The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
PETA’s latest high-profile target shares the first three letters of the animal rights group’s name, but not its concern for small creatures, PETA says.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is accusing a major supplier of PetSmart, a national pet-store chain, of mistreating animals. The organization said one of its undercover investigators worked at a breeding facility of Rainbow World Exotics in Hamilton, Texas, for two months last fall and saw:
- Employees regularly tossing live rats, mice and hamsters into trashbins.
- One worker stepping on a hamster to trap it and then crushing it with his hands.
- A man, not wearing gloves, neutering a rabbit with a dull razor.
- No evidence of a veterinarian at the site.
“She found animals suffering and dying, slowly and painfully, on a daily basis – a total disregard for their health,” said Daphna Nachminovitch, vice president of cruelty investigations for PETA.
PETA’s accusations appeared recently in an online New York Times ad and a segment on the "Today" news show.
PetSmart said it has conducted its own investigation, and “we didn’t find any indication to back up the allegations of mistreatment and abuse that PETA alleges,” spokesman Bruce Richardson said.
Richardson said PETA’s campaign is motivated, at least in part, by its disdain for pet stores.
Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com
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How ridiculus this is....
Wow i think they're lying and Isn't it illegal to spy and use it against them i got a new name for peta People for Extortion Terror and Abuse!
Comments like this:
I am really irritated by comments like "So what you are daying Dennis is it's much better to kill the animal before you toss it into a dumpster behind a grocery store in North Carolinia?" It reminds me of the people bringing up the dumpster situation and trying to compare it to Mike Vick. Though I dislike PETA, I recognize that there is a huge difference between humanely euthanizing unwanted animals and torturing and killing animals. Holding the lives of people above those of animals is natural, eating meat is natural... That's my firm belief anyway. Regardless of the importance we see in a certain animal, as human beings, we should not permit any living, feeling creature to be horribly abused.
I see
So what you are daying Dennis is it's much better to kill the animal before you toss it into a dumpster behind a grocery store in North Carolinia?
Shame
It's a shame that most people's information on PETA comes from a website called "petakillsanimals." Would you believe information I gave you from a website with the URL "dickcheneyisanationalhero.com"?
Regardless of what readers think of PETA, large-scale small animal suppliers are famous for their mistreatment of animals. "Producers" of so-called "feeder mice" are particularly notorious. No animal deserves that kind of treatment any more than a human being would.
Petsmart works with local animal rescue organizations to sponsor adoptions of dogs and cats -- why not do the same with small animals? Plenty of small animals are dumped in shelters every year, we don't really need to be breeding any more of them. They reproduce just fine on their own when males and females are accidentally mixed.
Not just rodents
The headline of this story is misleading--if you check the PETA site, petsmartcruelty.com, you can see that not just rodents were being abused at this breeding operation. Conditions for birds and rabbits were hideous too--you can see it on the undercover video.
This is all so unnecessary. The last time I was at the Va Beach SPCA, they had a whole room full of rabbits who were up for adoption. No pet stores should be breeding/selling more of them when there are so many who are already in need of homes.
If you want an animal, check petfinder.com--they list every kind of animal from birds to guinea pigs, and of course cats and dogs.
Video footage doesnt lie; these animals are suffering
Finally, someone is exposing the suffering that goes on behind closed doors. What we see up front is sad enough - animals confined in cages and tanks day after day, living boring, unnatural lives. Anyone who walks in with a few bucks can bring these helpless animals into God knows what situation. Meanwhile, as PETA has shown, the suppliers and back rooms are where the real horrors lie.
Kind people who want to care for an animal adopt from rescues. Don't support cruelty shown on the video by supporting PetSmart.
You're embarrassing yourselves
How anyone can condone animals being thrown in the garbage alive, stepped on, denied vet care, left without food or water...is incomprehensible. But even if these rants are just because PETA is challenging your "oh-so-insulated" selfish worlds, read what you post before you post it.
All the juvenile PETA acronyms are just silly. Posting comments about subjects that aren't even involved in the article is lazy and ill-informed.
Animals are suffering and dying at Petsmart. Can't we talk about that?
Watch the video
I saw part of the video from PETA's investigation on the Today Show and then watched the whole thing on PETA's Web site (peta.org). It was pretty disturbing. I'm shocked that PetSmart is taking a hard line on this instead of expressing concern over what its supplier is doing to animals. It makes me think that all that adoption stuff is just a PR ploy. If PetSmart really cared about animals, I would think they'd be horrified at what PETA videotaped and want to do whatever they could to distance themselves from it, instead of coming up with lame excuses like the animals don't matter because they are high "volume." I'm really disappointed in PetSmart.
Pain is pain whether suffered by a rat or a man
Whether it is done to a human animal or a non-human animal, inflicting pain is just wrong. The pain an animal feels is just as real to him as the pain a human feels.
People Educating The Anarchists
PETA shutup-you are insignificant. You will never gain the respect you need for your causes as long as you use looney tactics. Regular folks eat meat it tastes good. Vegan stuff makes your breath smell like you ate some feces. I know as the leader of your organization tried talking to me once and oh what a gasp of pollution from that mouth. I have now wasted my life on a paragraph commenting on idiots.