For seven months, a PETA investigator went undercover at U.S. Global Exotics (USGE), a massive international exotic-animal wholesale facility in Arlington, Texas. At the time, USGE was one of the nation's largest sellers of exotic animals to distributors and pet stores around the world. In the U.S., USGE shipped mammals, reptiles, amphibians, arachnids, and other animals to pet stores, breeders, and other wholesale distributors, including suppliers to PETCO and PetSmart. One such supplier was Rainbow World Exotics, at which similarly horrific conditions were found by another undercover PETA investigator. PETA's investigation of USGE and courtroom testimony also revealed that the company directly supplied animals to national chain Petland. USGE confined tens of thousands of animals to its facility and employed a staff of three or four people to care for them. PETA's investigation revealed that hamsters, gerbils, hedgehogs, chinchillas, ferrets, snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises, frogs, wallabies, sloths, anteaters, kinkajous, and other exotic animals suffered terribly as a result of continuous, cruel confinement to severely crowded and filthy enclosures. Animals at USGE were denied not only a natural habitat but also the most basic necessities, including food, water, adequate air and space, humidity, heat, veterinary care, and even a painless end to their misery. Read more: http://features.peta.org/pettrade/learn-more.asp#ixzz3RmkGbIgj