For Immediate Release:
March 5, 2024
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
Xenia, Ohio – After studying that domestically based mostly reptile mill Reptiles by Mack—which sells reptiles to pet shops throughout the U.S.—retains hundreds of snakes in small, barren plastic tubs with out room to completely stretch out, PETA fired off a letter at present to the business’s founder and CEO, John Mack, calling on him to enhance circumstances for the animals at his facility and to take away the deceptive claims on the corporate’s web site stating that snakes could be housed in enclosures solely half the size of their our bodies.
Numerous peer-reviewed research make it clear that to be as mentally and bodily wholesome as attainable, snakes held in captivity should be capable of totally stretch out their our bodies—which means that they should be housed in enclosures not less than so long as they’re—and that snakes who can’t stretch out really feel confused and expertise numerous well being issues, together with accidents, joint illness, constipation, and weight problems.
Shelving items at Reptiles by Mack, the place hundreds of snakes are housed in tiny tubs like these. Credit: PETA
“Confining snakes to minuscule, barren plastic bins where they can’t stretch, explore, or express any other natural behavior is just as cruel as keeping cats or dogs in cages so small that they can’t move comfortably, stand up, or even turn around,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “This is the reality of the pet trade, and PETA urges everyone not to support it and never to buy any animal from a pet store or breeder.”
A earlier PETA investigation into Reptiles by Mack revealed that tens of hundreds of frogs, lizards, turtles, and snakes have been confined to filthy, cramped plastic tubs and disadvantaged of basic requirements, resembling contemporary meals, water, warmth, UV mild, and veterinary care.
PETA—whose motto reads, partly, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—factors out that Every Animal Is Someone and provides 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 Mack follows.
March 5, 2024
John Mack
Founder and CEO
Reptiles by Mack
Dear Mr. Mack:
I’m writing concerning the numerous snakes confined at your breeding and import warehouse. Will you decide to enhancing circumstances for these animals and finish your organization’s false declare that it’s acceptable to maintain snakes in tanks which are simply half the animals’ size?
Your late pal Brian Barczyk’s polished video tour of your business reveals hundreds of plastic tubs reaching practically to the ceiling in “aisle after aisle of snakes” that go “as far as the eye can see,” as Barczyk places it. The video reveals “really big” snakes—as Barczyk says—crammed into these tiny tubs. Many animals are clearly for much longer than the tubs and might’t even prolong their our bodies to full size. We perceive that the snakes you utilize for breeding spend their whole lives in tubs like this, severely confined like dogs at puppy mills.
Such intense confinement causes any animal to endure and has been implicated in irregular conduct in addition to greater than 20 illnesses present in snakes saved this manner. 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 examine of 65 snakes discovered that a lot of them assumed totally stretched-out postures inside simply an hour of remark throughout the daytime. A 2021 examine 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—whose board of administrators you chair—states that snake enclosures “should provide [the animal] sufficient space to stretch out and move freely.” Why then do your organization’s “care sheets” for corn, king, and sand boa snakes advise those that these animals could be crammed into tanks simply half their size? No one would advocate {that a} 3-foot-long German shepherd be saved in a crate simply 18 inches lengthy. Why does Reptiles by Mack approve of and promote retaining a 6-foot-long snake in a 3-foot-long tank?
Stretching out totally and shifting in a straight line are important to snakes’ well-being. Accordingly, PETA seems ahead to your immediate affirmation that (a) your facility—one of many largest of its form on this planet—and profitable firm will give this basic alternative to the animals you breed and ship out and that (b) you’ve got eliminated the above false and deceptive claims out of your web site and some other supplies. Thank you in your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Daniel Paden
Vice President of Evidence Analysis
