Malibu Wine Safaris Says Famous Giraffe Safe from Wildfires as Celebs Slam Venue for Reportedly Not Evacuating Animals

Maura Hohman
Updated
Malibu Wine Safaris Says Famous Giraffe Safe from Wildfires as Celebs Slam Venue for Reportedly Not Evacuating Animals

Celeb-loved Stanley the giraffe is seemingly safe as two wildfires continue to devastate southern California, but animal rights critics are still concerned about him and his fellow residents at Malibu Wine Safaris.

Malibu Wine Safaris is home to dozens of exotic animals, and it was directly in the path of the Woolsey fire, which has since spread across 91,000 acres. Khloé Kardashian, 34, who encountered Stanley when she visited the venue during an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, initially called attention to the potential risk the Safaris’ animals were exposed to.

RELATED: Miley Cyrus ‘Devastated’ by Wildfire That Destroyed Home: ‘I Am Grateful for All I Have Left’

“Y’all know I have a special place for giraffes in my heart! All animals but I am being told that all animals from Malibu wines safari are safe!! I didn’t think they would do that to Stanley. That’s a fake report,” the reality star tweeted on Saturday after a family member told her Stanley was left “alone in the fire.”

Other celebrities expressed concern for the winery’s animals on Saturday, too, including Modern Family‘s Ariel Winter, 20, who wrote: “Can anyone assist in getting Stanley the giraffe to a safe place??? He’s currently stuck in the Malibu wine safari area and is not safe. Please. This entire situation is devastating for everyone, and I just won’t be able to handle hearing that Stanley couldn’t be saved. Please.”

Former ‘NSYNC member Lance Bass, 39, also showed support for the cause by retweeting comments implying Stanley and other Malibu Safaris animals were unsafe.

The most vocal celebrity advocate on Stanley’s behalf has been Whitney Cummings. The 36-year-old comedian was not swayed when Malibu Wine Safaris posted an Instagram of Stanley, asserting that he was safe, on Saturday.

RELATED: Kourtney Kardashian Says Wildfire ‘Just Stopped’ on Its Own Before Reaching Her Home

View this post on Instagram

Thanks to everyone in the community for your prayers and support through this difficult time. Our amazing animal care and facilities team began preparing for evacuations late last night and because of their efforts we have survived the fire. Our management team and animal trainers are onsite right now feeding, providing water, repairing enclosures, and caring for our animal family (including Stanley). While we have lost a considerable portion of our barns and facilities, our primary concern is the lives our animal and human families. We have a small number of number of animals unaccounted for but the search is continuing through the night. Your offers of support are deeply appreciated and as we begin the reconstruction process we will reach out to neighbors to help with this process!

A post shared by Stanley (@a_giraffe_named_stanley) on Nov 9, 2018 at 11:15pm PST

“Our amazing animal care and facilities team began preparing for evacuations late last night and because of their efforts we have survived the fire,” read the caption of the photo. “Our management team and animal trainers are onsite right now feeding, providing water, repairing enclosures, and caring for our animal family (including Stanley). While we have lost a considerable portion of our barns and facilities, our primary concern is the lives our animal and human families. We have a small number of number of animals unaccounted for but the search is continuing through the night. Your offers of support are deeply appreciated and as we begin the reconstruction process we will reach out to neighbors to help with this process!”

The venue has not given an update on the status or whereabouts of its animals since.

Cummings visited the facility herself over the weekend to check on the safety of the animals, and even brought them food. She shared a picture of the fire damage near Stanley’s enclosure to show how close he was to danger, and criticized the venue’s staff for not evacuating its animals.

View this post on Instagram

I went rogue and went to check on Stanley the giraffe myself. There were a lot of rumors and i didn’t want to be contributing to untrue gossip. I don’t know enough about exotic animals to know if them choosing not to move him was the right choice, but for now he is safe although the conditions are terrible air quality and windy. They are trying to build a barn for him for the night because it burned down. The best thing you can do to help is have as much hay delivered as you can to Malibu Wines/Saddle Rock Ranch or bring some if you live in the area. They lost all their structures, but all the animals are alive right now. I was frustrated that they didn’t evacuate all the animals days ago, but again it’s easy for me to say given i wasn’t there and the fires came in fast. Everyone I spoke to was kind and doing the best they could. I’m sorry I was so aggressive with you guys both in person and on social media. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you did what was best for your animals and humans but in the future I’m offering my services to help with a better evacuation plan and any resources you currently need. Let’s all just stick together right now and deal with everything else later.

A post shared by Whitney Cummings (@whitneycummings) on Nov 11, 2018 at 12:15pm PST

View this post on Instagram

This is how close the fire came to the fence. Now that i know the full scoop, shame on you @malibuwines @malibusafaris for not evacuating this animal or any of your animals. I was gracious earlier because you told me you’d move the animals and gave me many excuses of why you didn’t which i believed because I’m codependent and always want to give people the benefit of the doubt so i wrote a nice social media post trying to help get you hay. I tried to reason with you, tried to help you, and I brought you food for the animals. I am trying to help you do the right thing and take better care of the animals (you use to make money.) I have trailers and people who can take them out safely ready to go. I have way more photos and videos of how bad the damage in case people think I’m being dramatic. Let’s just do this the easy way? DM me and I will help you. I know moving a giraffe is incredibly dangerous but not having an evacuation plan at at all isn’t acceptable. Yes they keep saying they “evacuated” but that means into a pasture that’s still Smokey and burning on their premesis just FYI. Side note before I knew they left animals in fires was my dream to get married here ????

A post shared by Whitney Cummings (@whitneycummings) on Nov 11, 2018 at 9:28pm PST

On Monday afternoon, Cummings shared that she’d employed exotic veterinarians to assess the safety of the animals at the Safaris, Stanley included.

View this post on Instagram

Also, for those of you defending the owners, I get it. I spoke to them. I’m sure they are very kind people doing the best they can. I don’t want to make a bad situation worse so I’m going to hold off on more intel until I have spoken to the vets who are going and they say it’s ok for them to stay around that much smoke. They wouldn’t let anyone in but now it seems they will so that’s good news.

A post shared by Whitney Cummings (@whitneycummings) on Nov 12, 2018 at 12:16pm PST

“Believe it or not, I don’t want to be in a public beef with a zoo,” the 2 Broke Girls creator wrote. “Now vets are going to help and they can decide what’s best from here … Nothing else to do right now … People way smarter than me are assessing the situation.”

Upon seeing Cummings’ Instagrams, Kardashian changed her tune, tweeting, “I am so upset by this!!!! I wanted to believe them.”

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It’s unclear which animals are safe and how much danger they will (or won’t) be in as the fires continue to spread. At the time of Cummings’ most recent post, the Woolsey fire was 20 percent contained.

Malibu Wine Safaris did not yet reply to PEOPLE’s request for comment.