No, the rats and rabbits and guinea pigs rescued by the reptile society did not wind up as snake food, officials from the group and the county said.
But some animal activists were uneasy upon learning that the Southern California Herpetology Association & Rescue has taken possession of more than 800 animals from Orange County Animal Care since 2022.
More than 700 of those were rodents, rabbits and fowl, county data shows — a big re-homing lift for a small organization that works with other SoCal shelters as well, they said.
“How are they adopting all those animals out? Everybody is struggling now – it doesn’t make sense to me at all,” said Shelmarie Main, who has worked at several Southern California animal shelters and rescue foundations.
SoCal Herpetology is a tax-exempt organization registered to Jason Haywood in Buena Park. Any doubts about the group’s intentions reflect a societal bias against reptile people, the Southern California Herpetology Association and Rescue said by email.
“In a Reader’s Digest version, no, we have not, do not and never will feed a ‘pet’ (we consider pets animals that do not come from our feeder source) to any other animal. All of our feeders are sourced from a feeder supplier,” it said.
“Some of the reasons we have been picking up and placing ‘pet’ type animals is that many of the local small animal rescues have folded, severely downsized, do not take medical cases and are unable to take in any new animals. Over the years, we have built a network of re-habbers, private rescue groups (both local and out of state) and other organizations that do not carry a 501(c)(3) so they cannot pull animals as a rescue. We will pull them and hand them over to these folks for treatments, quarantine for future adoption and educational placement (classroom pets, petting zoo etc).
“We appreciate you reaching out to us for this instead of putting out false information. We get these questions frequently and are…
Read the full article here
