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ou know those plastic tubs that people use to store holiday decorations, old blankets, and clothes in the attic? Well, an animal dealer that supplies small animals to PetSmart, Petco, Pet Supplies Plus, and many other stores uses even smaller containers to house live animals.

A PETA eyewitness documented that thousands of animals were confined to plastic bins stacked in shelving units like filing cabinet drawers at Holmes Farm, a massive animal dealer in Pennsylvania that supplies hamsters, rabbits, gerbils, chinchillas, ferrets, and other small animals to hundreds of pet stores across the eastern U.S.

Based on PETA’s evidence, a team of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials descended on Holmes Farm, which is now under federal investigation. In May 2016, the USDA’s initial findings were released, listing at least 117 violations of 14 different federal laws, including 36 animals in need of veterinary care, decomposing animals in bins with live animals, a free-roaming cat near bins holding guinea pigs, an ammonia stench so strong that it burned federal agents’ eyes and noses, and statements by Holmes Farm staff that they had learned to kill unwanted animals “on the internet.”

In August 2016, the Douglass Township Police Department charged Holmes Farm manager Clinton “Art” Holmes with 28 counts of cruelty to animals. In March 2017, Holmes pleaded guilty to two of the counts.

PetSmart eventually stopped buying animals from Holmes Farm—but only after failing to act for months, even when federal officials’ findings were publicized. Petco initially claimed in January 2016 that it had severed ties with Holmes Farm, before it was notified of PETA’s findings by the Associated Press. But for more than a month after Petco’s December 2015 visit to Holmes Farm—during which its representatives were never seen looking at the freezer or the filthy cooler in which hundreds of animals were crudely killed—its stores continued to order and receive animals by the hundreds from Holmes Farm, even as the USDA began its inspection.