♪ love is a treehouse kind of a gamble to get in that you-and-me house little closer to heaven ♪ [ cheers and applause ] this is nightline. >> tonight, animal attacks. families out for a day of fun. some ending. the day in the hospital. >> the elephant grabbed me and kind of swung me and rushed me to the ground. >> the shocking number of people who say they were injured, also so-called roadside zoos made

famous by hit shows like tiger king. this is my way of living, and nobody's going to tell me any otherwise. accused of negligence and mistreatment of animals. the undercover video. >> wild animals are not lab animals. taking selfies with animals, it traumatizes the animal. and in many times it injures the person. >> what you should know to stay safe. plus love and marriage. >> we would like to get married. we would like to get married and be able to buy groceries and medicine. they met, fell in love, but learned that getting married would cost them everything. >> they can stop us from getting married. they can stop us from living together. but they're never going to stop us from loving each other. >> the surprising fight for change taken by this disabled couple. hopefully with the release of this movie, will be able to help a lot of people. >> and my big pink payday getaway. >> how pink floyd just made a giant pile of money. giant pile of money. >> nightline will be right back

♪ it's how you can change it. ♪ how you can reinvent yourself? ♪ take on new challenges. so go ahead. reimagine yourself. [car accelerates] ♪ we did. ♪ introducing the all-new, reimagined nissan kicks. ♪

>> good evening. thanks for joining us. i'm andrew dymburt. americans love exotic animals. we've seen it on shows like tiger king and now chimp crazy. that went viral. tonight we investigate roadside zoos and so-called sanctuaries that promote interacting with these

wild creatures. critics say that this can be dangerous for both people and animals, and a warning some of these images are disturbing. here's abc's erielle reshef. >> say hi to me. hi. >> good morning. here's dad dana garber thought a trip with her family to the endangered ark foundation in hugo, oklahoma would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to get close with the world's largest living land animals. it was my youngest son's birthday. it seemed something we could do as a family was coming to bring breakfast to pops and mary. >> the foundation advertises itself as a sanctuary for retired circus elephants. the elephants here are the star attraction. >> i was under the impression that this was a good place for these elephants to live out their lives after their circus life. >> the morning started with elephants accompanied by their handlers, greeting the family by bringing them breakfast. >> is that so incredibly cool? we were encouraged to pet them.

we were encouraged to go up to them. >> but dana says the day eventually turned to horror. she says she took photos as an elephant grabbed her father in law with its trunk. her husband distracted the elephant with graham crackers so it would let him go. but then dana says that elephant grabbed her as she tried to walk past it. >> i can tell you that it felt like an anaconda. i was being squished and held very tightly after the elephant grabbed me and kind of swung me and crushed me to the ground. >> dana ended up in the hospital. she says her injuries were so severe that it required multiple surgeries on her leg. she's not alone in saying she was injured by an exotic animal at a public attraction. all caught on camera. dangerous moments from people getting too close to exotic animals. experiences that seem benign. a

visit to a traveling circus. birthday parties could be risky. abc news reviewed government records, lawsuits and local reports to find at least 150 people over the past ten years who have claimed that they were injured during exotic animal encounters in the united states. >> physical interaction with animals. it needs to be very carefully monitored to ensure that we're not just creating opportunities for people to exploit those interactions. >> tonight, animal advocates calling for change, pointing to years of undercover videos that they say reveal the need for stronger regulations to keep both animals and people safe. >> wild animals are not lab animals. taking selfies with animals. getting too close in national parks, it traumatizes the animal and in many times it injures the person. >> dana says after the elephant threw her on the ground, the staffers rushed over to help. >> i think at that point

everybody was thinking, you know, she's probably just hurt her knee. >> but as time passed, her husband, a doctor, became increasingly concerned. >> he said, i wasn't speaking coherently. at that point, she decided we have to get her immediately to the emergency room at the hospital. >> she was shocked to find out the extent of her injuries. >> my husband, being a radiologist, had gone and he was looking at the scan and i do remember him walking in and he said, dana, it's really, really bad. my knee had a lateral and medial tibial plateau crush injury that, along with the head injury. >> dana says it has taken almost two years for her to regain function of her leg as she was trying to sort out some of her medical bills. she says she reached out to endangered ark foundation to get in touch with their insurance company, and says she was shocked by the message the company left on her phone. >> i just message is for dana

