More Than 26,000 Animals Were Seized From Texas-Based Supplier of UK Companies
London – In the wake of the seizure of more than 26,000 lemurs, wallabies, sloths, hamsters, gerbils, hedgehogs, snakes, lizards, spiders and other animals from US Global Exotics (USGE) – a massive international exotic-animal operation based in Arlington, Texas – the PETA Foundation is calling on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ban the sale of exotic species in the UK and prohibit their importation into the country. USGE deals in hundreds of thousands of animals each year and counts at least three UK companies among its customers.
The raid came after a PETA US undercover investigator who spent seven months working inside the facility showed that tens of thousands of animals – including dozens of lizards, turtles, hamsters, prairie dogs and hedgehogs – were crammed for weeks into cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and bins. The animals often went without water or food and were piled on top of each other, causing widespread disease and cannibalism. Every day, dozens and sometimes hundreds of animals died of starvation, dehydration and untreated illnesses and injuries. USGE employees threw live squirrels, lizards, a chinchilla and snakes into a freezer to die, and they also dumped dying animals into the facility's rubbish bins amidst rotting remains.
At least three UK companies – Darlington-based Coast to Coast Exotics Inc, Essex-based Peregrine Livefoods Ltd and Manchester-based PM Aquatic Imports – are USGE customers. These UK companies would have sold the animals to other buyers or shops.
"This case reveals the appalling but routine abuse and neglect found in the exotic-pet trade", says PETA's Poorva Joshipura. "Animals were snatched out of their natural habitats and shipped thousands of miles to the US , only to be repacked for gruelling journeys to the UK and other countries. Anyone who gives their business to pet shops that sell exotic animals may be unwittingly supporting this cruelty."
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