The Letter

Dear Ms. Chen,

I am writing to urge you to immediately end the sale of live aquatic animals at all 99 Ranch Market locations following a deeply disturbing undercover investigation that documented widespread animal cruelty and neglect.

Animal Outlook's recent investigation at 99 Ranch Market stores across six states documented shocking conditions including:

• Systematic animal cruelty: Workers routinely bludgeoning fish to death, often requiring multiple blows to incapacitate the animals. Live crabs thrown into plastic bags and left to slowly suffocate.
• Severe overcrowding: Tanks packed so densely that animals had virtually no room to move, making it impossible to monitor their wellbeing or provide adequate care
• Untreated injuries and disease: Fish with significant tissue loss on their faces caused by bacterial infections rotting their mouth tissue. Swollen, raw mouths. Open sores on their bodies. Cloudy, damaged eyes from trauma and stress.
• Dead and dying animals: Tilapia floating upside down or lying motionless on their sides in tanks with live animals, their decomposing bodies degrading water quality and releasing pathogens.

This is not a case of isolated incidents at one location. Appalling conditions were documented at every single store visited across six different states. This is systematic cruelty built into your business model.

Your customers expect 99 Ranch Market to meet basic standards of animal welfare and food safety. The live animal sales at your stores fail on both counts.

I urge you to:

1. Immediately commit to ending all live aquatic animal sales across your 54 stores.
2. Establish a clear, time-bound phase-out plan.
3. Issue a public statement affirming 99 Ranch Market's commitment to animal welfare.

Fish and other aquatic animals experience pain, stress, and suffering. The conditions documented at your stores are indefensible and must end.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.