For Immediate Release:
March 7, 2024
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
Newberry, Fla. – After studying that domestically primarily based reptile mill The Gourmet Rodent—a self-professed nationwide provider to Petco—retains hundreds of snakes in small, barren plastic tubs with out room to even lengthen their our bodies to full size, PETA fired off a letter right this moment to proprietor Mike Layman calling on him to maneuver the snakes at his compound into enclosures a minimum of so long as they’re and to finish the corporate’s deceptive claims that it’s acceptable to accommodate snakes in tanks which can be simply a 3rd of the size of their our bodies.
A big, emaciated snake is saved in a small tub at a breeding operation. Credit: PETA
A big, emaciated snake is saved in a small tub at a breeding operation. Credit: PETA
Numerous peer-reviewed research make it clear that to be psychologically and bodily wholesome, snakes held in captivity should be capable to absolutely stretch out their our bodies and that snakes who can’t stretch out really feel confused and expertise varied well being issues, together with accidents, joint illness, constipation, and weight problems.
“At this wretched reptile mill, tens of thousands of snakes are confined to tiny tubs stacked from floor to ceiling, unable to stretch out or engage in any natural behavior,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “The pet trade peddles in misery, and PETA urges people never to buy a snake or any other animal from a pet store or breeder.”
PETA—whose motto reads, partially, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—factors out that Every Animal Is Someone and gives free Empathy Kits for individuals who want a lesson in kindness. For extra info, please go to PETA.org or comply with the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Layman follows.
March 7, 2024
Mike Layman
Owner
The Gourmet Rodent
Dear Mr. Layman:
I’m writing concerning the tens of hundreds of snakes confined to your breeding warehouse. Will you decide to bettering circumstances for these animals and finish your organization’s false declare that it’s acceptable to maintain snakes in tanks which can be simply a 3rd of the animals’ size?
A quick video tour of your compound—in addition to quite a few printed images—present plastic tubs reaching from the ground to the ceiling in aisle after aisle of snakes. The video reveals you eradicating three of the snakes crammed into these tiny tubs. All these animals—and people you’ve been photographed dealing with—are clearly for much longer than the tubs to which they’re confined and might’t even lengthen their our bodies to full size. PETA investigations have discovered that snakes used for breeding spend their whole lives in tubs like this, intensively confined like dogs at puppy mills.
Such fixed confinement causes any animal to endure and has been implicated in irregular conduct in addition to greater than 20 ailments present in snakes saved this fashion. It’s extensively acknowledged amongst specialists—and has been for years—that habitats that enable snakes to stretch and transfer round are essential to their bodily and behavioral wants. A 2019 research of 65 snakes discovered that lots of them assumed absolutely stretched-out postures inside simply an hour of commentary in the course of the daytime. A 2021 research discovered that “recommendations [of] enclosure sizes shorter than the snakes were based entirely on decades-old ‘rule of thumb’ practices that were unsupported by scientific evidence” and that “[r]ectilinear behavior is normal, distinct, and common across snake species, and … fundamental to snake health and welfare.”
Even the care sheet produced by a pet business lobbying group states that snake enclosures “should provide [the animal] sufficient space to stretch out and move freely.” Why then does your organization’s “care sheet” for ball python snakes advise those who these animals could be crammed into tanks only a third of their size? No one would advocate {that a} 3-foot-long German shepherd be saved in a crate simply 12 inches lengthy. Yet The Gourmet Rodent approves of and promotes protecting a 6-foot-long snake in a tank that’s simply 2 ft lengthy.
Stretching out absolutely and transferring in a straight line are important to snakes’ well-being. Accordingly, PETA seems to be ahead to your immediate affirmation that (a) your facility—the most important of its type on this planet—and profitable firm will give this basic alternative to the snakes you breed and ship around the globe and that (b) you could have eliminated the above false and deceptive declare out of your web site and another supplies. Thank you in your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Daniel Paden
Vice President of Evidence Analysis
