A Contact 13 hidden camera investigation into the Las Vegas Zoo has generated uproar across the country. As far away as Washington, DC and as close as San Diego, home to what's often considered the best zoo in the country. So, Chief Investigator Darcy Spears asked, why are they sending animals to a place the Humane Society of the United States says needs to be shut down?

The San Diego Zoo is the picture of what everyone expects a zoo to look like. Large enclosures with lots of room to roam, pools to cool in and other animals to play with. Not the caged-in feel of animals behind bars in Las Vegas.

In spaces that exotic animal specialist Jane Garrison says are too small, too dirty, too hot and where too many animals are alone.

"This zoo needs to recognize that and allow the Humane Society to place these animals in a better facility and we would be thrilled to do that," said Jane.

If the Humane Society of the United States says the animals need to be rescued from our zoo, we wondered why a zoo like San Diego that's so well-respected and accredited, would work with a zoo that's not.

"The Humane Society is very upset to see that the San Diego zoo has sent animals to the zoo in Las Vegas to live in very inadequate conditions," said Jane.

Animals like those we found in our hidden camera investigation. The bornean binturong, also known as a bear cat, doesn't move other than to pant in the heat. The siberian lynx just paces repeatedly in her tiny cage.

"Those animals are suffering so greatly. They have a change of temperature leaving San Diego and coming to Las Vegas. They have a change of a social structure," explained Jane.

We sent our sister station in San Diego to question zoo officials.

"The Las Vegas zoo is a zoo that needs help, and the San Diego zoo has been working with them for the past year or so to help them. To help get their staff better trained, to help improve their exhibits, to help them find a better source of funding," said Christina Simmons, spokeswoman for the San Diego zoo.

If the Las Vegas zoo needs so much help, we asked why they'd send more animals to Las Vegas.

"We work with a lot of unaccredited facilities that are working to maintain and release animals, facilities that are nature centers that are not traditional zoos, but one of the aspects of that is training people on animal care. And a step toward that is having animals there that we manage, that we continue to manage, that we go in and work with their staff to manage and train them on," said Christina.

She tells us their top animal care staff was here just two weeks ago to check on their animals.

"We are comfortable that the Las Vegas zoo is taking care of our animals very well," said Christina. 

She says they even use our zoo to breed animals for the San Diego zoo and will continue working hard to help the Las Vegas zoo become better. The Humane Society of the United States plans to contact them about all of that, and we'll be following it as we follow this story.