In a TikTok posted on Thursday, TikToker @bherman18 says she found a box containing live hamsters near PetSmart dumpsters in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
“Just found a box of fucking hamsters,” she says as she opens a box labeled “live animals” containing three rodents.
Herman said that she goes dumpster diving “quite often,” but that this is the first time she’s found live animals in a dumpster.
“[Pet supply stores] throw away a lot of good supplies,” she told the Daily Dot in an Instagram direct message. “And I have a lot of animals.”
In a follow-up video, Herman said that when she found the box, it had been opened and then taped closed again. She also said that she called PetSmart’s corporate offices, and the company said it would get back to her.
“I still have yet to hear anything,” she told the Daily Dot.
Herman also said that a manager at the PetSmart in Selinsgrove said that he “didn’t think [the hamsters] came from the store” in her follow-up TikTok.
“When I took the hamsters in and questioned them about it, they really had the audacity to try and keep them,” Herman said in another follow-up video. “And I demanded that I wasn’t leaving the store without them.”
An employee at the store told the Daily Dot that “nobody” at the store could comment on the situation. In a statement to the Daily Dot via email, PetSmart said that it’s “familiar with the individual who posted” the videos.
“We have been in contact with her and collected information to help further our review of the situation,” the company’s statement said.
Herman told the Daily Dot that she plans to keep the hamsters as pets and that they are currently receiving care at an animal rescue.
Herman also posted a video showing photos of the hamsters.
Herman told the Daily Dot that she initially posted the video to bring awareness to the “horrible things that are consistently happening in the world around us.”
Herman’s discovery of live animals in a dumpster outside a pet supply store is not the first of its kind. The YouTube account Reptile Rescue posted a video of the alleged recovery of an iguana from a dumpster behind Petco. TikTok users in the comments on Herman’s video recounted stories they had heard about animals being left for dead by pet supply stores as well.
PetSmart commented on Herman’s video thanking her for bringing the incident to their attention and said the company would look into it “right away.” Herman responded by saying that a PetSmart team member threatened to sue her for “exposing” the store.
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