Snakes Suffer and Die Because Zoo Med Lies to Customers
Litigation - Article Series from All-Creatures.org Articles Archive

FROM PETA.org
October 2020

Zoo Med markets purportedly all-inclusive kits, which are attractive to first-time snake buyers, who commonly don’t realize—until it’s too late—that snakes confined to too-small, almost barren tanks deteriorate slowly and painfully.

Snake
Image from Free-Images.com

Exaggerated advertising is one thing—but Zoo Med’s lies are much more sinister, as they cause animals to die slow, painful deaths.

PETA has filed a lawsuit against Zoo Med Laboratories, Inc.—a major global supplier of reptile products to PetSmart, Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers—over alleged violations of the District of Columbia’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act.

Zoo Med markets purportedly all-inclusive kits, which are attractive to first-time snake buyers, who commonly don’t realize—until it’s too late—that snakes confined to too-small, almost barren tanks deteriorate slowly and painfully.

As one expert has stated, “It is not uncommon to see a snake [who] has not eaten in months, has mites, is emaciated, is septic [from a bacterial infection], has pneumonia and is immunocompromised by a viral infection.”

According to one study, 75% of reptiles die within one year in a human home.

Reptile experts agree that snakes need at least enough space to stretch out completely. But Zoo Med tells its customers that snakes may be confined to cages “no shorter than half the length of the snake.”

These sensitive animals— some of whom grow to be 10 feet in length—require complex, enriching enclosures longer than their bodies in which they can bask, burrow, and explore. To thrive, snakes also need appropriate lighting, temperature, humidity, ventilation, and substrates. All these requirements are near impossible to provide in the 20-inch-long tanks that Zoo Med sells.

We want Zoo Med to stop lying about these animals’ complex needs.

PETA’s lawsuit alleges that Zoo Med lies to its customers, and because of those lies, snakes live and die in a state of suffering, unable to relieve their discomfort.

PETA is seeking an injunction to halt the company’s deceptive marketing and sales of inadequate snake enclosures, to inform all customers who have purchased Zoo Med’s snake terrariums that snakes require enclosures that are at least as long as their entire bodies, and to provide corrective advertising that informs the public of snakes’ true needs.

Humans may look different from snakes, but when it comes to the capacity for pain and the will to live, we’re all the same.

Just like humans, snakes have likes and dislikes that greatly affect their quality of life. Caretakers will attest that snakes have personalities. Some are curious explorers, while others are shy and secretive. Snakes deserve more out of life than an inadequate Zoo Med tank can give them. 

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