Daily Dead Log

TEXAS

The extent of the cruelty and neglect PETA documented in this massive and filthy animal warehouse is mind-boggling. Tens of thousands of animals—including ring-tailed lemurs, wallabies, sloths, hedgehogs, hamsters, guinea pigs, prairie dogs, squirrels, ferrets, snakes, turtles, and tortoises—were dumped into severely crowded and filthy boxes, bins, troughs, and even soda bottles and left there, often without food and water, basic care, or minimal veterinary attention for their life-threatening injuries. The following are a handful of examples they documented of the daily, systemic mistreatment of animals:

• Scared hamsters were crammed by the thousands into litter pans, unable to move for fear of being attacked by other distressed hamsters. These cruel conditions resulted in rampant cannibalism, horrific wounds and infections, and a daily death toll. Faulty watering-system nozzles routinely flooded bins, drowning the animals trapped inside.
  
  
• Delicate green tree frogs were kept inside plastic soda bottles. Denied food and water, the frogs sometimes remained inside these bottles for weeks at a time until they were either sold or died—whichever came first.
  
  
• A young hedgehog (pictured here) who was one of hundreds of little "pocket pets" at the facility was denied basic medical attention after his front leg was nearly severed. Many animals—including a spotted squirrel whose neck was torn in half—were dumped into a chest freezer to die slowly.
  
  
• More than 12,000 baby turtles languished in cardboard boxes for weeks in the facility's warehouse and were deprived of food, water, space, humidity, heat, and ventilation. In just one day, 657 turtles were recorded in the facility's "daily dead log."

For more than seven months, a PETA investigator worked undercover inside U.S. Global Exotics (USGE), a major player in the pet trade. USGE buys and sells hundreds of thousands of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and arachnids from all around the world, many of whom are eventually sold to large pet store chains PETCO and PetSmart—stores PETA has campaigned against and even won major concessions from over the years. This was the largest cruelty-related seizure of animals ever conducted. It has already affected the global pet trade, and with more hard work, it could change the industry forever.

If you'd like to join the fight against U.S. Global Exotics, and other traffickers in this barbaric trade, consider contributing. I tossed $5 into the can. How about you?