For those of you non-reptile folks out there (or the reptile folks who haven't heard/don't know yet)- "Prehistoric Pets"/"The Reptile Zoo" is one of the worst faces of captive reptile keeping. Jay Brewer, the guy that runs it and faces it on youtube, is basically running the equivalent of a reptile puppy mill, and sensationalizing it for views.
He keeps his animals in enclosures that are far too small for them, participates in mass breeding without care for the health or well-being of the animals involved, including creating morbidly obsese animals to have the "biggest" ones for clout and so that he can breed them as fast and often as possible since they don't get too skinny from being bred too often while being massively overfed. He's also well known for cutting eggs (which by itself is.... eh but-) where he removes the entire top, pulling live babies out, and putting them back in, which is ridiculously dangerous to the baby.
This year he's going to be getting his own television show. I don't know the name of it yet, but given his behavior on youtube - where he purposely elicits stress responses, defensive behaviors, and bite attempts from large reptiles purely for views, with no interest in whether these actions are in the interest of the animal's best welfare - I doubt he is going to improve any. The producers are GOING to try to sensationalize it a la Tiger King.
Please, I am asking you to not support this man or his new show. He represents the worst side of the hobby, the people that have no business being in business, no business keeping the animals he does. Don't spite watch, don't curiosity watch; pirate it someplace if you must, but any views that count toward success of his show only puts more into his pockets to continue doing things he shouldn't, and it's his animals (and the animals his popularity convince others to buy thinking they can do the same as him) that pay the price for it.
Please understand that he is NOT a good representative of the reptile keeping community, and that so many people do not find his keeping, handling, or practices acceptable. Despicable would be a better word.
In addition to all of this, he is going to get one of his employees mauled. Brewer’s dangerous animal handling practices extend to his staff, who are encouraged to mishandle alligators and large, dangerous snakes. He has never once cared about animal welfare or human welfare, and supporting him means supporting practices that have directly led to the deaths of animals in the past.
And don’t let the name fool you. He isn’t a zoo. He is a pet store owner who has a bunch of unsafe animal displays.
And then has the audacity to pass himself off as an "educator" as if all the rest was not bad enough :/
@is-the-snake-video-cute
It looks like his show is going to be called "Reptile Royalty." Definitely going to be one to steer well clear of - given his tendency to wildly misinterpret reptile body language and goad animals into striking for content, I'm worried this is going to show people getting hurt, on top of the terrible animal cruelty.
