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For Quick Launch:March 5, 2024
Contact:Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
Xenia, Ohio – After studying that regionally primarily based 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 enterprise’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.
Quite a few 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—that 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 score: PETA
“Confining snakes to minuscule, barren plastic bins the place they’ll’t stretch, discover, or categorical every other pure conduct is simply as merciless as conserving cats or canines in cages so small that they’ll’t transfer comfortably, get up, and even flip round,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “That is the fact of the pet commerce, and PETA urges everybody to not assist it and by no means to purchase any animal from a pet retailer or breeder.”
A earlier PETA investigation into Reptiles by Mack revealed that tens of hundreds of frogs, lizards, turtles, and snakes had been confined to filthy, cramped plastic tubs and disadvantaged of fundamental requirements, corresponding to contemporary meals, water, warmth, UV gentle, and veterinary care.
PETA—whose motto reads, partly, that “animals aren’t ours to abuse in any approach”—factors out that Each Animal Is Somebody 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, Fb, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Mack follows.
March 5, 2024
John MackFounder and CEOReptiles by Mack
Pricey Mr. Mack:
I’m writing concerning the numerous snakes confined at your breeding and import 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 half the animals’ size?
Your late buddy Brian Barczyk’s polished video tour of what you are promoting reveals hundreds of plastic tubs reaching almost to the ceiling in “aisle after aisle of snakes” that go “so far as the attention can see,” as Barczyk places it. The video reveals “actually massive” snakes—as Barczyk says—crammed into these tiny tubs. Many animals are clearly for much longer than the tubs and may’t even prolong their our bodies to full size. We perceive that the snakes you utilize for breeding spend their complete lives in tubs like this, severely confined like canines at pet 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 fashion. It’s broadly 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 a lot of them assumed totally stretched-out postures inside simply an hour of remark throughout the daytime. A 2021 research discovered that “suggestions [of] enclosure sizes shorter than the snakes had been primarily based fully on decades-old ‘rule of thumb’ practices that had been unsupported by scientific proof” and that “[r]ectilinear conduct is regular, distinct, and customary throughout snake species, and … elementary to snake well being and welfare.”
Even the care sheet produced by a pet business lobbying group—whose board of administrators you chair—states that snake enclosures “ought to present [the animal] enough area to stretch out and transfer freely.” Why then do your organization’s “care sheets” for corn, king, and sand boa snakes advise folks that these animals could be crammed into tanks simply half their size? Nobody 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 conserving 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 appears ahead to your immediate affirmation that (a) your facility—one of many largest of its sort on the planet—and profitable firm will give this fundamental 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 every other supplies. Thanks on your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Daniel PadenVice President of Proof Evaluation
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