and i understand that you fell at the location all kinds of hair stood up on the back of my neck. >> there is absolutely no way that you can get the kind of injury i sustained just by falling. >> dana eventually filed a lawsuit, which they settled out of court without any admission of wrongdoing by the endangered ark foundation. they told abc news that they strongly refute all allegations, saying that the family of miss garber continued to enjoy a full day at the foundation after the alleged incident. since her ordeal, dana says she's discovered that some of the elephants at the sanctuary aren't retired at all and are still performing under a license for a circus called carson and barnes for over eight decades, carson and barnes circus has been entertaining america. in advertisements. they boast about their elephants, the carson and barnes asian elephants. carson and barnes did not respond to abc news request for comment. the founders of

carson and barnes opened up the endangered ark foundation in 1993. the foundation, seen here in oklahoma state tourism videos, says it serves as a retirement ranch for circus elephants. >> i was under the impression that this was a true reserve and that these elephants were retired elephants that we would be seeing, but one of those elephants, viola, went viral earlier this year after running loose in traffic in butte, montana. >> oh my god, she was still performing with a traveling circus. the endangered ark foundation is one of at least 900 facilities in the united states that offers human interactions with wild or exotic animals as part of their business. some of the most concerning of these kinds of places, critics say, are known as roadside zoos, which are small zoos that are not accredited by the association of zoos and aquariums. one group. they say that many have a bad

track record in their treatment of animals. several came on our radar four years ago with the enormous netflix hit tiger king and its cast of exotic characters. this is my way of living, and nobody's going to tell me any otherwise. kitty bloch is the ceo of the humane society of the united states, which investigated joe exotic's roadside zoo years before tiger king ran no. she says that her organization often steps in to investigate these facilities because the federal agency charged with oversight. the usda is either too slow or does too little to act. they don't want to walk. >> pop them in the and make him watch the tv series. >> tiger king ultimately helped put an end to the business it portrayed, with the big cat act passing in 2022. the law prohibits public contact with big cats and the breeding of cubs for private possession. what's been the biggest impact on roadside zoos after the big

cat act? >> what's happened is because these are all about profit, they're just moving to other animals now. >> the humane society points to tiger safari in tuttle, oklahoma, as an example. they first recorded undercover footage there in 2014, after which the usda filed a complaint and fined the zoo $15,000. hey at the time, the founder, bill meadows, told local news outlets that his park was one of the cleanest in the state and that the animals were well taken care of. he said the negative publicity came because the humane society wanted to cut out private zoo ownership, and that his zoo had corrected the usda citations. seven years later, in 2021, the humane society went back, only to find that the facility had moved on to promoting interactions with other animals like otter cubs. so please come on. the usda, citing them again for causing unnecessary discomfort in all.

the usda has cited tiger safari at least 90 times in the past ten years for issues like inadequate vet care and unsanitary conditions. tiger safari did not respond to abc news request for comment. why would the usda allow this to continue happening? >> the usda is not even enforcing the meager standards that are there. they are stretched too thin. >> the usda told abc news, in part, that they take enforcement of the federal law seriously, and they work with facilities to ensure they comply. the agency said that if a facility is consistently unable to achieve compliance, that they are referred for investigation to determine if enforcement action like license suspension and revocation are appropriate under the previous administration, enforcement was at pretty much zero. too often, advocates say it's been left up to their groups to bring awareness and work to shut these places down, like the special memory zoo in wisconsin, which the animal

legal defense fund sued in 2020. >> the special memory zoo was a house of horrors. >> a month after filing the lawsuit, special memories announced it would close and begin transferring animals to different facilities. then a fire broke out that would reveal a shocking portrait of neglect. police dispatched to the property. >> these animals have been dead a while, right? >> their body cameras capturing a grim scene. >> there's no way this is for the fire. >> animals that had starved to death before the flames erupted. while animal advocates sound the alarm about these roadside zoos, they say there is still a way to enjoy wild animals from afar at places that are accredited by the association of zoos and aquariums. >> they take a holistic look at the facility. it's not just the standards, it's the enforcement of those standards.

>> here at the smithsonian zoo, which is accredited, they have a strict no touch policy with their asian elephants. >> we do not encourage our guests to touch and try to touch or interact with them. when we're up close to interact with the elephants, that involves a trained staff, and we do so in a structured manner to make sure that people are safe and the elephants are safe. >> dana believes this is the right policy. while her healing journey continues, she hopes her experience serves as a warning to others. >> i could have died. i don't want that to happen to someone else's family. this is going to be with me forever. i will never be able to fully move on from this. >> our thanks to ariel when we come back a disabled couple told that getting married would cost them their future. their amazing them their future. their amazing fight to change the law for all rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms.

