US /

20K Rats, Snakes So Abused Rescuers Needed Counseling

Bosses charged with 106 counts of animal cruelty
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 23, 2013 7:07 AM CDT
20K Rats, Snakes So Abused Rescuers Needed Counseling
A boa constrictor who hadn't eaten for weeks.   (PETA)

Following what PETA is calling the biggest animal seizure in California history, rescuers were so disturbed by what they saw that they needed crisis counseling. A warehouse near Los Angeles was full of some 20,000 rats, snakes, and other reptiles who faced long-term mistreatment; many were dead and maggot-ridden, and the rest had to be euthanized, the Press-Enterprise reports. Owner Mitchell Behm and former manager David Delgado of Global Captive Breeders, a wholesale animal distributor, were each charged Friday with 106 counts of animal cruelty; Delgado faces an additional 11 counts of torturing or cruelly killing rodents.

The smell of disease, urine, and feces overwhelmed the rescue team when they entered the exotic-animal distributor in December, the AP reports. Cleanup efforts cost the city of Lake Elsinore some $94,000. Animal rights groups, including PETA, had been investigating the company; PETA used an undercover informant who shot video of employees. Investigators and activists reported shocking cruelty:

  • Animals were starved and dehydrated, and "some were literally eating each other alive";
  • Workers fired BB guns at animals;
  • Video shows employees swinging a rat by its tail;
  • Animals were slammed into objects and thrown in trash cans;
  • Snakes were transported in deli cups.
The company, which was opened in 2009, had a carbon dioxide chamber for euthanizing animals, but they were "repeatedly killed ... in a very cruel, violent manner" anyway, an animal control officer wrote. PETA has disturbing photos and video. (After reading this, you'll likely need a happier animal story; here you go.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X