Kansas City, Mo ? Kansas City Zoo is disputing a magazine report it shipped unwanted animals to “roadside zoos” with substandard conditions.

“We’re very diligent about the procedures we go through in placing animals,” zoo spokeswoman Jennifer Davis said Wednesday.

The Aug. 5 edition of U.S. News & World Report said the Kansas City Zoo was among those that had shipped animals to zoos not meeting the standards of the American Zoo and Aquarium Assn.

The article highlights a former zoo in New Braunfels, Tex., in which primates were housed in cages without water.

Davis said the Kansas City Zoo’s records show that in 1998 it gave one exotic bird, a double-striped thickknee, to the New Braunfels zoo for breeding. In 1999, the zoo shipped nine more birds, including mandarin ducks and straw-necked ibisis. It is not clear what became of those birds.

Davis said Kansas City Zoo officials had no reason to question the Texas operation and had arranged for a zoo professional in Texas to inspect it.

Michael Satchell, who wrote the U.S. News article, said Wednesday his reporting had found the Texas zoo was in decline by 1999.

Jane Ballentine, spokeswoman for the American Zoo and Aquarium Assn., said the New Braunfels zoo was licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its director had been well-respected among bird professionals.