PETA to Confront PetSmart Shareholders Over Disturbing Investigation Findings

Protest to Be Held Outside Annual Meeting as Group Grills Executives Inside Over Undercover Video, Criminal Investigations, Distributor's Arrest Warrant

For Immediate Release:
June 15, 2010

Contact:
Ashley Byrne 757-622-7382

Boston -- Holding signs reading, "PetSmart: Big Suffering for Small Animals," PETA members will confront shareholders attending PetSmart's annual meeting in Boston on Wednesday. The protesters will also display large photos of suffering and dead hamsters, gerbils, frogs, and snakes--photos that were taken during recent undercover investigations of a PetSmart supplier and one of its distributors. As a result of evidence gathered by PETA, PetSmart supplier Sun Pet Ltd. is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Georgia Department of Agriculture, and a federal arrest warrant has been issued for the owner of the now-defunct U.S. Global Exotics, Inc. (USGE), a distributor that sent animals to PetSmart suppliers before more than 26,000 animals were seized from its facilities. Outside the meeting, PETA will screen footage from its USGE investigation. Inside, a PETA representative will ask PetSmart officials to bar the purchase of animals from suppliers and distributors that have violated or are under investigation for violating the law:

When:   Wednesday, June 16, 9:15 a.m.

Where:  Four Seasons Hotel, 200 Boylston St. (near Hadassah Way), Boston

"PetSmart customers have a right to know that the company has done business with a distributor that violates cruelty-to-animals laws and a supplier that lets an employee bash hamsters to death," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "Small animals, such as hamsters and birds, do not require less care than big animals."

The following are just a few of the findings from PETA's investigations of USGE and Sun Pet:

*  Countless animals at USGE were frozen to death or died of apparent starvation and dehydration.

*  When asked for guidance on caring for red-tail boa snakes--dozens of whom had died--a then--USGE supervisor replied, "Let them die. They're garbage."

*  PetSmart stores shipped sick and injured animals back to Sun Pet without providing food and water, causing many animals to suffer and die a lingering, agonizing death.

*  A Sun Pet worker bashed a bagful of hamsters against a table in an attempt to kill them.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.