Emaciated Black Tree Monitor
Many of GCB's monitor lizards were very underweight or emaciated, with plainly visible vertebrae, like this one, who was also missing skin from the white areas on his or her nose and back.
Starving Kahl Albino Boa Constrictor
This snake was left to starve for at least a month. GCB's manager denied requests by PETA's investigator to help the snake, who languished in a filthy tub and became increasingly emaciated before finally dying.
Dead Rat and Her Baby
This mother rat was found lying dead, next to her dead pinkie. She appeared, as did other rats, to have died while giving birth.
Treated Like Trash
These dead tortoises were thrown out with the trash at GCB. They weren't treated much better when alive: Sometimes they were denied water, which they need both to drink and for defecation.
Weak, Lethargic Rat
This weak and lethargic rat was found in another severely crowded tub among at least 200 other juvenile rats, many of whom were severely dehydrated and dying.
Severely Crowded Rats
Many rats were kept in cramped bins. Some were forced to compete for and eat food off the bins' urine- and feces-covered bedding, leading to fights, injuries, and death.
Maggot-Covered Enclosure
Management and workers left dead animals to rot for days. This enclosure, which contained a dead blue-tongue skink, was covered with thousands of maggots.
Filthy Bedding
Rats were forced to eat and sleep on feces-covered, urine-soaked bedding,
exposing them to disease. Many rats could not even sit up to groom themselves
in these shallow prisons.
Struggling to Survive
Broken valves left hundreds of rats struggling to protect their pups in the
rising water. With no escape, an expert explained, rats felt terror watching
their young suffer and die.
A Typical Monday's Casualties
Rats were ignored on Sundays, so many were found dead on Monday. Rats signal stress by
ultrasonic noises and pheromones—meaning many rats heard and sensed this
family's extreme fear.
Soaked, Shivering Survivors
PETA's investigator saved countless exhausted and weakened rats from flooded
tubs. They shivered as they battled hypothermia.
Dead Biak Snake
This thin yellow biak snake was one of many found dead in enclosures at the facility.
Rat With Abscessed Eye
This rat's bloody eye deteriorated over the course of eight days, until a
worker finally slammed her into a metal rack. She had a violent seizure then
was thrown into the trash.
Gasping for Breath
The facility
was full of snakes, such as this one, who struggled to breathe. PETA's
investigator never saw GCB bring a veterinarian in to see even a single animal.
Snake With Apparent
Respiratory Infection
Many snakes at GCB wheezed and
labored to breathe through open mouths—signs of respiratory infection. GCB
denied all of these snakes, including this one, veterinary care, to the
investigator's knowledge.
Rat Shot and
Killed With a BB Gun
GCB's manager
shot this rat twice with a BB gun and threw the animal―who was convulsing―into
a trashcan full of feces, urine, and dead rats. He finally killed the rat with
a third shot.
Emaciated
Blue Biak Snake
Many of the
facility's reptiles, including this emaciated snake, were neglected and left to
starve. This snake, like others, was so thin that his or her ribs were visibly
protruding.
Injured Rat
This rat was
found in a severely crowded tub with at least 200 others, where he or she was
being attacked by another rat. The stressful conditions left the rat with an
injured and bloody eye.
Dead Rats in
the Facility
Investigators
entering GCB on December 12 found hundreds of animals for whom help came too
late, such as the many dead and decaying rats in this jumbled mass.
Thin Blue-Tongue Skink
GCB's rampant neglect of reptiles left
this skink, and others, to starve, causing the flattened body condition that you
see here.
Unnatural Conditions
GCB's monitor lizards, who in nature
live in moist forests, were housed on plastic and dry wood. Animals at GCB were
denied all that was natural and important to them.
Bolivian Boa Constrictor in a Filthy
Enclosure
GCB owner Behm
repeatedly told workers not to bother taking care of his reptiles. Disgusting
conditions were common. This snake was left with the regurgitated remains of a rotting
rat and maggots.
Hogg Island Boa Constrictor With a Swollen
Face
This snake
languished for two months with severe facial swelling. A worker repeatedly
punctured the animal's face with a thumbtack and squeezed it until pus erupted from
the wounds.
Filthy, Standing Water
GCB's water lines often malfunctioned, flooding rat enclosures and spilling water onto the facility floor. Rats were warehoused like shoes in rack after rack of tiny tubs.