— created a commercial pet animal facility license that allows it to regulate all the species at SeaQuest Littleton that are not considered wildlife. PACFA conducts inspections at SeaQuest Littleton when it receives complaints.
Sinnott says parents could bring their children to SeaQuest for a seemingly fun, safe experience and leave having been bitten or scratched. The FTC complaint regarding SeaQuest Littleton describes incidences in which poisonous pufferfish have bitten multiple guests, Other species, including iguanas, horn sharks, Asian water monitors and pigs, also have bitten customers in Littleton. That information is not readily available to the public or included on SeaQuest's website, Sinnott contends.
Sinnott says the only consistent reporting is of injuries caused by animals that are rabies vector species; those injuries are usually reported to local health authorities by medical professionals. Much of the information about incidents in PETA’s FTC complaint comes from SeaQuest Littleton’s 2019 records with CPW because it represents one of the few times a SeaQuest location has been subject to that level of reporting.
All of the Savannah cats had to be quarantined away from humans because they are classified as a rabies vector species, and the employees were unsure which of three cats had bitten the child. Sinnott notes that quarantine is better than the alternative: euthanasia. The only way to test for rabies is when animals are dead, because the virus is inside the animal's brain. SeaQuest has a history of allowing animals from rabies vector species to come into contact with humans, she adds.