Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals want the center to cancel a stop by Circus Vazquez scheduled for May 16-20.

The City of Los Angeles removed five tigers from Circus Vasquez’s custody after one tiger was found dead in its cage March 31. A report from a California hospital found that the animal was attacked and killed by one or more of the other tigers with which it shared a cage.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the incident, spokeswoman Jessica Milteer said Wednesday. The department’s last routine inspection of Circus Vazquez dated April 28 found nothing that violated federal animal welfare laws.

Puyallup Fair & Events Center spokeswoman Karen LaFlamme said the center doesn’t intend to cancel Circus Vasquez’s visit. It’s the first time the fairgrounds has hosted the touring group from Brownsville, Texas.

“We heard they put on a good circus,” LaFlamme said. “As long as they are complying with USDA requirements, meaning that the animals are being treated well and the guests on our facilities are safe, that’s the main thing for us.”

The circus was cited for keeping tigers in too close proximity to each other three times in 2004, according to USDA inspection records.

PETA spokeswoman Lisa Wathne said the fairgrounds shouldn’t ignore Circus Vasquez’s record of noncompliance, even if the last inspection was clean.

“That doesn’t change the fact that a few days earlier they had a tiger kill one of their other animals,” Wathne said. “It is not an entity the fairgrounds should want to be associated with in any way.”

A spokesperson for Circus Vazquez was unavailable for comment this week.

PETA opposes all circuses that use animals, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Carson and Barnes Circus and Jordan World Circus, which has made several past appearances at the fairgrounds.

Three years ago in Eastern Washington, PETA tried to persuade the Kootenai County Fairgrounds to quit hosting the Shrine Circus, calling it “dangerous and cruel.”

Frequently given to outrageous billboard campaigns, PETA a few years ago displayed a naked blond model who was chained and covered with scars and bruises. The billboard equated her to a mistreated circus animal.

LaFlamme, the fairgrounds spokeswoman, said the Puyallup venue hosts about one to two circuses a year that draw a handful of PETA protesters. But the group has never asked the fairgrounds not to host a circus group in advance of a scheduled visit.

“It is very unique for them to be doing this,” LaFlamme said.

The fairgrounds’ interim-events committee checks groups’ references before booking them, LaFlamme said. Even after the recent tiger incident, a California venue that has booked the group for 10 years said it would invite it back, she said.

Milteer, the USDA spokeswoman, said the department hasn’t pursued any enforcement actions against Circus Vazquez. She said the circus’ past instances of noncompliance haven’t been serious enough to warrant further action.

“A finding of noncompliance is not a violation of the law, it’s just something that needs to be corrected,” she said.

Often, city or state animal welfare laws are stricter than federal rules.

That was the case in Los Angeles, where officials not only removed the tigers involved in the March 31 attack, but also asked a handler employed by Circus Vazquez to leave town last month for allegedly mistreating elephants.

The USDA found that the handling company, Gigi’s Exotics, didn’t comply with federal standards nine times in 2007.

LaFlamme said those handlers aren’t traveling with Circus Vazquez to Puyallup.

Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058