Zoo employee testifies that he never saw animals mistreated at Arlington business
ARLINGTON — A Fort Worth Zoo employee who bought and sold animals for himself at U.S. Global Exotics testified Tuesday that he never saw animals being mistreated at the north Arlington business.
Mike Doss, who was not representing the zoo, disputed the testimony of witnesses for Arlington that the business improperly housed animals and denied them food, water and veterinarian care.
The owners of U.S. Global, an Internet-based exotic-animal wholesaler, are trying to regain custody of more than 26,000 animals seized by the city Dec. 15 during an animal cruelty investigation. Tuesday was the fifth day of the custody hearing before Municipal Judge Michael Smith.
"I was impressed," Doss said of what he saw during regular visits to the business since 2006 to buy animals or sell those he had raised at home.
"They obviously invested a lot of money in their caging systems and how they took care of their animals."
Doss, who cares for coldblooded land animals at the zoo, said there are several plausible reasons why some of the snakes, lizards and turtles seized from the business appeared emaciated or sick. Most animals caught in the wild are not screened for illnesses or parasites before they are shipped to distributors, and the travel itself or exposure to a new environment can affect animals’ appetites, he said.
He concurred with testimony from U.S. Global employees that it is not unusual or inhumane to force hibernation for certain animals, such as lizards and turtles, by keeping them in low temperatures or to not feed animals before shipping so they don’t bloat or regurgitate during transport.
'I thought it was horrible’
City investigators have testified that some animals were not fed for weeks at a time and that the company did not have enough food to care for the number of animals in stock.
Doss said he is also concerned about whether animal welfare officers harmed some of the temperature-sensitive animals during the raid, which occurred on a day that the high temperature was 44.
"I thought it was horrible to drag coldblooded animals out of a warm building on such a cold day," Doss said. "The shock of the temperature change could have killed them alone."
More than 1,000 animals have died since the seizure, but animal welfare workers attribute those deaths to the effects of neglect at the business, not the move. City attorneys said the vehicles used to take the animals to their temporary home were climate-controlled.
Doss testified that some of the conditions shown in photographs and videos during the hearing did appear to be inhumane or inappropriate, including photos of hundreds of baby turtles being stored in boxes, hundreds of iguanas that died after being left in shipping crates without food or water for two weeks, and footage of an employee shaking tree frogs out of the narrow opening of a plastic soft drink bottle. Doss said he does not condone U.S. Global’s method of euthanizing animals by placing them in a freezer to die.
However, Doss said, he was concerned that some of the situations might have been staged by former employee Howard Goldman, who took some of the photos.
A 911 call
Goldman, the city’s key witness, testified last week that PETA had asked him to apply for a job at U.S. Global Exotics to investigate conditions there.
PETA paid Goldman $135 for each day he turned in a report while working as a snake caretaker for seven months.
Doss said he discovered during a visit that Goldman had mislabeled some snakes as indigo snakes, an incident he now finds suspicious because those are an endangered species that U.S. Global does not have a permit to have.
Attorneys for U.S. Global Exotics were admonished Tuesday by the judge for trying to have Goldman arrested.
A private investigator apparently working for attorney Lance Evans called 911 on Monday from court to report that Goldman had admitted under oath that he was operating as a private investigator without a license, a violation of state law. Officers arrived at the court to investigate, but Goldman was not arrested.
Evans, who represents U.S. Global owners Jasen and Vanessa Shaw, declined to comment about the incident.
Linda Frank, an attorney for Arlington, said she was disappointed that U.S. Global’s attorneys would try to have a witness arrested to gain an edge during the civil hearing.
Smith is expected to decide custody of the animals, mostly reptiles, as soon as Thursday.
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