A Washington Post investigation found Jerry Lee Holly violated animal welfare laws for decades, which experts say should have kept him from ever having the Maryland zebras that escaped in 2021.
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — The groundskeeper was hiking through the Girls Scouts of America forest when he once again spotted stripes.
Officials said a herd of 39 zebras had been brought from Florida to Maryland to live at Holly’s historic Bellefields farm, where neighbors had spent decades aware but unbothered by the creatures he kept next door. Folks lived in the country for a reason, and it wasn’t to be in each other’s business.
Inspection reports from the USDA and Florida animal control officials describe creatures native to grasslands or rainforests on the other side of the world festering in cramped, filthy conditions on Holly’s suburban farms, deprived of their most basic necessities. Standing over the dead zebra in the fall of 2021, Girl Scouts forest groundskeeper Theodore McKenzie hoped this would force authorities to act.According to a Post article about the deal, which didn’t detail the cost of the purchase, Holly planned to quickly resell the animals — including bears, wolves and a giraffe — at a Missouri auction. The Humane Society, which says such auctions drive exotic animal abuse, promptly protested.
A few years later, Holly was charged with assault again for beating a farmhand with a baseball bat, according to a newspaper story at the time., was given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to undergo anger management.
had a history of violations. That policy changed in 2020 after criticism from advocacy organizations and the agency’s own inspector general. Though each agency had partial jurisdiction over the investigation — the snare trap, the zebra carcass, Holly’s licenses — officials at each said they did not believe it was their job to announce the zebra’s death. Officials struggled to communicate with Holly and each other amid confusion over who should lead the overall investigation and capture efforts.
In a warning letter, Crooms told Holly that county officials would not approve his local permits until the zebras were capturedBut weeks went by. The dazzle remained at large. Holly’s zebra herd stayed at Bellefields. For the 50 years Holly had been in the animal business, The Post found that he did not always hold the local, state and federal permits required to operate, according to records and statements from animal welfare agencies in Florida and Maryland. Prince George’s County officials said in a statement that Holly’s lack of licenses was an intentional act to “avoid scrutiny” and forego inspections.
Holly pleaded guilty in Florida state courtrooms in two separate cases involving improper caging of his animals and keeping them in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. A judge ordered probation and small fines in both cases. USDA could have fined Holly up to $10,000 for each of the 46 alleged violations, but according to a settlement agreement, he paid $12,143.
When inspectors visited Micanopy to review his compliance, they wrote in a report he still had about 130 — a direct violation of the judge’s order that led to a July 2016 criminal charge of having captive animals without a permit. He was found guilty, sentenced to one day in jail and ordered to pay $286 in fines.Though state authorities eventually succeeded in removing Holly’s license, USDA did not take his federal one, instead fining him $4,200 in another settlement.
Then officials began investigating what killed the second dead zebra, and Holly agreed to a joint necropsy on Oct. 20. But when officials arrived at Bellefields, the zebra’s body was gone.Andrea Crooms, Prince George’s County Department of Environment DirectorSylvia Singleton, a local who had started a zebra Facebook page, recorded video. Flood lights illuminated the pasture where Holly’s herd was grazing and a backhoe was digging.
As animal control officials logged evidence, they found older bones of a juvenile camel and another small mammal beneath the zebra’s skeleton. Elsewhere in the Girl Scout’s woods officials located the skeletons of the two camels first found years earlier. Holly had also violated the inspector’s previous orders to conduct no regulated activity with his expired license, according to the report, which said that Holly had sold two zebras at an auction in Tennessee — animals from a location in Florida where he no longer held state or federal licenses.Then Holly disappeared, according to county animal control,After Thanksgiving, an animal control officer trekked into the Girl Scouts forest to check on the zebras.
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