rosebud945
New member
I saw this where RPs ads usually appear on ks. We have seen the letter, but the info under it is interesting. it looks like they will be on ks chat tonight, huh?
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Responding to email notices you receive.
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IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed
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Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....
Bad Guy RodentPro- Zoonotic disease warning
- Thread starter jumpsnake
- Start date
MauricesExoticPets
New member
It kind of surprises me that there are people who think these rodents just stopped being moved after they were sold to the first buyer.
RP sells to 14 customers, at least two of those customers are known to be resellers and not consumers. Those two resellers make sales on a I have no idea who you are basis (like all pet shops), if just one rodent gets into a breeding group what then?
If an infected rodent gets out into the wild and breeds or contaminates the local population of mice, the issue can go unnoticed for some time then.
Its not impossible, its not even improbable, the prudent thing to do is react quickly and with focus, except Rodent Pro decided for us that quick action would not be an option. Thus, what could have been contained with relative ease at the outset is now a far more complex issue to deal with.
I dont like being behind the power curve any more than the next guy, but being held back by someone for no other reason other than,,, hell we don't know why,,, RP has not said why they waited so long to notify the public that they sold infected mice.
RP seems mostly concerned that its customers have the impression that their products are of high quality, the one mention that they are looking into processes that will prevent this in the future demonstrates to me that the company has operated on a fingers crossed business model from the get go.
If you think its ok to support a company that is this lackadaisical about human health, please do not expect my business to come your way. This is as much about ethics as it is about chance of infection and loss of quality of life.
Maurice Pudlo
RP sells to 14 customers, at least two of those customers are known to be resellers and not consumers. Those two resellers make sales on a I have no idea who you are basis (like all pet shops), if just one rodent gets into a breeding group what then?
If an infected rodent gets out into the wild and breeds or contaminates the local population of mice, the issue can go unnoticed for some time then.
Its not impossible, its not even improbable, the prudent thing to do is react quickly and with focus, except Rodent Pro decided for us that quick action would not be an option. Thus, what could have been contained with relative ease at the outset is now a far more complex issue to deal with.
I dont like being behind the power curve any more than the next guy, but being held back by someone for no other reason other than,,, hell we don't know why,,, RP has not said why they waited so long to notify the public that they sold infected mice.
RP seems mostly concerned that its customers have the impression that their products are of high quality, the one mention that they are looking into processes that will prevent this in the future demonstrates to me that the company has operated on a fingers crossed business model from the get go.
If you think its ok to support a company that is this lackadaisical about human health, please do not expect my business to come your way. This is as much about ethics as it is about chance of infection and loss of quality of life.
Maurice Pudlo
KORBIN5895
New member
Hey Maurice. Can you tell us who the two customers who resale are? I haven't seen their names mentioned anywhere.
laurarfl
New member
I'm confused and perhaps someone can clarify for me. The original Farm World artciels states this:
"After BOAH received the call, Dr. Lovejoy was on the road to southern Indiana the very same day the call came into the office. She found that the person affected with LCM worked at a commercial rodent production facility. The facility, which employed 52 works, was made up of four different buildings, housing a grand total of 156,000 adult mice and 13,500 adult rats, not including babies. The business produces, processes and packages live product and frozen product, much of which is contracted to exotic animal farms and zoos.
Dr. Lovejoy found that 13 of the facility’s employees were positive for LCM, nine reported that there were ill and six sought medical care."
This leads me to believe that 1). The contamination event was on RP property and not from an outsourced supplier. 2). If employees sought medical attention at the beginning of May, then given the incubation period contamination could also be occurring in April.
I'm not understanding how the claim is being made that this was all from an outside supplier and only a specific number of customers is involved. The part of the article in which the CDC and state agencies claim to not know how to proceed is not especially helpful.
