PETA UPDATE: Justice for Abused Rats and Reptiles

Jenna Dewan-Tatum Demands Justice for Abused Rats and Reptiles
By: Lindsay Pollard-Post, Senior Writer at PETA Foundation

Actor and mom-to-be Jenna Dewan-Tatum has joined PETA and the more than 30,000 compassionate people who are calling for cruelty to animals charges against those responsible for abusing thousands of rats and reptiles at California’s Global Captive Breeders, LLC (GCB).

For more than two months, a PETA undercover investigator exposed systemic neglect, cruelty, filth, crowding, deprivation, and stress at GCB. Workers at GCB routinely grabbed rats by the tail and slammed them against hard surfaces in attempts to kill them. They threw the animals into trash bins or into a reptile's cage while they were still alive and convulsing.

The crowded tubs that housed rats flooded virtually on a daily basis, drowning countless rats and leaving hundreds of others—exhausted, shivering, and terrified—to struggle to keep their heads above the rising water.

Snakes and other reptiles at GCB were so neglected that, in many cases, even their deaths went unnoticed by management for days, leaving enclosures and rotting carcasses teeming with maggots. The entire facility reeked of ammonia, death, and decay.

Based on PETA’s findings, law-enforcement officials seized more than 18,000 rats and 600 reptiles from GCB last December with help from PETA and other animal protection organizations—the largest seizure of rats in U.S. history and the largest-ever seizure of animals in California. Yet, to this day, no cruelty charges have been filed against those responsible for abusing these animals.

In addition to signing PETA’s petition calling on Riverside County, California, District Attorney Paul Zellerbach to file felony cruelty charges against those responsible for abusing animals at GCB, Jenna sent a personal plea to Zellerbach, writing:

As an expectant mother, I was particularly heartbroken to see photos of ailing mother rats with open wounds on their bodies who stood guard protectively over their dead or dying babies in the filthy plastic tubs that they were confined to without access to adequate food, water, or even moderately fresh air to breathe… Justice must be served for the unspeakable suffering endured by countless animals at GCB.

Here’s how you can help:
•    Please join PETA and Jenna Dewan-Tatum in politely urging Zellerbach to file criminal charges against all appropriate parties without further delay.

•    Never patronize stores that sell live animals and urge your friends and family not to either by sharing this investigation with them. The cruelty uncovered by PETA's investigator at GCB is typical of the filth, crowding, deprivation, and stress that PETA's investigations of pet-trade suppliers have documented over and over again.

 

Will you help by signing this petition?

Photo source: instagram / psuckit