Hundreds of Small Rescue Animals in CA Likely Frozen to be Used to Feed Reptiles - Report

A recent report has indicated that the long and hazy investigation into the disappearance of more than 300 small shelter animals has come to somewhat of an end.

Shocking new findings have revealed that hundreds of small animals transported from California to Arizona for adoption may have wound up being used as food for reptiles.

On August 7, the San Diego Humane Society (SDHS) in California sent more than 300 rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats and mice to their counterpart, the Humane Society of Southern Arizona (HSSA).

The transfer was one of the group’s largest on record, and came about as SDHS had reached 160% capacity. The shelter, which had small animals that had been at the base or at a shelter home for nearly a year, does not euthanize their animals.

The shelter in Arizona, HSSA, reached out to SDHS and offered to take on the animals in need. The organization in Arizona paled in comparison to the size of the California shelter, but Christian Gonzalez, who was the chief operating officer of the facility at the time, made “elaborate” and “comforting” assurances to those at SDHS that their shelter could take on the task.

But two weeks after the animals were supposedly dropped off in Arizona, those back in San Diego noticed there were no adoption listings on their website, and no publicity regarding the transfer.

Concerned, Kelly Paolisso, a therapist of SDHS, reached out to a variety of individuals including Gonzalez and Steve Farley, who was the CEO of HSSA at the time. What the SDHS member received in return were “two very different stories on what occurred,” a result that promptly raised a “lot of red flags," she told US media.

According to the report, with local broadcast stations beginning to investigate the disappearance, Farley, a former Arizona state senator, made assurances that the missing rabbits and guinea pigs were in “good hands,” telling a San Diego news station they were “in their forever homes right now and having a wonderful life.”

However, HSSA was not able to provide adoption records or proof that the animals had even been taken to the shelter in the first place. After pressure from SDHS and other animal rescuers, Farley said the animals had been taken to a family-run rescue that wished to stay anonymous.

At some point, about 62 of the animals were returned to HSSA; however, about 250 of the other animals were still missing. After sleuthing, officials discovered the “family-run rescue” was actually a reptile breeding business run by two brothers named Trevor and Colten Jones. The business is called Fertile Turtle.

And then a devastating text message sent from Colten Jones to a Phoenix reptile breeder was uncovered by a local news channel.

The text read: “Do you have the ability to freeze off a bunch of guinea pigs and or rabbits? I don't have the manpower or labor to be able to do it in time for the [reptile] show."

This is the text. It was received by a Phoenix area reptile breeder from Jones. pic.twitter.com/rp0ThM398k

— Chorus Nylander KVOA (@CNylanderKVOA) November 9, 2023

The text appears to suggest the animals in need did not end up in their forever homes, but were instead frozen or fed to reptiles. Gary Weitzman, CEO of SDHS who had been following the soft investigation, said he received the news about the text while in the middle of a meeting.

“It dropped me to my knees,” Weitzman said. “I don’t know why I had such a visceral reaction to that, because it’s not like I thought this was going to be a fairy-tale ending.”

“This has literally never happened in my 30-year history of animal welfare,” Weitzman also told local reporters.

Farley and Garcia have since been fired following the scandal.

Both the SDHS and HSSA are reviewing their transfer and vetting protocols, and are leaving open the possibility of civil action against those potentially responsible. The Tucson police department are also leading an investigation into the incident.