ALBUQUERQUE, NM {KRQE} - It's creepy, crawly and cruel. City officials pulled almost twenty reptiles from a home in the heights and a lot of those creatures had been dead for awhile.
Animal welfare officials said the man had a permit to sell exotic pets, but what they found inside his home was anything but a well-run pet operation.
Neighbor Dick Fate said, “I knew that he had some reptiles lizards and snakes, but I didn't know how many or what condition they were in.”
City inspectors and animal control officers said they found 19 exotic pets in the
Home after a tip was called in.
Six of the reptiles were dead.
“One passed away last night because he was in such bad shape,” Rick De Reyes with Animal Welfare said.
Now animal welfare workers are trying to nurse the rest back to health.
“There is one rosy boa constrictor, there are two bearded dragons, 6 crested geckos, and four standing day Madagascar geckos,” De Reyes said.
Homeowner Loren Pennebaker had been selling exotic pets on the internet for a few years, but neighbors said things were starting to fall apart.
“I knew that he had fallen on hard times and maybe that is why they were mistreated, I don't know,” Fate said.
The home's electrical and heating systems weren't working, meaning the pets weren't getting the vital heat they needed.
“If not subtropical than at least some sort of semi warm climate and it was anything but warm from what I understand in that house.” De Reyes said.
Pennebaker was arrested for having meth, but officials said animal cruelty charges could be coming.
www.krqe.com/dpp/news/environment/dead_alive-exotic-animals-found-in-home#viewSingle109740281
