Insider Report of Sick, Dead Animals at Pet Supplies Plus Prompts PETA Call to End Animal Sales

For Immediate Release:
July 13, 2026

Contact:
Andrew Grant 202-483-7382

After a Pet Supplies Plus store manager contacted PETA with concerns about sick and dead animals repeatedly arriving from Atlanta-based supplier Sun Pet—and reports of corporate leadership dismissing those concerns—PETA fired off a letter today to Livonia-based Pet Supplies Plus CEO Chris Rowland calling out the company’s ties to this massive wholesaler and urging it to stop selling animals.

According to the Pet Supplies Plus whistleblower, animals received from Sun Pet have included hamsters with “wet tail”—a bacterial infection that causes diarrhea; ferrets with apparent rectal and penile prolapses who died shortly after arrival to the store; guinea pigs with ringworm and upper respiratory infections; and entire shipments of fish who were dead on arrival. Federal officials have documented systemic animal suffering and neglect at both Sun Pet and East Dundee-based Apet, which the whistleblower identified as another Pet Supplies Plus supplier. In rare moves, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued Sun Pet an official warning last year for failing to provide animals with adequate care and suspended Apet’s dealer’s license in May for “willfully” violating the law by failing to provide veterinary care to numerous animals, including a chinchilla who had been left to suffer for days with an apparent broken leg.

“Animals at Pet Supplies Plus arrive sick, injured, or dead from this notoriously cruel hellhole that warehouses and treats thinking, feeling beings like disposable inventory,” says PETA Vice President Daniel Paden. “PETA is calling on the chain to stop selling animals, and urges everyone who wishes to add a small animal to their family to always adopt and never buy animals from pet stores or breeders.”

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.

PETA’s letter to Rowland follows.

July 13, 2026

Chris Rowland, CEO

Pet Supplies Plus

Dear Mr. Rowland:

Your urgent attention—and action—are requested. A Pet Supplies Plus store manager has told PETA that one of your suppliers, Sun Pet Ltd., regularly hauls sick, injured, and dead animals to your chain. This is but the latest in the long history of federal reports, undercover investigations, and whistleblower calls exposing systemic suffering, neglect, and abuse in your supply chain. Please do the right thing by ending the sale of animals.

A Pet Supplies Plus store manager has informed us that Sun Pet frequently ships hamsters with obvious signs of “wet tail”—a bacterial infection that causes diarrhea. Ferrets have reportedly arrived with apparent rectal and penile prolapses and died shortly after arrival to the store. Guinea pigs allegedly arrive with ringworm and upper respiratory infections so severe that one animal’s eye was sealed shut. Entire shipments of fish—approximately 100 animals each—have arrived dead. According to this manager, corporate leadership dismissed repeated concerns about these animals.

Systemic animal suffering at Sun Pet is well documented, including by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which issued an official warning to the dealer just last year for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act by failing to provide underweight guinea pigs and a hamster whose eye was swollen shut with adequate care. The USDA previously reached a settlement with Sun Pet after the company failed to provide veterinary care and even water to numerous animals, including those with untreated open wounds, hair loss, and nasal discharge. Federal inspectors discovered widespread cannibalism and enclosures scattered with “pieces of dead hamsters.”

Such neglect has also been documented at Apet, which, according to your manager, supplies animals to some of your other stores. In May, the USDA suspended Apet’s license for “willfully” violating the law by failing to provide veterinary care to guinea pigs with skin lesions as well as to thin, lethargic rabbits and a chinchilla who had been left for days without treatment for an apparent broken leg. The suspension also cited Apet’s failure to properly sanitize animal enclosures and ensure that animals housed together were compatible, resulting in fights among stressed gerbils, who wounded each other. As you can see, it appears that animals in your supply chain are often deprived of basic necessities of life.

Ten years ago, Pet Supplies Plus cut ties with supplier Holmes Farm, after PETA’s undercover investigation exposed that workers froze animals alive, crudely gassed them to death in a feces-smeared cooler, and left sick and emaciated animals to languish for days without care, including rabbits who eventually succumbed. A decade later, you’re still evidently doing business with small animal factory farms that have repeatedly been found in violation of federal law. Please do the right thing at long last by ending the sale of animals and selling what your name suggests: supplies.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Sarah Deffinger

Senior Evidence Analyst

Cruelty Investigations Department