Florida pet store owner arrested for beating employees with live bearded dragon lizard held in his mouth

The owner of a Delray Beach, Florida reptile shop has been arrested on battery and cruelty to animals charges on Monday after he allegedly struck employees with a live lizard.

According to the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, 40-year-old Ben Siegel put a bearded dragon into his mouth and began to strike employees with it. The incident was recorded on store surveillance cameras.

Siegel then reportedly threw the lizard into the air and swung it around several times, said a Broward Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

“The defendant did unnecessarily torment the animal, handling the animal in a cruel and/or inhumane manner and intentionally committed an act to the animal which results in excessive and repeated infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering to the animal,” said the report.

Siegel appeared in court on Monday and was held on $4,500 bond. He is charged with one count of cruelty to animals and two counts of battery.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/florida-reptile-shop-owner-used-live-bearded-dragon-to-slap-employees-because-florida/

No points for originality?



This video will only make you even more confused:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5BHQ7wiVks

See this is Why the USA sucks and promotes organised Crime (when they profit from it)

that dragon is an Australian Native and Simply THERE IS NO LEGAL WAY TO OWN ONE OUTSIDE OF AUSTRALIA. their export is through Organised Crime, they are part of the illegal Wildlife trade.
Does the USA stop it's shops buying smuggled animals to on sell to regular people that probably don't even realise that they are funding organised crime.

Bearded dragons—most commonly, the inland or central bearded dragon—are kept as pets. Introduced as pets to the US during the 1990s, they are a popular exotic species pet even though Australia, from the 1960s onward, has banned the sale of its wildlife to the pet trade

I doubt law enforcement worries too much about this, but then again, probably most bearded dragons sold in U.S. pet stores were either bred from captive populations here, or imported from captive populations in Oz.

it has been illegal to export ANY reptile from Australia except to a Zoo (and only our Zoos are allowed) and has been since the 1960's
they only started appearing in pet stores in the USA in the 1990's.

Even as A Licensed Reptile Keeper and breeder I am not allowed to sell them, only give them away to other registered keepers or release to wild.

there is no Legal Captive Populations. But hey we have to respect your Copyright laws on TV and Film but we can get fucked if we think you will respect our laws to protect endangered species illegal shipped overseas (with incredibly high death tolls)

veya_victaous wrote:it has been illegal to export ANY reptile from Australia except to a Zoo (and only our Zoos are allowed) and has been since the 1960's
they only started appearing in pet stores in the USA in the 1990's.

Even as A Licensed Reptile Keeper and breeder I am not allowed to sell them, only give them away to other registered keepers or release to wild.

there is no Legal Captive Populations. But hey we have to respect your Copyright laws on TV and Film but we can get fucked if we think you will respect our laws to protect endangered species illegal shipped overseas (with incredibly high death tolls)

Really don't know that much about it, though I did see something from the University of Queensland that says dragons are kept as pets all over the world. I do imagine that the people selling and buying them in the U.S. have no idea about the export ban, though.

And you know how I feel about the copyright laws, but hey -- Obama hardly even takes my calls anymore, man

News wrote:...put a bearded dragon into his mouth and began to strike employees with it.

So...he beat his employees with his mouth?  With or without a lizard in his teeth, that's impressive.  Perhaps he has a somewhat pronounced jawbone:

"He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out and took it and killed a thousand men with it."  Judges 15:16.  

A jawbone of an ass, okay. But his own mouth??  

Ben_Reilly wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:it has been illegal to export ANY reptile from Australia except to a Zoo (and only our Zoos are allowed) and has been since the 1960's
they only started appearing in pet stores in the USA in the 1990's.

Even as A Licensed Reptile Keeper and breeder I am not allowed to sell them, only give them away to other registered keepers or release to wild.

there is no Legal Captive Populations. But hey we have to respect your Copyright laws on TV and Film but we can get fucked if we think you will respect our laws to protect endangered species illegal shipped overseas (with incredibly high death tolls)

Really don't know that much about it, though I did see something from the University of Queensland that says dragons are kept as pets all over the world. I do imagine that the people selling and buying them in the U.S. have no idea about the export ban, though.

And you know how I feel about the copyright laws, but hey -- Obama hardly even takes my calls anymore, man

well you shouldn't have kept pestering him about that meeting with David Cameron

      TO BACK UP VEYA'S ABOVE STATEMENTS :

UNDER international protected species protection agreements (that many "first world" countries such as the USA, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Russia and the rest are signatories to..), it is illegal to possess, keep in captivity, kill or harm or torture, or trade in such species ~ except for licensed places such as zoos and wildlife parks...

MOST Australian native animals - including all of our lizards and most snakes and tortises (except for a couple of exceptions such as carpet snakes and diamond pythons that may have been bred (by licensed breeders) for the pet industry..)

WATER dragons from Oz, New Guinea and Indonesia, bearded dragons, 'frill necked' lizards, blue tongued lizards, skinks ~ all of these are protected and restricted.

SEVERAL countries that are party to these agreements ~ most notably the USA, Britain and Russia ~ will then circumvent these laws by cheekily and arrogantly applying "grandfather clauses", where they deem it permissible for licensed pet shops and breeders to trade in many protected and endangered spp. 'as long as they are from breeding stock that was already in captivity and being bred for the pet industry before this legislation was enacted'.

OBVIOUSLY these existing-use or so-called "grandfather clauses" are put in place to protect existing industries, but as shown in the O/P, they also often allow exploitation by the bad apples such as that pet shop owner ~ are often also providing 'gateway' access for illegal animal traffickers to smuggle their prey into those countries..

IF the Florida legal system really wanted to make an example of this scumbag, they could always hit him up with some of those protected animal and illegal trafficking charges ~ potentially adding fines of $$tens-of-thousands$$ and a year or two in jail to his punishment...

IF ONLY Florida was prepared to  show a degree of spinal fortitude, for once..

     "COPYRIGHT LAWS" in the USA !!!
WHAT a pathetic farce ~ when internationally we are seeing US_based music, TV, movie and book publishers bullying other countries to toe their exploitive lines..

ALL IT takes to get around American Law and copyright agreements is to find a judge on the take ~ the good ol' US of A is just as bad as China in this regard, and is famous for it's crooked judiciary assisting US crooks to illegally gain title to other people's works.

JUST consider the injustices hidden away behind the world hit song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" :
http://performingsongwriter.com/lion-sleeps-tonight/

OR CONSIDER the attempted theft of the iconic Aussie UGG/UGH boots name by the infamous US-based corporate thieves 'The Decker Corp.' :

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/ugg-how-a-minnow-put-the-boot-into-a-fashion-giant-523444.html

http://www.prlog.org/10411682-boycott-ugg-australiaowned-by-usa-decker-uggs-made-chinareclaim-word-ugg.html

N.B. WHILE researching this item, I was very interested to find that Deckers have even managed to do a "Kardashian" and have 'their people' [lawyers ? P/R hacks ? Does it really matter..] replace the true story on Wikipedia with Deckers own PR 'puff piece' !      

has anyone asked the lizard for its opinion???

to each their own but why is he beating employees with his penis?