Employee Seen Grinning and Holding Drowned Animals' Bodies on Facebook

For Immediate Release:
August 4, 2009

Contact:
Stephanie Bell 757-622-7382

Akron, Ohio -- After being alerted to a Facebook photo and discussion thread indicating that a Petland employee named Elizabeth Carlisle deliberately drowned two rabbits on July 28 at a Petland store in Akron, PETA wrote to Petland's founder, Ed Kunzelman, and its president, Frank Difatta, calling for an end to rabbit sales at the national pet store chain. PETA is also asking Petland to conduct an internal investigation of the incident and is calling on Petland's corporate office to support the criminal prosecution of Carlisle, if warranted, as well as to immediately review and strengthen company procedures pertaining to euthanasia and the treatment of sick and injured animals.

The Facebook photo shows a grinning Carlisle -- who worked at the Petland store located at 2000 Brittain Rd., Ste. 41, in Akron -- dangling two dead, soaking-wet rabbits by the scruff of their necks. Carlisle confirms a Facebook friend's guess that she drowned the rabbits, writing, "[T]he manager took the pic for me. [S]he reminded me that there were people outside as [I] was swearing at them to just hurry up and die but then she was so kind as to take this picture."

Carlisle's other comments indicate that the rabbits had been allowed to "attack" and "eat" each other (behavior that may have been caused by crowding and poor husbandry) while in the store's "care" and that rabbits had sustained injuries, including "deep wounds all over," "an eye missing," what Petland staff "suspected was a broken jaw," and paralysis from the waist down. The case is currently under criminal investigation by law-enforcement authorities.

"Petland has no business selling any animals," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "Its management and staff seem unable to provide rabbits with basic supervision and care and don't appear to have anything close to a decent attitude toward them. But at the very least, Petland should follow the example of other national pet store chains and immediately stop selling these small, vulnerable animals."

For more information, please visit PETA.org.