The San Diego Humane Society put out an urgent call to the Arizona chapter for help finding homes for a large number of "pocket-sized" pets like rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and rats.
And one Arizona man, Colten Jones, stepped up to help out.
He took the whole lot.
The Arizona humane societies thought Jones was going to help facilitate adoptions, but it turned out he ran a reptile farm called The Fertile Turtle.
Humane Society of Southern Arizona board chair Robert Garcia said,
"The day after receiving these animals, Colten Jones sent a text message seeking assistance in processing a high volume of guinea pigs and rabbits for food," Garcia said. "We know that Mr. Jones runs a reptile breeding company called the Fertile Turtle. A part of this business includes selling both live and frozen animals for reptile feed."
323 of the pets were transferred to the man in Phoenix. 260 were frozen and fed to reptiles.
The other 63 were recovered by the humane societies when they figured out what was going on.
Now the Arizona humane society has filed a police report and is pursuing legal action against the reptile farmer for their mistake.
"We could not have conceived anything like this happening in connection with our organization," he said. "And yes, I'm sad. I'm heartbroken for the animals. I'm heartbroken for the community. I'm heartbroken for the organization, whose mission it is to protect and save animals."
They went to the police because a man took animals that the humane society WAS GOING TO HAVE TO PUT DOWN and fed them to other animals!
Personally, I can't believe they're being so discriminatory toward reptiles.
This is just another case of cuddly mammal privilege.
Where's the equity?
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