To The Rescue

Out of all the situations I had imagined, the actual reality of what I was seeing was....just too horrible to comprehend.
I put a sleeve of my jacket to my nose, trying to not heave up my breakfast as I surveyed the dismal conditions.
How could anyone in their right mind do this to a single creature, let alone hundreds? Everywhere I looked I could see no sign of food, no water, and the room was cold enough to keep ice from melting.

It got worse as I picked my way carefully among the containers these breeders thought fit to call cages. A closer look within showed deceased bodies intermingled with those still alive. Hardly fit to be called alive in many cases. Blood, missing limbs, skeletal frames. This...this was horrible. These creatures didn't deserve such a life!
"Leave me. I'll bring out the ones that we can save." I told the others.
They were used to my methods by now, and so left without complaint. Probably happy to get away from the smell of a hundred dumps mashed together in a space hardly the size of a baseball field. Oh, this was the worst I'd seen yet.
Just because a place was going bankrupt, didn't mean that they had to stop feeding the animals in their possession. How could this have gone on for so long without any of the workers complaining! Did none of them have a conscience? A soul? For the suffering around them?

I turned down one narrow alley. The reptiles and amphibians. The survivors would need proper heat, proper food. Luckily I came prepared with my volunteers. We had all the necessary things. I just hoped it would be enough.

The work would have gone faster if there had been more than just me sorting through the live, injured, and dead creatures all around. But as much as I trusted the others, I didn't trust them. This. This I would do alone.
Slowly, taking it one tub, one crowded cage at a time. I sorted through the creatures. Starting with the easier Tortoises and Turtles, and making may way down to the geckos, anoles, frogs. Moving quickly and efficiently I sorted each cage into the three categories I'd designated. Placing them just outside the main room to my volunteers with instructions on what to do with each section. The dead, to be properly disposed off, the injured and sickly to see the vet for evaluation, the apparent healthy ones to the other vet to ensure they were as healthy as they seemed before they were taken to be cleaned off, given food and water, and placed in proper containers for them.
It was grizzly work.
A massive undertaking.
But I would not rest until all these creatures had been seen to.

-Inspiration from reading an article online about dismal conditions a reptile breeder kept their animals in.