Pet stores keep cruel animal trade alive

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010

If you care about animals, you should never buy one from a pet store. That may seem counterintuitive, but PETA's undercover investigations have demonstrated time and again that pet shops and the companies that supply them treat animals like disposable objects. No thought is given to the fact that they are living beings.

PETA's latest case proves this point.

Imagine a worker putting hamsters into a plastic bag and bashing them against a table in a crude attempt to kill them. One hamster languishes - panting heavily and suffering - for several minutes.

Unsalable animals are gassed in a filth-encrusted glass tank. Hamsters are killed when careless employees crush their necks between shipping boxes and box lids.

These are just a few of the atrocities that PETA documented during a recent three-month undercover investigation of Sun Pet Ltd., a Georgia-based wholesale animal dealer that supplies small mammals, birds, fish and other animals to PETCO, PetSmart, Pet Supplies "Plus," Walmart and "mom and pop" pet stores across the United States.

At Sun Pet, PETA's investigator routinely found severely decomposed rat, mouse, gerbil and hamster remains in bins containing live animals. Guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, chinchillas and sugar gliders were housed and/or shipped in severely crowded bins, cages and boxes. Sometimes the distressed animals fought, resulting in injuries such as shredded ears and gouged eyes.

A supervisor and employees routinely handled animals roughly. The supervisor said that "you could throw (the mice) against the wall and they'll stand back up again and keep on running" and that you could forcefully squeeze small mammals' abdomens "like a ... PlayStation controller handle" to determine their gender.

In more than three months of employment, PETA's investigator never once saw anyone from PetSmart's or PETCO's corporate offices inspecting the Sun Pet facility. Dozens of PETCO and PetSmart stores shipped sick and injured animals back to Sun Pet without food, water or veterinary care. Some animals were dead upon arrival.

One bad apple? Hardly. The situation at Sun Pet is all too common.

This is PETA's fourth expose revealing the abusive handling and filthy conditions endured by animals who are eventually sold at PETCO stores and our third revealing such conditions for animals sold at PetSmart.

Last year, a PETA investigator spent seven harrowing months working inside U.S. Global Exotics, Inc. (USGE), a Texas-based multimillion-dollar animal supplier that sold animals to Sun Pet and other distributors.

Animals at USGE were routinely confined for days or weeks to pillowcases, shipping boxes and soda bottles without proper heat and humidity or even food or water. Hundreds of lizards who were never unpacked perished inside bags and "shipping cups." Snakes routinely starved, and animals suffering from life-threatening conditions - including an emaciated and dehydrated wallaby who was too weak to stand - were left to suffer and die slowly. Workers routinely put sick, injured and dying animals in a freezer to kill them. Some animals deemed "no good" for sale were thrown into a Dumpster.

As a result of PETA's investigation, Texas authorities seized more than 26,000 animals from USGE last December in the largest animal confiscation in history. USGE's U.S. Department of Agriculture license has since been cancelled, and the company is now closed. Its owner, Jasen Shaw - who is now a fugitive - is wanted by the federal government for violations of the Lacey Act and is under investigation for charges of smuggling, conspiracy and aiding and abetting.

One down, many more to go.

If you share your home with an animal companion, please stock up on necessities at shops that sell only supplies, not live animals. And if you're ready to pour your time, energy, money, attention and love into an animal, visit or your local animal shelter to adopt a furry friend.

Most important, never buy an animal from a pet store. Appalling abuse and neglect are just business as usual for the warehouses that supply pet shops. The suffering will continue until consumers stop patronizing stores that purchase animals from these hellholes.

• Dan Paden is a senior research associate in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' Cruelty Investigations Department.


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