Advice On Reporting An Exotic Pet Store Due To Animal Welfare, Hoarding, Child Labor, And Major Health Risks.

Location: Houston Texas

I’m posting this on behalf of my friend. She worked at a popular small exotic pet store for 4 weeks and was just fired recently. This business existed since the 90s. This is going to be a long read but I have organized it to the best of my ability.

During the 4 weeks she worked, she witnessed the amount of neglect, animal abuse, hoarding, and was exposed to harsh chemicals without being provided the proper ppe. Underage employees are working under the influence of drugs and the owners will laugh it off. Employees can get fired for getting injured or sick on the job. Kids are involved, working 2 hours before the store opens (10 am) until closing time (6 pm) they are not in school and are also exposed to chemicals, dead animals, urine and feces. All of which she documented throughout the duration of her employment, which is why she was terminated.

She’s currently in contact with SPCA and is asking for any additional information on other organizations or groups she can go to.

Animal hoarding and neglect is a huge issue here. They are fed once a day except Mondays. Animals are kept in cramped spaces with no air conditioning. Temperatures will range from the 80s to over 90. They would instead pour water on animals to “cool” them down though some species cannot be wet.

“Overstock” hamsters are cramped in 5 gallon buckets kept out of sight and are known to eat each other, several dying per day. An excess of sugar gliders kept in feces ridden conditions kept in their bird room. Many die from heart attacks and heat stroke daily.

The owners will take in and breed more animals than they can handle, leading to neglect and overcrowding, leaving these animals diseased, injured, stressed, cannibalized or die from horrid conditions. Anyone can surrender their exotic animal to them without a health checkup and the animal will be left on the side until it’s sold or dies from neglect/conditions. They are extremely vague on where they get their animals other than “a breeder.” These animals include armadillos, prairie dogs, any animal that will make you question if it’s even legal to sell. They will claim the animal is vaccinated by word of mouth but will not provide the paperwork, this especially goes for ferrets. Dogs with mange are kept outside of the view of the public behind a fence and are sold in that state. She knows the layout of the property

There’s no vet intervention for these animals. Reptiles will be covered in mites, missing limbs or have eyes hanging from their face. Any employee reporting a sick or injured animal will be instructed to dispose the animal in the trash or write Not For Sale on the tank until the animal dies. Just so you know, these animals can be found in the trash alive. You may have heard of the rumors of petco and petsmart dumping animals, in which case is not true, but this company in particular absolutely does it. Many of these animals are stacked and left for dead out of the eyes of the public. They are known to sell sick animals to clueless customers, replace it with another sick animal if it dies and then refuse a refund.

Now on to the health concerns. They use straight buckets of Clorox per day to clean urine and feces. This is something you cannot use around yourself or animals. She came to my work a few days ago and looked very ill, she couldn’t breathe right. She had to use pure chemicals in hot, unventilated rooms. Her eye was splashed with bleach from not being provided with proper ppe. Employees in the past were fired for breaking teeth, bones, contracting an illness instead of involving workers comp.

Some underage employees will do drugs around the animals and will be high on the clock. The owners still allow them to work in such a state.

“there’s kids under age working and not going to school. i’m talking about kids from 11 to 14 years old they don’t even go to home school they go to work from eight in the morning to six in the afternoon”

The owners told her that people have tried to sue them with no success. Please give me any tips and resources so I can relay her the information. Thank you for reading.