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>> welcome back. patrice and gary have been a couple for years, but can't get married or live together without losing the benefits they need to survive this new frontier in marriage equality. the subject of a brand new documentary that they hope will change the law, their future and the lives of thousands like them. here's nightline's ashan singh, ted patrice, thank you so much for joining us, and welcome to nightline. >> well, thank you for having us. >> and congrats on the film, patrice. the movie is obviously named after you, but what was it like actually watching it on the big screen? >> well, i mean, words can't describe how amazing that experience was. >> people think people with

disabilities have no value. you need to tell your story and people can listen and say, this is why benefits are extremely important. >> they can stop us from getting married. they can stop us from living together. but they're never going to stop us from loving each other. >> patrice, the movie isn't just about you, though. it is about the love of your life. gary, tell me a little bit about gary and y'all's partnership. >> gary and i met over 35 years ago in a sheltered workshop for people with disabilities, and we just hit it off. we had a lot in common. we just would laugh at like, anything, it got to a point that our supervisor would separate us and we would still be laughing, even though we were sitting on opposite sides of the room. >> y'all are literally inseparable and almost like two peas in a pod. ted, tell me about when you first met patrice and what inspired you to actually tell her and gary's story? >> yeah, i first met patrice 20

years ago. the second i met patrice, unsurprisingly, i just fell in love with her and just felt like there's something to do with this person. we ended up working together in 2019. i was filming a series for netflix called worn stories, and i could be a crossing guard by day and a ninja by night. she had a little seven minute episode and unsurprisingly, she was extremely good on camera. she was just amazing. so we all started talking about, is there something to do together? and right at that moment, patrice and gary decided they wanted to get married. and then so suddenly that became the story of what we're doing. and i got to say, before we started the project, i personally had no idea that disabled folks in this country and even around the world, had to deal with this issue of not being able to get married without losing their benefits. >> yeah, patrice, in addition to the love story, the film details so many of the obstacles that you and gary face. just trying to live the day to day life of being in a loving couple. i mean, we actually see you in dc, you know, talking to a full

community of disabled people who are fighting for equality. let's actually watch a clip real quick. >> we would like to get married. we would like to get married and be able to buy groceries and medicine and be able to buy is such an incredible moment. >> patrice, what do you want people to know about the obstacles that society kind of presents against the disabled community? >> well, a lot of people don't realize how hard it actually is. and sometimes when you try to explain to people, they don't always get it. so hopefully this movie will touch on that and then it will click, oh, that's what they meant. >> i understand that the day the film was released, a post was actually made by the social security administration. they were actually highlighting the work that your film did and the fact that they stand by marriage equality and what you guys are actually advocating for. what did that mean to both of you? i mean, i don't think the film had

even been out for 24 hours. >> we get this message that the social security administration put out a statement acknowledging patrice and gary and the work that they're doing and basically saying, hey, you know, we are ready to make changes to our outdated rules and regulations, but just want to remind everybody that congress has to change the rules. we just implement them. but as soon as congress is ready to do so, we're happy to help them. >> did it shock you? >> yes it did, and because most of the time you don't get a response like that so quickly, especially from government agencies. and that's part of the reason why too. we have to keep fighting until this law is changed and hopefully with the release of this movie, we'll be able to help a lot of people. >> your story is out there now. the world will finally know who patrice jeter is and the love story that you and gary have. what do you want the disabled community to know? what's your message to them? >> just to not give up and keep fighting the good fight? >> well, i appreciate you guys

so much, ted. patrice, thank you so much for joining us and congratulations on the film, patrice. the movie is now streaming on hulu. >> our thanks to austin when we come back, another buck in the wall. try 400 million of them. pink floyd cashes in. all in all, you're just another brick all, you're just another brick in the wall good to go off the grid. good to go nonstop. with cabenuva, there's no pausing for daily hiv pills. for adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete, long-acting hiv treatment you can get every other month. it's two injections from a healthcare provider. just 6 times a year. don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients or if you're taking certain medicines which may interact with cabenuva. serious side effects include allergic reactions,

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>> finally, tonight, pink floyd making a deal with sony music money, the band that wrote money sells the music name and likeness rights to its song catalog, including those classic albums from their nearly 60 year career. like the dark side of the moon, the song is written by the group and wish you were here. the band pocketing a cool $400 million. we just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl. that's nightline. you can watch all of our full episodes on hulu