PETA WATCH

A PICKY Texan pet snake has unwittingly revealed the bizarre tension that now exists between pet stores that need to respond appropriately to pet dietary needs and the radical demands forced upon them by the extremist pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

At the center of this ordeal lies US Pet store giant PETCO and a fussy pet python named ‘Fluffy’.

According to Fluffy’s Texan owner- who wrote exclusively to PETA WATCH - the snake had been off its usual diet of live mice and rats for a while and after consultation needed to gobble a gerbil to restore its appetite.

After an uneasy encounter with a PETCO employee, the gerbil was sold to Fluffy but it was subsequently revealed that PETCO were in future unable to sell anything other than mice and rats for snakes - not because it breached health or dietary recommendations for the animals - but because of a ‘huge contract with PETA’.

PETAWATCH has not received a response from either PETCO or PETA about the farce as at publishing date.

At issue however is whether a militant and highly political lobby should have the right to dictate the diet of a creature that is legal to sell in the US and whose dietary requirements are grossly removed from its antagonists who advocate a rigid vegan lifestyle that requires even you to stop eating butter.

Fluffy’s owner told this site: ‘...the idea that they'd (PETA) be willing to let a snake starve so a cute widdle (sic) gerbil wouldn't get eaten is just asinine’.

In 2005 PETA also succeeded in stopping PETCO from selling large birds.