After Three E. coli Investigations in Five Days, Food Safety Attorney Bill Marler Ends 22 Years of Asking "Should We Ban Petting Zoos?" – and Calls for a "Petting Zoo Preservation Act" in Every State

In Homer Glen, Illinois, five people with confirmed Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) are linked to Bengtson’s Pumpkin Farm, four of them hospitalized; the farm closed its petting zoo on October 23. In San Luis Obispo, California, five confirmed cases – two adults and three children, the children in serious condition in pediatric intensive care – are under investigation in connection with Brookshire Farms, which closed voluntarily. In Dallas, county health officials are investigating up to seven possible cases in children, some treated in intensive care, and whether they trace to the petting zoo at the State Fair of Texas. The three investigations come one year after the 2025 Arizona State Fair petting zoo outbreak, which sickened 18 people, hospitalized 11 and left six with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a potentially fatal complication that can cause kidney failure.

“I have been asking whether we should ban petting zoos since 2004 – in 2012, in 2015 after a toddler died in Maine, and in 2019 after a two-year-old died in San Diego,” said Marler. “A question asked four times over twenty-two years is not really a question anymore. It is a way of not answering. So here is my answer.”

Not a blanket ban – but three targeted ones

Marler does not call for banning all petting zoos. He calls for three specific prohibitions:

• No direct contact for children under five with the highest-risk animals – preweaned calves, lambs and goat kids, and animals that have recently given birth.
• No animal contact at any venue that cannot provide soap and running water at the exit. Sanitizer-only stations were in place at both the 2005 Big Fresno Fair and 2025 Arizona State Fair outbreaks.
• No permit, no petting zoo – for every operator, location and season, including traveling operators who work several fairs a year.

“I have been right about the risk for twenty-two years and mostly wrong about how much signs and guidelines would fix it,” Marler said. “Guidelines are not requirements. Twenty-five years of outbreaks is the result of voluntary guidelines.”

A model “Petting Zoo Preservation Act”

Building on Pennsylvania’s animal exhibition law, North Carolina’s Aedin’s Law and its rules, Washington’s animals-in-public-settings rule, the Arizona Public Health Association’s post-outbreak proposal, and the 2023 Compendium of Measures to Prevent Disease Associated with Animals in Public Settings, Marler outlines a ten-point model act. Its provisions include a state permit and pre-opening inspection for every animal-contact exhibit; soap, running water and paper towels at every exit, with sanitizer never a substitute; staff at every exit; plain-language warning signs naming E. coli, kidney failure and the risk to young children; no food, bottles or pacifiers in animal areas; veterinary health certificates and animal-source records; proof of liability insurance; mandatory illness reporting and public notice when cases are linked to a venue; and civil penalties.

Marler noted that fairs and insurers have already begun dropping petting zoos on their own – the State Fair of Texas scrapped its Children’s Barnyard in the mid-2000s when insurers raised rates, and the Arizona State Fair dropped its petting zoo for 2026 – but only after children were hurt. “A ban by lawsuit and insurance premium is the most expensive, least predictable ban there is,” he said.

Marler called on legislators in Texas, Illinois and California to pass the act, urged Arizona to revive the petting zoo bill that died after last year’s outbreak, and asked fair boards, farm operators and insurers to adopt the measures without waiting for a law.

“In 2004 I wrote that ignoring these risks makes good business for lawyers like me, but I would gladly give up that business if it meant not having to see four-year-olds hooked up to kidney dialysis machines,” Marler said. “I meant it then. I mean it now. I would very much like this to be the last October I write this.”

Advice for parents

Wash with soap and water as soon as you leave an animal area, even if your child did not touch an animal. Keep food, bottles and pacifiers out of animal areas. If a child develops bloody diarrhea within about ten days of a farm or fair visit, see a doctor, mention the visit, and watch for decreased urination, paleness and lethargy, which can signal HUS. More information is available at Fair-Safety.com and About-HUS.com.

Marler’s full op-ed, “Twenty-Two Years of Asking Whether We Should Ban Petting Zoos,” is available at Food Safety News.

About Marler Clark

Marler Clark, Inc., PS, based in Washington State, is the nation’s leading law firm representing victims of foodborne illness outbreaks. Founding partner Bill Marler began representing victims of foodborne illness in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. He founded Food Safety News in 2009 and teaches food safety at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Marler Clark was retained to investigate illnesses linked to the 2025 Arizona State Fair petting zoo and is investigating on behalf of a family in the Bengtson’s Pumpkin Farm outbreak. Learn more at marlerclark.com and marlerblog.com.

SOURCE Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm