Another exotic animal has died in a pasture on a farm in Troutman.

This time it is an emu. It is at least the third exotic animal to die since the NewsChannel 36 I-Team first looked into the animal's conditions last month.

The animals' owner, Scotty Brown, first told reporter Rad Berky he suspected the emu had been murdered.

"Well, it has a broken neck," Brown said. "I don't know if another animal murdered it. Something broke its neck."

Brown is keeping the exotic animals, which include a zebra and some deer, in a field around the corner from where he is building what he says will one day be a public zoo on his property in Troutman off of Interstate 77.

While Brown was showing the I-Team around on Monday, an inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed up to look at the animals. She would not comment on the purpose of her visit, but paid particular attention to a camel that a neighbor had said had recently been very sick.

A neighbor told NewsChannel 36 that Brown had moved the camel from the field to the "zoo" so the I-Team would not be able to photograph it.

Brown admitted he moved the animal, which on Monday was standing and did not show any outward signs of being sick. Brown said he had given it medicine and the camel named Sheba was now fine.

Brown blames tainted grain for making the camel sick and said the bad food was responsible for the recent deaths of a zebra and a small deer.

Berky asked Brown if it was true that instead of grain, he had actually fed the animals' rye grass seed.

"It was grain," said Brown. "Does rye grass seed have toxins in it more so than anything else?"

Brown says he hopes to have all the exotic animals moved to the new "zoo" by the end of the week, although new pens still have to be completed. If he gets the proper permits, he hopes to open his zoo in the fall of this year.

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