Undercover at (US) Brookstone's Frog-O-Sphere Supplier

Since June 2009, complaints have poured in to PETA about the tens of thousands of African dwarf frogs and snails peddled in malls across America by Brookstone, Inc., in tiny plastic boxes, which have been deemed "unacceptable in failing to meet the basic requirements for good animal husbandry" by experts. The boxes are far too small, and they force these nocturnal animals to live deprived of shelter, a place to hide, and everything else that is natural and important to them.

In November 2009, PETA went undercover at Wild Creations, the company that supplies "Frog-O-Spheres" to Brookstone. PETA’s investigator documented the rampant neglect and mishandling of these delicate animals and total disregard for their needs, welfare, and lives―an attitude that trickled down from the company's co-owner to company supervisors and employees. PETA's investigator found the following:

* Employees handled and packaged thousands of frogs, grabbing them by the handful and picking them up by pinching their delicate legs. Bags of "replacement frogs"—shipped to customers whose frogs had died soon after purchase—were thrown carelessly into bins by the dozen. Wild Creations prepares and ships up to 100 "replacement frogs" each day.
* Hundreds of frogs were crammed into plastic tubs. The unfiltered water grew increasingly murky with excrement and molted skin as days passed before the frogs were removed and packaged inside the so-called "ecosystems" in which they are sold.
* Weeks passed before PETA's investigator—who worked full-time—saw any of the frogs kept at the Wild Creations warehouse being fed. When customers complained of frogs with "leg deformities," a call from Wild Creations to the California-based frog breeder revealed that the frogs were so starved that they were chewing on each others' legs, causing wounds, infections, and, eventually, rot and loss of the limb (apparently, that's what it took for Wild Creations to start feeding the frogs regularly).
* No training was provided to employees. Live frogs were mistaken for dead, tossed into the trash, and/or dropped on the floor and left to die.
* Frogs suspected of being sick were mistakenly shipped to customers instead of being properly quarantined, as were frogs who were plucked from tubs containing the bloated, fungus-covered remains of decomposing frogs. A Brookstone manager in Fairfax, Virginia, confirmed that frogs at her store frequently suffered from fungal skin infections and routinely died.