The J-TAC

Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: JoLynn Elkins JoLynn Elkins

With the presidential race winding up, people dropping from the races and the same mud being slung around, I have started turning my attention to other scandals and controversies that abound on the Internet. In recent weeks, PETA has topped my list of local controversies with their exposé of the Hamilton-based small animal producer Rainbow World Exotics.
The Waco Tribune-Herald stated in a Jan 24 headline "PETA files complaint against Central Texas pet supplier over 'pain, suffering' of animals." The story, found online at their Web site (www.wacotrib.com) stated that Rainbow World Exotics and its prime client PetSmart are both being named in federal allegations set forth by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for causing pain and suffering to the small animals and birds that the supplier breeds. The evidence they show is a short video, posted on the PETA Web site that shows the supposed "horrors" in short clips and muffled audio. They had an undercover agent at Rainbow for two months. The complied video was what they seemed to think was the worst mistreatment of the small furry creatures.
The video, which can be found on their Web site www.peta.org shows a clean, well-kept facility with neat rows of cages full of small, fuzzy animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, ferrets, gerbils and small birds.
"It shows an employee stepping on a hamster that had escaped from its container," reported the Waco Tribune-Herald. PetSmart has posted a press release responding to the allegations, on their Web site www.petsmart.com. The release can be found in the Press Room area of the site.
"The PETA video implies that a Rainbow staff member killed an escaped hamster by stepping on it. While the video is not completely clear and we're not sure of the true facts surrounding this issue, we're treating it seriously and are fully investigating it," the PetSmart release said.
The video also shows baby birds with naked heads and spiny feathers. They also show random still shots of dead animals, but don't show the cause of death, and no video of any animal being killed or dying. The animals are shown either in a blank background, or being shown being plucked from otherwise clean cages.
If one does any research on birds, they will learn that baby birds take several weeks, up to a month, before they get their feathers. Until that time, they are the ugliest, yet cutest spiny things since hedgehogs.

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