re doing is right, we’re proud of what we do,” he said. “These are our babies; these are our babies that we spend hours caring for.”

Randy said he believes organizations like the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed false complaints against his organization with the USDA. PETA disagrees and released the following statement:

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) lawsuit against Wild Things details a litany of alleged violations of federal regulations, including such abuses as forcing a baby tiger to swim, despite his repeated cries of distress and attempts to escape the pool. Wild Things makes $200 a pop on these cheap stunts, only to discard the babies inside tiny cages after just a few months. PETA has filed numerous complaints with the USDA against Wild Things, and we know that the agency is doing the right thing by throwing the book at this animal-abusing company.”

The owners of Dade City Wild Things will not settle the allegations and plans to fight the allegations in court.

“We know we’re in the right and most of this is going to get kicked out,” Randy said.

In the meantime, the zoo is open for business as usual.