First Snake Rights Victory! Retailers Pull Care Misinformation After PETA Lawsuit
For Immediate Release:
February 10, 2026
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Having just reached a settlement agreement with PETA over a lawsuit to end its distribution of detrimental advice, Reptmart and Snakes at Sunset will remove what the lawsuit described as “dangerous misinformation” about snake care and snake enclosure sizes from their websites and post evidence-based, accurate language for their customers instead. Under the settlement agreement, the businesses have also agreed to stop selling snakes in the District of Columbia.
“Thanks to PETA’s lawsuit, Reptmart and Snakes at Sunset can no longer advise consumers to cram six-foot snakes into three-foot tanks, which is like stuffing an adult’s foot into a baby’s bootie,” says PETA Foundation General Counsel Asher Smith. “PETA urges everyone to leave wildlife in the wild but, if they already own a snake, to know that snakes must fully stretch out or they are likely to suffer physical consequences and stress.”
PETA’s lawsuit, filed on behalf of consumers in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, outlined that snakes require enough space to fully stretch out their bodies—otherwise, they can suffer atrophied muscles, reduced bone density, and even a fatally dislocated spine—and enough humidity to allow them to shed their skins, as well as other species-specific needs. Without these fundamental necessities, snakes can suffer and die from stress, malnutrition, emaciation, infection, and various diseases. PETA’s lawsuit argued that Reptmart and Snakes at Sunset failed to share these details with customers and misleadingly marketed snakes as “easy” or “starter pets.”
Snake mothers are fiercely protective of their eggs, and some species care for their babies for weeks after they’re born and even “babysit” other mothers’ snakelets. Many snakes are social, living in large communities where they make friends and form cliques, and some have been observed hunting cooperatively. PETA points out that the glass boxes where most captive snakes live are nothing like the forests, jungles, and deserts they call home, and they can get bored, stressed, and sick when they can’t warm themselves in the sun, burrow underground, or swim and climb trees.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
