VERY disturbing but not completely OT

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Tegu Forum ]

Posted by attentiveear on May 09, 2003 at 09:34:59:

In Reply to: VERY disturbing but not completely OT posted by rowad on May 09, 2003 at 07:10:04:

This is a very distrubing story: Thank you for bringing it to us here! I may be interested in helping by taking a rhino and will notify the society. It is entirely sad how politics play such a negative domain in these situations. People are typically treated as such in how the "mighty" rule the majority of the social structure in this and many countries. Hopefully some legal action will makes amends very, very soon!

Thanks again!!!

Greg

:This was taken from the yahoo waterdragon list. This story involves tegus, iguanas, monitors, tutrtles and other reptiles. Please read and maybe someone can help who is close by....

:Subject: [WATERDRAGON] Warning - disturbing
:To: WATERDRAGON@l...

:To everyone on this list,

:Please be advised that the following is a disturbing account of animal
:cruelty. I do not wish to upset anyone on the list, but I was made aware
:of this by the C-turtle mailing list. Since the Long Island Reptile
:Museum offers boarding and adoption for reptiles I had to share this
:with you. I have added the email I got, and also the links for the
:museum's homepage and the crical report of the conditions found
:there made by the Tortoise Trust. Many of the animals are being
:rescued but there are some kind of legal problems.

:Sorry for the long post

:http://www.reptilemuseum.com/
:http://www.tortoisetrust.org/activities/Zoo%20Report.pdf

:email

:To date we have gotten out 29 turtles (a baby map and baby snapper
:today)
:along with 5 iguanas thanks to the Connecticut Iguana Sanctuary (AJ
:Gutman).
:Fighting back the tears she begged for several more but the workers
:couldn't
:allow it. There isn't a plump lizard or snake in the place. It is hell.
:The
:animals are sentenced to slow death and those who make it out only do so
:when
:they die or they get so sick that the owner gives them up to rescues in
:lew
:of paying vet bills. The SPCA doesn't know what to do anymore. The court
:system is failing us. They keep postponing the hearings so this monster
:will
:go on for months killing the animals. He doesn't pay for food. The
:volunteers
:bring in what scraps they can find in dumpsters or they spend their own
:money. If there is no food and no volunteer the animals don't eat. I have
:given my reports. I have taken nearly 30 turtles out of there and today 5
:iguanas.
:I am throwing my hands up. I don't know what to do. The SPCA is failing
:and
:by taking the animals I am only making room for more. He fools the public
:into thinking he is an adoption service and they pay him to take their
:animals. He either sells them or the animals are doomed to starve or their
:bodies rot from dirty conditions. There are hundreds of reptiles there.
:They
:all need help. Every expert says the same thing. They leave there feeling
:sick. The workers go home crying because they can't help them. The guy
:just
:hires fancy lawyers to block the SPCA from entering the building. He has a
:200 pound Aldabra in a 20x20 pen with three hundred pound sulcatas. They
:fight over the small heat lamps and the sulcata have diarrhea. No
:substrate
:is ever changed. They just scoop it up and consider that clean. There was
:a
:second Aldabra but it died three weeks ago. They let the body sit around
:until the autopsy could no longer prove cause of death. We want to
:liberate
:the Aldabra that is left. His name is Sam and before he meets the same
:fate
:as his brother we need to do something. Aldabras should not live their
:lives
:in 20x20 pens. They should feel the sun and taste fresh grass. Help us
:help
:him! Only the Reptile community can do this.

:This is from AJ Gutman, Owner and president of the Conn. Iguana Sanctuary
:and
:the Secretary for the National Iguana Society.

:The Long Island Reptile Museum is truly the stuff of nightmare. I'm still
:struggling to slow my breathing and stop my heart from pounding. The
:building
:houses hundreds of reptiles and amphibians and not a single one of them
:appeared to be receiving adequate care.

:As Lori mentioned, we managed to take 5 Green Iguanas out. We were met
:with
:open arms by staff members and volunteers who begged us to help them:
:"please
:take the ones on the bottom of the cage that look like bundles of
:sticks." Michael and I just finished surgery on the lower hind leg of one
:female to remove a massive network of abscesses. The poor girl was gaping
:at
:me and I managed to pull a huge abscess out of the inside of her lower jaw
:as
:well. There are two young males who are in reasonable shape (just
:predictably
:aggressive). They were the ones in the unheated cage in the shop who were
:for
:sale. The other three are females, the biggest girl was the one with the
:abscesses and the smallest has that horrible kind of necrotic skin
:condition
:all over her body. The other girl is the one who was left in the unheated,
:unlit box in the back to die. She is horribly emaciated and dehydrated,
:covered with burns and many of her toes are rotten and will probably need
:to
:be amputated. They all have mites - the bath water was running red with
:them.

:These are the lucky ones. As sick as they are, I can probably fix all of
:them. The ones that will haunt me are the ones I couldn't bring home -
:endless monitors, tegus, dragons, huge glorious tortoises, gators,
:everything
:imaginable. But my heart went out most to the ones I know best in the
:cages
:where I could easily recognize a thousand inadequacies. There were five
:Rhino Iguanas, survivors from a group of fourteen. The two males were
:constantly locking jaws, all of them were skinny; there were no hiding
:spots
:and the smallest female who was being chased by everybody had an amazing
:roller coaster scoliosis. She's the one who most affected me because she
:was
:looking at me and it seemed that she new I recognized her distress
:and desperately wanted my help.

:There were three Cubans - looked like two males and a female. One fellow
:was
:quite huge (yet clearly wasted). He must have been 15-20 years old to be
:that
:size. There were also endless numbers of assorted and mislabeled
:ctenosaurs
:(that no one recognized their species was the least of their worries). All
:the Iguanas, and apparently many of the other animals as well, were only
:fed
:if the staff or volunteers brought in food for them. On a good day they'd
:get
:some light salad greens and chopped fruit - insufficient protein,
:insufficient fiber. And all of the enclosures were so dreary, I can't
:imagine
:any of the bulbs were of reasonable wattage or had any UV output.

:The enclosures appeared to have been well and thoughtfully designed when
:the
:place opened, and then not to have been maintained since then. Broken
:glass,
:dysfunctional watering systems and rotting food were fairly ubiquitous.
:Alligators were lying in dry pools, as were water monitors and all manner
:of
:others. I've been told that conditions are much improved over what they
:were
:weeks ago when conditions were reported to the SPCA. The politics and
:legalities are complex and I can't pretend to have any grasp of how to
:proceed.

:But we need to proceed. I'll be composing an itemized report on the Green
:Iguanas, Cyclura and Ctenosaurs for Lori to submit. I should have photos
:of
:the refugees soon. Any help I could get placing the two healthy boys would
:be
:much appreciated and would allow me to concentrate on the three sick
:girls.

:AJ

:
:Lori Green
:Director, Turtle Homes
:Adoptions, NYTTS

:
:

Follow Ups:

that's terrible grnbasilisk 05/09/03 (0)

[ Follow Ups ] [ The Tegu Forum ]