PetSmart HQ to Face PETA Uproar After Suffering and Death Is Exposed at Reptile Supplier
For Immediate Release:
December 4, 2024
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
“Stop Selling Animals!” That’s the message a group of PETA supporters will send outside PetSmart’s headquarters in Phoenix on Thursday as they gather with giant photos of sick, injured, and dead animals taken at one of the chain’s reptile suppliers, Reptiles by Mack. PETA just released damning video footage—which was provided to PETA by a whistleblower who worked at the large-scale reptile breeding operation—showing bearded dragons shaking and twitching uncontrollably, reportedly due to a suspected virus, and suffering with severed limbs and tails. The whistleblower reported that animals were denied basic necessities including water, among other severe deprivation, and found 69 bearded dragons dead in less than eight weeks.
Next week, PETA supporters bearing signs reading, “Don’t Buy While Animals Die!” will gather outside a PetSmart store in Dayton, Ohio—which sells bearded dragons obtained from the Xenia, Ohio–based breeding facility—to urge would-be shoppers to boycott the chain until it stops selling live animals.
“When people buy animals from PetSmart—whether they came from a miserable breeder like this one or were abducted from the wild—they’re propping up a system in which suffering and deprivation thrive,” says PETA Vice President of Legal Advocacy Daniel Paden. “PETA calls on PetSmart to stop peddling in misery and end all live-animal sales, and until it does, urges consumers to take a stand against the systemic cruelty of the pet trade by steering clear of this animal trafficker’s stores.”
Where: Outside PetSmart Corporate Headquarters, 19601 N. 27th Ave., Phoenix
When: Thursday, December 5, 12 noon
Why: Many of the bearded dragons shook and twitched violently, which a supervisor attributed to adenovirus—a highly contagious and potentially painful virus spread by poor sanitation—which he said “every single” dragon at the facility had. The facility apparently took no measures to contain the virus, potentially shipping sick dragons or asymptomatic carriers to PetSmart and other pet stores nationwide. Big box pet stores’ representatives reportedly gave the facility a week’s notice before visiting, and staff worked late to “deep clean” before PetSmart reps visited the bearded dragon department—one of the chain’s “main focuses,” according to a senior worker. Otherwise, the plastic tubs the bearded dragons were confined to went up to a full week without being cleaned at all, according to the whistleblower.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness.
For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
