Visitors to a New Jersey zoo get to watch veterinarians treat the animals

WEST ORANGE, N.J. (AP) — Forget the giraffes, gibbons and leopards. About a dozen visitors at the Turtle Back Zoo gathered one recent morning around the most unusual sight of all.

It was a small, light-brown tortoise getting a veterinary checkup.

Over the next half-hour, spectators watched through a plate-glass window as the young sulcata tortoise — an endangered species also known as the African spurred tortoise — underwent measurements, X-rays, a blood draw, microchipping and more.

Inside the northern New Jersey zoo’s spacious new, publicly visible treatment room, Dr. Kailey Anderson tucked the gel-covered wand of a Doppler machine between the top and bottom of the tortoise's shell to listen to its heart.

The nonplussed reptile pulled its head and thick-scaled front legs around the wand, trapping it in the wrong position. After Anderson coaxed the creature to relinquish the instrument, she got the chelonian equivalent of the cold shoulder when she tried to insert it again.

“You have to be really patient with tortoises,” Anderson explained. “Because if it's ‘no, thank you,’ then it’s no.”

If the experience was new for the recently arrived tortoise, it also was a novelty for the onlookers.

The Turtle Back Zoo this year joined the relatively few U.S. zoos — perhaps a dozen or fewer among the 250 accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums — that routinely give the public a view of veterinary care, said veterinarian and former accreditation commission member Dr. Scott Terrell.

“It’s a very easy way for the public to really understand and appreciate the care that these animals get,” said Terrell, who oversees animal care for Disney, where Animal Kingdom has let visitors observe veterinary care since 1998.

In an era when social media campaigns and lawsuits have questioned the well-being of captive animals, some zoos see putting vets on view as a form of transparency.

“Anytime things are out of sight, then people make up a narrative about what’s going on. I wanted to make sure, and the Nashville Zoo wanted to make sure, that people knew what was going on,” said that zoo's animal health director, Dr. Heather Schwartz. A 200-seat observation deck and cameras were built into a 2019 veterinary center renovation.

At the Oklahoma City Zoo's decade-old animal hospital, patrons have seen everything from routine exams to a gorilla's hernia repair and a bison's eye surgery, said Dr. Gretchen Cole, its veterinary services director. Visitors occasionally blanch, but Cole said she'd expected “more queasiness than we have.”

The compact, suburban Turtle Back Zoo hosts about 150 species and is recognized for its contributions to clouded leopard conservation and sea turtle rehabilitation. More whimsically, it's known for a friendship between a cheetah and Labrador retriever that had a social media moment.

Opened in 1963, the county-owned zoo was threatened with closure amid financial problems and poor attendance in the mid-1990s. A steady march of renovations and additions in the 2000s turned things around, and it now draws nearly 1 million visitors per year and is financially healthy, said longtime Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr., who has presided over the rebirth.

With more animals, the zoo needed a bigger, updated veterinary hospital. Financed with state, federal and county money, the new $17 million building opened in April and lets visitors see into the room where animals get exams and some other procedures (surgeries happen off-view in a separate area).

It was a way to provide a new attraction, and “I want the kids to be able to learn what’s going on, not just to see the animals,” said DiVincenzo, a Democrat. Zoo director Jilian Fazio hopes that watching vet care also will help visitors relate to animals and get involved in conservation.

On a sunny Saturday in September, signs and announcements invited visitors to see the sulcata tortoise's exam. The animal was brought to the zoo after being found on a New Jersey street, Fazio said. The reptile's origins are unclear; sulcatas sometimes are kept as pets, though the state requires a permit for that.

Adults generally reach at least 75 pounds (34 kilograms) over time. But for now, the tortoise was compact enough for vet tech Madison Miranda to hold it up as Anderson, the veterinarian, delicately endeavored to grasp one of its legs for a blood draw.

She tried a front leg, which the reptile pulled in and huddled. Then a back leg. Then the front again. Then an area under the shell near the head. An attempt came close.

“Oh, you are so good,” Anderson soothingly told the tortoise as she prepared to try again. “A little poke. Little poke. … There we go.”

“We found the sweet spot!” the veterinarian said as she withdrew the syringe and used a tongue depressor to hold a swab to the injection site.

She would eventually need more blood and a mouth swab for additional tests, plus another go at hearing the heartbeat. But since the tortoise was quarantined as a new arrival, those procedures could wait. Anderson had seen enough to conclude that the as-yet-unnamed animal seemed healthy and was likely a female.

After an antimicrobial bath, the patient was headed back to her enclosure for a treat: strawberries.

But first, Miranda carried her to the viewing window, where 10-year-old Eleanor Wei and her mom, Shuqing Wu, lingered on the other side.

“I think it’s really cool how they just do the veterinary care,” Eleanor said. She added that she was “glad to have a real-life experience.”

