The PETCO sales of U.S. Global Exotics' assets have been called off. Of course, no report of how many of the animals were sold before that but I didn't expect to see one.
Sweetie, It didn't give the IMPRESSION, it was a FACT that the animals were right back in the "pet trade industry" and, make no mistake about it, "rescue" organizations are not a VERY significant part of the "pet trade industry". I'm actually a little proud of PETCO for being honest that the ownership of the animals would be transferred. Anyone who thinks any of these huge "rescue" groups is doing ANY significant amount of follow up is just plain delusional. At best, the animals might land back to them in the event of a disaster. Call it "adoption" or by any other name but the person walks out with the animal and it's over. No matter what the paperwork says, the person who has the animal has all the indicia of ownership
"They were concerned that ... Petco and/or the foundation are somehow gaining benefit by the partnership," said Kevin Whalen, a Petco spokesman, adding that the adoption fee would have helped the foundation cover the cost of housing the animals. "That's not true. That's not our intent… OK, I take it back. I’m not proud of PETCO. Of course they gained benefit from this deal by way of free PR, the adoption fees, the sales of products that would have been purchased by those “adopting” the animals, …
“A Petco spokesman said the company was not seeking financial gain” 1) HOOEY; 2) But your stockholders would be thrilled to know you’re shifting to the NPO arena; 3) Whether you were “seeking” gain is irrelevant when you clearly get gain; 4) HOOEY!!!
"These animals will find loving homes," she [Maura Davies of SPCA of Texas] said. They’d have found those a damned bit faster but for your group snatching them up. Now, answer the big question Maura, HOW MANY DID YOU GUYS KILL OR HAVE DIE DURING THIS ENTIRE FIASCO??????????????? The only realistic answer for why they won’t answer that and publish the answer is that they had a piss poor survival rate.
“More than 600 critters were already dead.” Amazing how the media keeps harping on how many animals died at USGE but absolutely refuses to press the SPCAT for the same information!
The USGE animals shipped to PHS, Phoenix Herpetological Society, have arrived and have already been put to work: “We got a lot of animals needing immediate care and rehabilitation. All contributions will be greatly appreciated.” Gotta love the picture of cute Kinkajou used by the press to help UP the donations even though it appears PHS didn’t get any mammals, at least not any that would be too big to feed to the other animals.
You can now buy, er, uh, “adopt” some of the USGE animals in Colorado! 275 of the thousands of animals seized in Texas are in Colorado.
OK, so a few thousand went to the Detroit Zoo, a few hundred to each of a handful of these other groups. Is it just me or does there seem to be quite a shortage of animals being accounted for? SPCAT had to admit they were down close to 20,000 from the original 26,411 seized and that was back when the first hearing was held. Sure starting to look to me like less than 10,000 survived less than 2 months of SPCA of Texas “caretaking”.