This is the situation - I applied for a volunteer job working with this organization that houses and does educational shows with exotic animals. I was very excited since they have just about every animal you can think of - and today I interviewed and she invited me to go with her to one of the places they own to see the animals.

I got there and I was horrified - the small mammals had at least an inch or two of poop at the bottom of their tanks and many of the reptiles had empty/extremely dirty water bowls and only a small overhead lamp for heat, not to mention poop in their cases so long it looked petrified. These animals are kept in a warehouse like place that must have heat but is very cool - I was chilly in jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

I tried to get some pictures (below) when she was looking the other way - in this location they had 2 chinchillas, 2 ferrets, 2 small mammals I didn't know, 8 birds, a bunny, a red tail boa, a hognose snake, a ball python, 4 beardies in one tank about the size of a 20long, 4 other tanks with lizards I didn't recognize (including a gecco that had a broken heat lamp and she said he was fine.), and 2 separate tanks with some kind of turtles.

After this we went to one of the guy's house to feed his pets and in his house (where he has two little kids she told me) he had 6 dogs, 2 micro pot belly pigs, 3 cats, 6 birds, 8 rats, a fish tank so dirty you couldn't see the fish, a guinea pig and a wild chipmunk he caught. The female rat had spilled her water so I asked the girl if she was gonna clean it and she did and there was probably at least 3 or 4 inches of bedding that was wet and moldy and came out as one solid lump because of all the feces and everything in it. Also because they have exotic animal licence a catimundi (sp?) from the raccoon family - it reeked in the house - where the animals were split up there was urine and poop everywhere (4 of the dogs were kept in the back shed - 2 of the dogs and the 2 pigs kept in a back room).

As we were leaving he arrived back from his trip - with two more catimundi and two bobcats - one of which will go to live on their farm and one in their house. I shudder to think how bad the situation is for these pets at the farm - because even though these pets were just his and maybe that is just how he takes care of them - the girl I was with who runs half of it didn't seem to think anything was out of the ordinary. Can anyone give me information about these animals in the pics of things you know are wrong/unhealthy - I know some about BPs but I'm not sure what the other animals should or shouldn't have.

Most of the animals could not be handled either - she said they aren't friendly because they don't get hanlded much. As I said though - there are 4 beardies in one tank - (I didn't know if that was normal or not), all the snakes only have a small light on top for heating - the ball python only has a long leaning against another for his hide (you can see him circled in there - and the other things that are circled are 2 full sheds and petrified poop still in the tank), they obviously don't quarentine since the red tail they told me just got rescued a few weeks ago and is in with the other snakes - its water was black it was so dirty. That thing the hognose is in is a completely dry and full of bedding water bowl. The chinchillas had a dust bath house in there (they keep it in there) that was full of poop and they were just sitting in it.

How should I go about this - I don't know what to say to her about the volunteering (I pretended to think it was fine because I was tryign to get names and addresses) and I don't know exactly what I should do. Am I overexaggerating reporting them to aspca/humane society? They seem to care about animals - but these animals are in digusting conditions -she herself said that she has 3 squirrels and 6 cats in her apartment and they all run free - I'm sure that is quite healthy too... How should I go about this - am I overreacting? What would you do?