English
Please Stop Your Aid in Enabling Others to Harm and be Cruel to Animals
I am writing on behalf of the animals that are sold at your store that are mistreated and kept in hazardous conditions by one of your major wildlife suppliers, Holmes Farms. Though this business is already under investigation thanks to PETA’s campaign against Holmes Farms and Petco has stated that they have cut ties with this supplier, your business has continued to do business with them. This mistreatment was discovered initially after an activist for PETA got a job at Holmes Farms and discovered perilous and unsafe conditions that these animals were being kept in. In fact Jessica Parks, a staff writer for the www.philly.com website which reports local and international news stated that “A PETA activist who got a job at the plant reported seeing animals dead in cages without water, sick animals not given veterinary care, and dozens of animals placed together in a dirty cooler to be gassed to death, or placed in plastic bags and then frozen to death” (Parker, “Montco Breeder Investigated After PETA Video”).
Unfortunately, contacting this farm directly has had no effect as they have now removed information from their website: www.holmesfarm.com. However, after researching I found that numerous reporters were able to locate their direct phone number which is 610-845-7673 and the owner’s name which is Martha Holmes. After repeatedly trying to contact Mrs. Holmes at the phone number found, messages were left but no one was able to get in touch with Mrs. Holmes and she has failed to return any phone calls.
PETA, who are the original activists in this campaign against Holmes Farm has activity been pursuing this issues since January of 2016 and information on this campaign can be found at their website: http://investigations.peta.org/animals-gassed-frozen-petco-petsmart/ which not only describes some of the devastating conditions these animals were living in but precisely notes all of the violations that they are committing and that your company is still actively utilizing them as one of your massive animal mills. PETA’s complaints to the FDA were investigated and they found that after listing at least 117 violations of 14 various federal laws that “36 animals in need of veterinary care, decomposing animals in bins with live animals, a free-roaming cat near guinea pig bins, an ammonia stench so strong that it burned federal agents’ eyes and noses, and statements by Holmes Farm staff that they had learned to kill unwanted animals on the internet” (PETA, “Animals Frozen Alive, Crudely Gassed at Petsmart Supply Mill). There is also video evidence of this mistreatment on their site as well as various other news sites online such as: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/petco-supplier-accused-torturing-freezing-live-animals-article-1.2504475 and http://nypost.com/2016/01/21/horrifying-video-catches-petco-supplier-gassing-freezing-pets/.
Thirty-six is only the number they found the day they visited. Reports have shown that hundreds of animals have been gassed, kept frozen, and have been kept in lethal conditions. A report for the ethical treatment of animals claims “Their screams could be heard across the room” (PETA, “Animals Frozen Alive, Crudely Gassed at Petsmart Supply Mill”). The Holmes Farm supply mill in Barto, Pennsylvania provides thousands of animals from ferrets, rabbits, hamsters, chinchillas, and gerbils as well as other creatures to numerous PetSmart stores throughout the U.S. Reports have depicted that thousands of animals who had already undergone grueling trips from overseas in crates were restricted into bins that were crowded in the Holmes Farm filthy warehouse that did not even contain windows. Chris Perez from the New York Post stated that PETA found that “the buildings reeked of urine and feces, and one building’s floor was splattered with blood. PETA’s observer never saw any animals receive veterinary care at the facility, despite repeatedly alerting the manager to obviously sick and injured individuals” (Bitette, “Petsmart Supplier Accused of Torturing, Freezing Live Animals”). Workers instead took animals like gerbils, guinea pigs, and rabbits by the dozens and piled them into coolers covered in feces and utilized carbon dioxide to gas them. Workers on the farm did not even look to see if the animals exhibited any signs that the animals might still be alive before their bodies were dumped into the trash, some were even sold after being put into plastic bags as feeders. Numerous of the emaciated animals that were treated poorly were left for days without any type of care which led to some of the rabbits dying in their own cages. Rat-bite fever was found in some of the rats and it is well known that this disease has the potential to kill the animal and can also be caught by humans.
The Holmes Farm has been involved in shipping over 20,000 gerbils, hamsters, and guinea pigs to your stores and other related stores over just the last three months. These animals were denied water and food the night before they were shipped in packing boxes and were sent away on a long, grueling journey to various states and stores. According to PETA, “Mother mice were seen trying to hide their babies as workers took the newborns away to ship them to customers” (PETA, “Animals Frozen Alive, Crudely Gassed at Petsmart Supply Mill)
In conclusion, I hope you hear my plea as well as the thousands of others who have joined PETA’s campaign in cutting off your ties with the Holmes Farm in Barton, Pennsylvania since you claim to care about the welfare of all animals. Your business with this farm clearly goes against all that your store stands for and is also in violation of the law. Since under the Animal Welfare Act, all breeders must be licensed and have a veterinarian designated so that there can be plan written up for the care of all of the animals.
