HOUSTON-CHRONICLE (Texas) 28 December 09 Attorney: PETA worker neglected snakes in his care

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6790880.html



STAR-TELEGRAM (Fort Worth, Texas) 28 December 09 PETA worker neglected job, attorney says (Susan Schrock)

Arlington: Attorneys for U.S. Global Exotics accused an employee Monday of intentionally neglecting animals at the north Arlington business to further his agenda as an undercover investigator for the animal-welfare group PETA.

Lance Evans, an attorney representing owners Jasen and Vanessa Shaw, said Howard Goldman, who was working for PETA, could have done more to provide food, water and care for the animals that he said were being mistreated.

Instead, he chose to secretly take photos and make daily reports to send to PETA, the attorney said. Evans also pointed out that Goldman had never contacted federal, state or local authorities about his concerns during his seven months there.

"He was more concerned about helping PETA achieve its goal of putting U.S. Global out of business than actually aiding any animals that he felt were in distress," said Evans, who added that Goldman investigated the company without a license, a violation of state law.

The company is battling to regain custody of more than 26,000 animals seized by the city Dec. 15 after Goldman turned over evidence outlining what he described as animal cruelty at the Internet-based animal wholesaler’s facility.

An Arlington Municipal Court judge is expected to decide custody of the animals this week.

Goldman testified last week that he had conducted other undercover investigations for animal welfare groups and had been asked by PETA to apply for a job at U.S. Global Exotics to investigate conditions at its Arlington facility. PETA paid him $135 for each day he turned in a report while working at the firm as snake caretaker.

Evans questioned Goldman on why he did not follow a posted list of duties in the snake room and let snakes go for weeks without food or water or clean cages, as he had testified.

Goldman said he did everything he could for the animals but that the owners would not pay for the food, medical care and other supplies he requested. He said 1,500 to 3,000 snakes were under his care at any given time.

"We never had the proper amount of food. The snakes would go two or three weeks without even being offered food," Goldman said. "There were days I found hundreds of snakes dead."

Paul Boiko, another U.S. Global employee, testified Monday that most animals were fed and watered regularly and that a veterinarian visited the business once a week.

He acknowledged that some animals were not fed before being packaged to avoid problems during shipping. Certain animals, such as turtles and iguanas, were kept in cold conditions to force hibernation so they wouldn’t eat or move much, a practice he said he is standard in the industry.

Linda Frank, an attorney for the city of Arlington, questioned Boiko about whether other reported practices at the business were humane. Boiko testified that he had packaged more than 400 iguanas on Dec. 2 to be shipped to Egypt and had left them in their crates for about two weeks without food or water, waiting for the order to go through.

The order was eventually canceled Dec. 14 and, when animal welfare officers opened the crates during the raid Dec. 15, they found more than half of the animals had died.

It was the Shaws’ decision to leave the animals in the crates, Boiko said.

Boiko was also asked by the city about the company’s standard form of euthanasia, which reportedly involved putting sick or injured animals in a freezer.

"Do you think it’s humane to put animals in the freezer to die?" Frank asked him.

"If I had no other option," Boiko said. "What do you want me to do, to step on their heads?"

U.S. Global, which is closed, provided animals primarily to pet stores but had also done business with zoos in Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio and Nashville, said Boiko, who has worked for the company about six years.

Boiko testified that he found it suspicious that the city raided the company early in the morning, before employees had time to clean the cages or do their regular shopping for food.

Animal welfare officers reported finding only a few boxes of crickets, a bag of carrots and some moldy lettuce to feed more than 26,000 animals at the business.

Update: On Tuesday morning, Municipal Court Judge Michael Smith admonished attorneys for U.S. Global Exotics for attempting to have the city’s key witness in the case arrested.

A private investigator working for attorney Lance Evans called 911 on Monday from the court to report that former employee Howard Goldman had admitted under oath that he was operating as a private investigator without a license, a violation of state law.

Goldman has testified that he was secretly investigating animal cruelty on behalf of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals during his seven months of employment at the north Arlington exotic animal wholesaler.

Officers arrived at the court to investigate the report but Goldman was not arrested.

Evans, who represents U.S. Global owners Jasen and Vanessa Shaw, declined to comment Tuesday morning on the incident.

The Shaws are battling to regain custody of more than 26,000 animals seized by the city Dec. 15 as part of an ongoing animal cruelty investigation.

Linda Frank, an attorney for the city of Arlington, said she was disappointed that U.S. Global’s attorneys would attempt to have a witness arrested to gain an edge during the civil hearing, which is now in its fifth day of testimony.

Smith is expected to decide custody of the animals, mostly reptiles, this week.

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1857213-p2.html

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