A white-cheeked gibbon is sedated while undergoing a wellness checkup at Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, N.J., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Dr. Kailey Anderson examines a white-cheeked gibbon during a wellness checkup at theTurtle Back Zoo in West Orange, N.J., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A zoo employee holds the hand of a white-cheeked gibbon during a wellness checkup at theTurtle Back Zoo in West Orange, N.J., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Visitors to the Turtle Back Zoo watch through a large picture window as a white-cheeked gibbon undergoes a wellness checkup in West Orange, N.J., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Through a picture window, Shuqing Wu and her daughter Eleanor Wei, 10, wave to a quarantined sulcata tortoise that just had a bath at the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, N.J., Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Visitors to the Turtle Back Zoo watch through a large picture window as a white-cheeked gibbon undergoes a wellness checkup in West Orange, N.J., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Visitors to the Turtle Back Zoo watch through a large picture window as a white-cheeked gibbon undergoes a wellness checkup in West Orange, N.J., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

People watch as zoo staff prepare examine a quarantined sulcata tortoise at the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, N.J., Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anti-Muslim rhetoric from some Republicans in Congress intensified this week against the backdrop of the Iran war, with multiple lawmakers — including one who said “Muslims don’t belong in American society” — drawing condemnation from Democrats for their remarks but little pushback from GOP leaders.

The derogatory language has been percolating among Republican officials for months, often prominent when criticizing New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim. But against the backdrop of the Iran war, a country with an overwhelmingly Muslim population, and attacks at a synagogue in Michigan and a college in Virginia, the tone sharpened this week.

“The enemy is inside our gates,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville wrote Thursday in response to a photo of Mamdani sitting on the ground during an iftar dinner at New York City Hall. The photo was juxtaposed with a picture of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Hours later, Tuberville doubled down: “To be clear, I didn’t ‘suggest’ Islamists are the enemy. I said it plainly.”

The rhetoric intensified Friday as GOP lawmakers responded to the attacks in Michigan and Virginia by urging a halt to all immigration into the United States. Some singled out Muslims specifically.

For many Muslims, it's a political moment that carries echoes from the early 2000s, when the 9/11 attacks and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars generated hostility toward Muslim communities in the United States, often accompanied by discrimination and racist violence.

“When members of Congress speak, it’s not just words,” said Iman Awad, the national director for policy and advocacy for the Muslim American advocacy group Emgage Action. “It shapes public perception. It legitimizes prejudice.”

Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles in his social media post stated flatly that Muslims don't belong in the United States. He stood behind it after criticism mounted, later writing that “paperwork doesn’t magically make you American” and that “Muslims are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back.”

Asked about Ogles’ post on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he had spoken to members “about our tone and our message and what we say.” He said Ogles used “different language than I would use,” but added that he believes the issue raised by the comments is “serious.”

“There’s a lot of energy in the country, and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem," Johnson said. "That’s what animates this.”

Sharia is a religious framework that guides many Muslims’ moral and spiritual conduct. References to “Sharia law” have often been invoked by officials to suggest Muslims are attempting to impose religious practices on communities in the United States.

Many Republicans point to a Muslim-centered planned community near Dallas as proof of “Sharia law” — though the developers have denied the allegations and said they are being targeted because they are Muslim.

With Johnson not condemning Ogles’ remarks — or to recent comments from Florida Rep. Randy Fine that “the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one” — the anti-Muslim rhetoric grew louder. After the photo circulated of Mamdani at the iftar dinner, several Republicans responded with critical posts.

Democrats broadly condemned the GOP messages. Chuck Schumer, the leader of Senate Democrats, called Tuberville's post “mindless hate.”

“Islamophobic hate like this is fundamentally un-American and we must confront and overcome it whenever it rears its ugly head,” Schumer said.

Mamdani — in response to Tuberville's post that “the enemy is inside our gates" — said: "Let there be as much outrage from politicians in Washington when kids go hungry as there is when I break bread with New Yorkers.”

Federal officials identified a man who rammed his vehicle into a hallway at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, this week as a naturalized citizen born in Lebanon. Officials have said that the man had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, just after sunset as they were having their fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan

In Virginia, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh opened fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University before ROTC students subdued and killed him. Court documents showed that he had previously served time for attempting to aid the Islamic State and was released less than two years ago.

Some Republican lawmakers claimed vindication for their views. Others pushed for legislation. Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the House GOP’s whip, said “the security of our nation hinges on our ability to denaturalize and deport terrorists.”

West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore said he would introduce a bill to denaturalize and deport any naturalized citizen who “commits an act of terrorism, plots to commit an act of terrorism, joins a terrorist organization or otherwise aids and abets terrorism against the American people.”

Similar rhetoric and policy pushes have surfaced before and drawn controversy. Last year, protesters connected to demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war were arrested and targeted by authorities, including former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist the government has sought to detain and deport.

Middle East conflicts bringing domestic tensions is nothing new. With the war in Gaza, both Muslim and Jewish communities have faced faith-based discrimination and attacks.

Mamdani said the posts invoking the 9/11 attacks are problematic not just because of the words, but because of "the actions that often accompany them.”

“I think too of the smaller indignities, the indignities that many New Yorkers face, but that Muslims are expected to face in silence,” Mamdani said. “Of the exhaustion of having to explain yourself to those who are not interested in understanding. Of the men who introduce themselves by their given name only to be called Muhammad for years on end.”

The stark silence from Republican leaders, including President Donald Trump, reflects a broader change in the party. After the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, Republican President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., to explicitly warn against Muslim discrimination.

“America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country,” Bush said during the visit, adding: “They need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.”

“Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior,” Bush said.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Rental Ripoff Hearing at Fordham University on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Police tape hangs outside the Temple Israel synagogue Friday, March 13, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

FILE - Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., arrives for a meeting with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - The U.S. Capitol is seen at sunrise March 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)