"After BOAH received the call, Dr. Lovejoy was on the road to southern Indiana the very same day the call came into the office. She found that the person affected with LCM worked at a commercial rodent production facility. The facility, which employed 52 works, was made up of four different buildings, housing a grand total of 156,000 adult mice and 13,500 adult rats, not including babies. The business produces, processes and packages live product and frozen product, much of which is contracted to exotic animal farms and zoos.
Dr. Lovejoy found that 13 of the facility’s employees were positive for LCM, nine reported that there were ill and six sought medical care."
This leads me to believe that 1). The contamination event was on RP property and not from an outsourced supplier. 2). If employees sought medical attention at the beginning of May, then given the incubation period contamination could also be occurring in April.
I'm not understanding how the claim is being made that this was all from an outside supplier and only a specific number of customers is involved. The part of the article in which the CDC and state agencies claim to not know how to proceed is not especially helpful.
Update from us here at KY Reptile Zoo:
Yesterday I received a call back from the state. I talked to the state vet, Dr. Poe, as well.
It seems that we did receive diseased rodents. I had some in several shipments in the spring where the mice were very small, hunchbacked, and would not drink on their own. I had thought maybe they were weaned too early, but Dr. Poe confirmed that those are symptoms of the disease in mice.
Today I am depopulating our rodent colony. I do not see any sick animals, but the fact that some of our breeder rats were in the same building as the sick mice means that transmission was possible. I have to euthanize roughly 200 rodents today, sterilize all the cages, bleach the bedding before discarding it, and bleach and scrub out the building. Obviously this is not something I can delegate to any employees.
I was told in the phone conversation with the state that the original sick rodents did come from an outside source in Western KY. There were sick people in Southern IN. The first sick people were in FEBRUARY. I am not sure how quickly things were figured out, but this contradicts the May timeline to some degree.
If RP had contacted us in MAY, several things would be different now:
1. If this had been handled responsibly, I very likely would have believed that there were only 14 people affected and would not have made a BOI post about it.
2. I would not have increased my rodent colony to try and make up for RP's shortfall BEFORE getting rid of any diseased animals. I could have started over then, instead of now when my colony is just starting to take off.
3. I would not have unknowingly exposed employees to a potentially dangerous disease.
4. Discarded bedding in our compost pile would have been sterilized from the beginning-- now we have possibly exposed our wild rodents here.
MAKE NO MISTAKE- RODENT PRO COMPLETELY FAILED IN THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO THEIR CUSTOMERS. If there were only 14 people affected, how hard is it to make 14 phone calls????
I also maintain that their 'Official statement' only occurred because I started this thread. I doubt they would have made any statement if they were not called out on the situation.
Yesterday I received a call back from the state. I talked to the state vet, Dr. Poe, as well.
It seems that we did receive diseased rodents. I had some in several shipments in the spring where the mice were very small, hunchbacked, and would not drink on their own. I had thought maybe they were weaned too early, but Dr. Poe confirmed that those are symptoms of the disease in mice.
Today I am depopulating our rodent colony. I do not see any sick animals, but the fact that some of our breeder rats were in the same building as the sick mice means that transmission was possible. I have to euthanize roughly 200 rodents today, sterilize all the cages, bleach the bedding before discarding it, and bleach and scrub out the building. Obviously this is not something I can delegate to any employees.
I was told in the phone conversation with the state that the original sick rodents did come from an outside source in Western KY. There were sick people in Southern IN. The first sick people were in FEBRUARY. I am not sure how quickly things were figured out, but this contradicts the May timeline to some degree.
If RP had contacted us in MAY, several things would be different now:
1. If this had been handled responsibly, I very likely would have believed that there were only 14 people affected and would not have made a BOI post about it.
2. I would not have increased my rodent colony to try and make up for RP's shortfall BEFORE getting rid of any diseased animals. I could have started over then, instead of now when my colony is just starting to take off.
3. I would not have unknowingly exposed employees to a potentially dangerous disease.
4. Discarded bedding in our compost pile would have been sterilized from the beginning-- now we have possibly exposed our wild rodents here.
