The USDA is suing an exotic pet farm, citing stressed and traumatized baby animals, water deprivation, and an emaciated cat

• The USDA is suing an exotic pet farm that houses animals like capybara, lemurs, wallabies, and a red kangaroo.
• The feds say Even Keel Exotics deprived animals of food and water.

The US Department of Agriculture has sued an exotic pet farm in Michigan that has been scrutinized by animal rights advocates for years, alleging a variety of violations and instances of mistreatment, including failing to feed an emaciated, nursing cat with four kittens, and harming a baby ring-tailed lemur by separating it from its mother.

Even Keel Exotics, owned by Zachery Keeler, is a USDA-licensed facility that breeds and deals in exotic animals like capybara, kinkajou, mink, foxes, porcupines, and sugar gliders. The facility even houses a red kangaroo and two zebu — a type of humped cattle originating from India — which inspectors said had no shelter or perimeter fence.

The facility, which boasts events like "Baby Animal Day," also harmed young animals like a baby wallaby and a baby endangered ring-tailed lemur by improperly allowing guests to hold and interact with them. The USDA included a social-media photo showing the baby wallaby being held by a customer.

"The baby wallaby was too young to be handled by members of the public, as evidenced by its small size and appearance and haricot," the lawsuit said, adding that inspectors "noted the animal was at risk of hypothermia and stress from over-handling."

The lawsuit also alleged that Keeler continually removed a lemur pup from its mother and group in order to have it interact with employees and members of the public.

Not only can public handling of a lemur result in "trauma, aggression, and infectious disease transfer," but removing it from its mother and group even briefly can cause "stress-induced physiological and behavioral problems, reproductive health problems in the mother, and abnormal levels of aggression in the young lemur," the lawsuit said.

Ring-tailed lemurs are highly social animals that live in groups known as "conspiracies." Removing one lemur even briefly can cause the conspiracy to oust that lemur. The lawsuit said Keeler has even attempted to sell the lemur pup for $3,500.

Even Keel Exotics did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Inspectors who visited Even Keel Exotics also documented multiple instances where animals had no potable water in their enclosures. When the inspectors offered the animals water, they drank excessively, sometimes for minutes at a time, the inspection records said.

One capybara drank for 40 seconds straight when inspectors offered water, and a rabbit whose water dish was dry and full of shavings gulped down water for a full minute, the reports said. A porcupine also spent two minutes "excessively" drinking, and inspectors said two arctic foxes "drank ravenously" when they ordered Keeler to provide water.

An adult female cat and her four nursing kittens had no food or potable water, and when inspectors ordered Keeler to provide food, the adult cat ate for two minutes, while the kittens gorged themselves for over four minutes, the court documents said.

Animal rights advocates have sought to draw attention to Even Keel Exotics in the past. Earlier this year, the ASPCA criticized the USDA for failing to take action against the facility's failure to allow inspectors to visit.

"This USDA-licensed facility has a long, problematic history of harming animals and endangering the public," the ASPCA wrote, accusing the government of "leaving an estimated 600 vulnerable animals in [Keeler's] care without any oversight at all."