petsmart
grrlscientist | April 18, 2009tags: HR669, pets, exotic animals, invasive species, pet animal trade, PetSmart, politics
As expected, PetSmart has officially spoken out against HR 669. As a large corporation, you KNOW PetSmart has a flock of lawyers who are studying legislation such as this to make sure that laws are not enacted that would damage them or their clients. While PetSmart supports the primary aim of this bill -- to prevent the introduction of potentially invasive nonnative animal species into this country -- they point out that HR 669, as written, will damage the pet industry and harm pet owners ("pet parents…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2008tags: hamster, PetSmart, lawsuit, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, LCMV, zoonosis
Portrait of a murderer:
A Siberian dwarf hamster, Phodopus sungorus.
Orphaned image.
I just learned that a lawsuit was recently filed in Massachusetts Superior Court on behalf of a man who died one month after receiving a transplanted liver that was later determined to be infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). Apparently, the organ donor purchased a pet hamster from a PetSmart in Warwick, Rhode Island, and this hamster was later shown to be infected with this deadly virus.
LCMV is…