Urge New Smyrna Beach Store to Ditch Hermit Crab Sales!

Upon hearing that Wild Side Beachwear—a company with two stores specializing in tourist apparel and sundries in New Smyrna Beach, Florida—sells hermit crabs, PETA asked the owners to adopt a policy that prohibits the sale and display of live animals. But our concerns appear to have been casually dismissed. Your help is needed now!

Lacking the knowledge and resources to meet the extraordinarily specialized husbandry needs of these animals, impulse shoppers buy countless hermit crabs as “pets” annually. In nature, these complex animals shun human contact, travel in colonies that number up to 100, and can live for up to 40 years. But in captivity, they typically die between the ages of 1 and 4. Taken from their homes (because they don’t breed in captivity), peddled as cheap trinkets, confined to small “habitats,” roughly handled, fed improper diets, and forgotten when the novelty wears off, these animals are doomed from the moment they’re captured. Furthermore, a PETA investigation into a major wholesale supplier exposed a horrific industry that profits whenever hermit crabs are purchased.

Please join PETA in urging Wild Side Beachwear to do the right thing by ending the sale of live animals at its stores—then, share this alert with everyone you know!

Please send polite comments to:

Elana Dahaman, Owner
386-427-1664
[email protected]

Please also leave a message on the company’s Facebook page: