Negative Layne Labs experience

[Malum Argenteum]

Before you scroll down, there's a somewhat disturbing photo of mistreated feeder animals in this post.

I recently ordered from Layne Labs for the first time. I ordered a couple sizes of rats, small chicks and small quail.

I haven't opened the chicks yet. The rats were fine -- a bit more broken legs and tails than I expected, and they do seem to freezerburn pretty quickly in those pouches, but fine.

The quail weren't good. Most had broken off heads (after freezing, by the looks of the breaks), and some were obviously poorly treated before death. Here's a photo I took and posted to a review I submitted to Layne:











The bird on the bottom had a mangled spot on its shoulder area that didn't happen after freezing, and the one on the left took a big hit to the head quite some time before dying, based on the swelling and crusting of blood.

The quail from herp feeder sellers are certainly extras from the food industry (I presume the chicks are too -- extras left over after sexing out females), so I understand how they're likely treated. Since Layne promotes themselves as treating their animals humanely, I thought it important to point out to potential customers that their quail don't fall under that guideline.

But Layne refused to publish a review with the same content as this post, twice. The first time they claimed not to have received it when I emailed to find out why it wasn't on their website. The second time I submitted the review it wasn't published, so I emailed and they responded with a voice message to my phone number to 'discuss the condition of the quail'. I emailed back and politely informed them that email was preferable so the discussion is documented, and asked them to publish the review, and that's the last I heard from Layne. They did publish the positive review I submitted for rats, and did so promptly. They apparently don't publish negative reviews, and apparently don't admit anything over email.