BY
JOHN F. HILL, STAFF WRITER , December 19, 2012
WEBLINK WARNING
GRAPHIC IMAGES: PETA video shows conditions at Lake Elsinore facility
WEBLINK Global
Captive Breeders website
More
than 18,400 rodents and 600 reptiles have been euthanized after being
discovered at a breeding business in Lake Elsinore living in squalid
conditions, according to animal advocates.
The
animals found at Global Captive Breeders were put down during an eight-day
investigation and cleanup of a Third Street warehouse.
Teams
of 40 to 60 people from various organizations worked 12-hour shifts, sorting
through the maggot-ridden carcasses of rodents and reptiles, said Willa
Bagwell, executive director of Animal Friends of the valleys, the region’s
animal shelter and animal control provider. The surviving animals were
eventually deemed by veterinarians to be suffering too much and too dangerous
to public health to be saved, she said.
“It’s
just been horrendous,” said Bagwell, who said she’d never seen an animal case
like it. “You can’t imagine the smell there.”
More
than 700 dead rats and reptiles were found.
People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the operation was the largest seizure
of animals ever in California.
The
facility’s owner, Mitch Behm, agreed to surrender the live animals and allow
them to be euthanized, the city said.
No
arrests have been made in the case.
“Authorities
are continuing their investigation and working with other agencies in
determining next steps,” Lake Elsinore spokesman Justin Carlson said in a
statement.
The
investigation into animal neglect was sparked by a person working undercover at
the facility for PETA, the organization said.
A
graphic video posted on PETA’s website shows employees shooting rats with a BB
gun and swinging a rat by the tail to bludgeon it on a hard surface. Emaciated
reptiles, apparently too weak to move, are seen covered in flies and left to
die, according to the text of the video.
The
rats, bred and kept as food for reptiles, “were not just doomed to die
terrifying, painful deaths inside GCB's walls, but also born into and kept in
filth and misery throughout their entire lives,” according to a PETA report.
Live
rats were thrown into trash bins to die. Some of the rats drowned in flooded
tubs. Others had no water and died of dehydration, according to PETA’s
investigator.
The
reptiles were kept in dark, opaque bins and slowly starved, the report said.
Reptiles transported for sale at trade shows were packed into deli cups and
left without food or water for up to a week, the report said. In many cases, it
took employees days to notice a reptile had died, PETA said.
The
facility employed two full-time workers and one part-timer, PETA said.
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