HORRIFIC

250 Cute Animals Destined for Adoption Ended Up as Reptile Food: Report

“A Hollywood horror writer couldn’t write something like this,” said San Diego Humane Society CEO Gary Weitzman.

Hundreds of small animals that were transferred with great fanfare from the San Diego Humane Society to its southern Arizona counterpart are unaccounted for and likely ended as either frozen or live reptile food, The Washington Post reports. The SDHS called the Aug. 7 transfer of 318 rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, mice, and hamsters the biggest in its history and celebrated the milestone with an emotional video. The Humane Society of Southern Arizona’s then-CEO, Steve Farley, claimed the critters had been transferred to a “family-run, family-funded rescue”—which turned out to be a reptile breeding business called the Fertile Turtle. He and COO Christian Gonzalez have since been ousted. “A Hollywood horror writer couldn’t write something like this,” SDHS CEO Gary Weitzman told the Post.