More than 250 small animals sent to Arizona for adoption may have been fed to reptiles – By Rey Covarrubias Jr. (Arizona Republic) / Nov 11, 2023
The Humane Society of Southern Arizona announced on Thursday in a joint statement with their San Diego counterpart that approximately 250 small animals that were transferred to Arizona may have ended up being fed to reptiles.
The joint statement was released after News 4 Tucson (KVOA) broke the story investigating the animals’ whereabouts in September.
An investigation started after 300 small animals were transferred from the overcrowded San Diego Humane Society to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in Tucson in August. The transfer was in collaboration between the two groups before the latter gave the animals to a man named Colten Jones.
The two Humane Societies allege that Jones was running a reptile breeding company called The Fertile Turtle, which included selling both live and frozen animals for reptile feed.