MAKE NO MISTAKE- RODENT PRO COMPLETELY FAILED IN THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO THEIR CUSTOMERS. If there were only 14 people affected, how hard is it to make 14 phone calls????
I also maintain that their 'Official statement' only occurred because I started this thread. I doubt they would have made any statement if they were not called out on the situation.
kimballanderica
New member
I have been going through http://www.southfloridarodents.com/ I pick up local but they have been great so far
Dennis Hultman
New member
This isn't the correct thread to advertise about competitors. Keep it off this thread and on topic.
kimballanderica
New member
sorry bout that
Willow
O.o
Kristen...that is just horrible! I am so sorry you are having to depopulate your rodents. I had intended to avoid this situation until it played out a little more. At this point, other people are being damaged, and that is just no good. You have been put in a bad spot and for that I wish you all the luck in getting it taken care of promptly and without to much financial loss =(
ladymedusa218
New member
so call me out of the loop but i havent had to reorder rodents in a LONGTIME so until a day or two ago i didnt know about this!i actually have an order pending at rodentpro so obviously i think its best cancel my order with them. i have a small child and a husband thats slightly autoimmune. so do they do refunds or what should i do other then obviously not buy from them.
LauraB
CLOSED ACCOUNT
Call RPro, cancel your order, request a refund in light of recent developments, if that's what you want to do. Then find another supplier. It's best not to discuss alternate suppliers or competitors in this thread.
MauricesExoticPets
New member
Kentuckiana Pet Supply Inc. would be the first, the owner also operates a pet shop named Pets Pallace.
Jay Hockersmith would be the owner.
Maurice Pudlo
MauricesExoticPets
New member
I am not privy to who Kentuckiana sold rodents to with the exception of a single bit of secondhand info that I need to check on prior to speaking about.
Pets Pallace, like any of our local pet shops sells live rodents to your average day to day customer who may pay with cash and form no real record of the sale.
Maurice Pudlo
Pets Pallace, like any of our local pet shops sells live rodents to your average day to day customer who may pay with cash and form no real record of the sale.
Maurice Pudlo
g.spencer
New member
Rodent Pro has an "official response" on Kingsnake. I saw it yesterday.
Shadera
Wayward Python Wet Nurse
Definitely. One forum I'd posted this info on (non-reptile), shut down the thread because they claimed it was a witch hunt, and that the 14 people who were possibly affected had been notified by RP so it was time to shut it down. Wonder if it happens to be because RP is one of their forum sponsors?
Here's the link to the RP official statement.
http://www.kingsnake.com/blog/archives/952-RodentPros-Official-Statement-Pertaining-To-LCMV.html
Looks like the letter they'd sent out to those 14?
MauricesExoticPets
New member
That is exactly what I got by email, I suspect only people who directly contacted RP got the emails directly.
It doesn't say very much.
Maurice Pudlo
g.spencer
New member
I was just trying to let the masses know is all.
Raverthug
New member
I just read their press release and all I can say is WOW. If I didnt know better I would say they are watching this thread and taking notes. there is ALOT of differance in wording between the letter sent out on the second and this latest release on KS. I think its funny that they go out of their way to to point out that it was from a supplier (mentioned in this thread) yet they dont touch on the fact that it may have been an outsourced company but it was supposedly their employees that got sick. They aslo havent touched on why it took them over 2 months to release anything let alone notify the effected patrons.
Greg, that's a good thing. Maurice, you are astute, the letter does not provide as much information as the recipients might want.
For those who have insisted that the event is now history, all wrapped up and handled, I suggest that time and caution are good ideas. I suggest you read Kristen's update on post 205 if you feel that no further real news is forthcoming.
Anyone who cries witch hunt and prevents the flow of information in my opinion either has an agenda or doesn't trust people to make their own decisions.
Here in the BOI, information is presented and readers have the freedom to read and choose, that choice is not made for them. There are strong opinions here, but the readers have the ultimate power to believe what they will.
laurarfl
New member
And that is what makes a good forum discussion...information and the ability to decide for one's self.