My husband and I went to investigate the Meadows pet shop at the Meadows
Mall in Las Vegas, Nevada.  We were horrified!
 
The ferrets there are at least 3-6 months old and they are kept in a 10
gallon fish tank, crammed in there, no litter box, just cedar shavings.
No hammocks, no toys, the food bowl was covered in shavings so much that
I could not even tell where the food was, it looked like a bowl of just
shavings!  The water bottle was empty.
 
They were spraying the tanks down with strong chemical disinfectant, while
the animals were still in there!  I looked down below the shelf where the
ferrets are kept, and looked into the mouse tank, and there was a mouse
eating another mouse!  it looked like the carcass had been there for weeks!
The only thing left was fur and bones but the mouse was so hungry that it
was eating it anyway.  The birds were all bunched together and had no food
or water and were pathetically pecking through the cracks at the bottom of
the cage for food.  Big, huge, dogs were kept in tiny acrylic tanks, with
their noses smooched against the glass and their butts pressing against the
other side.  I took out my camera and took a couple of pictures, to show to
the media of the mouse and ferrets when all of a sudden this big blond lady
jumps up from the counter and says, "hey!  There is no picture taking in
here!  (She heard the clicks go off on my camera.) Then she grabs me by
the shoulders and tried to shove me on the floor, then she slaps the camera
out of my hand and breaks it!  And we start to wrestle right there in the
store!
 
My husband comes to my rescue and she body slammed him!  And he is a big
guy!  Then she shoved us out the door and I told her they were animal
abusers and I was going to report them she just laughed at me and said,
Go ahead!  a lot of good that will do you!
 
This other lady that witnessed the whole thing followed us out of the store
and said she has been spying on the store for months and that she had a vet
tech go in there to check the animals out he told her that they kept the
animals drugged!  That is why the lady at the counter heard my camera go
off!  She heard the little clicks from far away in a pet shop?  Come on!
It was like a library in there it was so quite!  The birds were not
chirping, dogs were not barking And they are not allowed to be taken out
of their tanks EVER!  It was so quite in there!  I heard that It only gets
noisy at the end of the day when the drugs wear off!  The ferrets look
like they have lost all of their spirit.  They just look at you with those
pathetic eyes, like they are saying please get me out of here!  The workers
at that pet shop said they are not allowed to give fresh water until it
runs completely out, weather it is dirty or not.  The boss tells them the
ferrets are not allowed to have toys because it cost too much money.
 
So we called the police to file assault charges, the police talked to her,
and came out laughing and said there was nothing that they could do because
there is a sign on the door that says, "No cameras, no video recording
devices of any kind allowed in store" And since she warned me there was no
picture taking allowed she had all the right to assault us!  I could not
believe it!
 
The same owner of this pet shop also owns the pet shop at the Boulevard
Mall and it is also in the same horrible conditions, these people have
been turned in numerous times but nothing gets done!
 
The mall security told us that if that if enough people complain about
this pet shop then the mall will not renew their lease for next year.  The
number to call for the Meadows Mall management is 702-878-4849 The number
for the Boulevard Mall s 702-735-8268
 
I have called animal control twice and reported them but nothing happened.
 
If there is anyone out there that knows of who we can call or e-mail, to
help us close this little pet shop of horrors, then please let us know.
What are they hiding, that they do not want the public to know about on
film?  I'TS ABUSE!
[Posted in FML issue 3238]