Why does the Albert Lea Public Library continue to put its young patrons’ health at risk? By bringing reptiles into its children’s program, it’s doing just that. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tens of thousands of people get sick from contact with reptiles in the U.S. each year. Children are particularly at risk. The potential consequences are so serious that the CDC has recommended that children under the age of 5 should avoid contact with reptiles and any items that have been in contact with reptiles and says that reptiles should not be allowed in child-care centers.

These shows are also a lesson in cruelty. There is nothing even vaguely educational about seeing animals schlepped around and used as props. Forced to interact with a continuous stream of rambunctious and excited kids, the animals live in a perpetual state of discomfort and anxiety. At the end of the day, they are dumped in tiny cages and hauled away in trucks for the next gig.

Snakes and tortoises belong in the wild, not in a library.

 

Jennifer O’Connor

PETA Foundation

Norfolk, Va.