Pet Smart supplier guity of cruelty to reptiles

[Catherine]

First let me say that no ethical reptile person deals with wild caught reptiles anymore. Ethically sourced reptiles come from small local caring breeders who are reptile lovers first.

Pet Smart uses big suppliers. The workers in these places are not reptile people. It is just a job to them. They are like factory farm workers and slaughterhouse workers. They don't care. They cause pain and suffering to the animals as an act of indifference.
They also lack the knowledge to care for the animals. Reptiles are tricky.

http://investigations.peta.org/reptiles-...-petsmart/

Reptiles are so vulnerable. They need special environments if they are going to be healthy. Keeping them in such miserable facilities is especially cruel. A reptile deprived of the right food and the right lighting very quickly develops calcium deficiencies and can end up permanently deformed.

No animal should have to suffer like that and Pet Smart knows the animals it buys come from such places. Pet Smart doesn't care. All they care about is the money they make.

[LPC]

That makes tragic reading - and even more tragic for the poor reptiles who are suffering at the suppliers. Let us hope that the suppliers are forced to treat the creatures more humanely.

[Tobi]

That is the most awful abuse of these poor creatures. Pet Smart have been named and shamed. Let's hope and pray they and their suppliers go out of business.

[Catherine]

Pet Smart has been named and shamed before.  They get all their animals for questionable sources.   When they had puppies they were from puppy mills.

None of those reptiles were receiving proper care. Lighting, temperature, food and water supply are very species specific.
The enclosures were filthy. They have adult male bearded dragons together, that is what it looks like. They fight. It is normal for them to do that. They have to be separated. None of the animals were properly cared for.

They are also bringing in wild caught animals. Everything they do is wrong.

I think Jake Krinkle Snake comes from that kind of a facility. We know what shape he is in. I have done my best for him, but I can't fix him.

[Tobi]

Catherine....Jake Krinkle Snake is doing OK. He has love and a loving home and he (she?) knows it. He may be Krinkly but he doesn't actually mind any more because of the kindness which surrounds him now. One of the very lucky ones.

[Catherine]

Jake is one of the lucky ones.

All those damaged bearded dragons are not so lucky. They are not suitable for sale in a pet store if they are damaged so they will have been killed. I don't even say euthanized because that implies a gentle kind death.

Pigbert the guinea pig was sent to a pet store and it was clear he was "damaged goods". They were supposed to euthanize him, but I took him because they were a good store and wouldn't kill a sweet little baby guinea pig. He was always "damaged", but he had a good life.

A  lot of my rescue pets, especially the reptiles are the damaged ones. Leo the Cuban Knight Anole is missing his back feet.
I deal with ethical people who take in damaged pets and find them homes.  Any of these animals would have been killed if they were from pet smart suppliers.

We just took in a litter of baby bearded dragons. The person hatched them and then couldn't figure out how to feed them. He made a lot of other mistakes and in the few weeks they have been out of the egg they are quite damaged. I don't know how much can be reversed. Their bones are already misshapen.  One has a bent jaw and has trouble eating. First they will be fed and strengthened, then when they are ready they will be placed in loving homes.  That will happen because love of the animals comes first.

Pet smart doesn't love animals, they love profits. Good animal care costs money. Caring for animals injured in the pet trade cuts into the profits so they don't care for them. They just dispose of them like garbage.

If Jake had shown signs of his spine deformity before he was sold, he would have been tossed in the freezer...alive!