OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A major reptile neglect case has concluded with a Florida man pleading guilty to felony animal cruelty, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said Friday.
Kelvin E. Soto, a former holder of a license to exhibit and sell reptiles, entered a guilty plea on Aug. 14. The FWC said officers began their investigation in November 2023 after Soto stopped paying for a storage unit in Osceola County.
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The unit was locked up and it was only when company employees began preparing the unit for auction that they discovered the devastating scene inside.
According to the FWC, there were 111 African fat-tailed geckos housed in individual containers inside the storage unit. Forty-one of the geckos were already dead. Photos provided by the FWC showed the skeletal remains of some of the reptiles.
Investigators said the containers were filthy and none of the geckos had food or water. Officials later determined that no one had visited the storage unit for more than two months…