JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – A routine inspection by the federal government at the Jackson Zoo led to a citation saying the facility is understaffed.

According to a report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), employees are spending all day doing basic tasks while proactive maintenance and preventive pest control are not completed.

At a City Council meeting, Parks and Recreation Director Ison Harris said the vacant positions are budgeted, and the zoo is doing everything they can to fill them.

“The zoo is just like every other organization in the world. We still struggle fine, and employees is no different, just because you have a zoo, but we’ve posted. We’ve done everything that we’re supposed to for us posting the positions. We’ve done interviews. We’re doing anything to try to fill out, so that was that that’s the report that we actually sent to the USDA. We have the positions posted on our website. We’re doing whatever we did. We did some stuff through the media, through several appeals to try to get people. We did have some people call,” said Harris.

Councilman Kenneth Stokes, Ward 3, said the zoo and the surrounding area needs to be developed to attract more visitors, or the zoo needs to be moved.