{"id":297759,"date":"2026-10-01T17:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/297759\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T17:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:38:08","slug":"cde-exotics-owner-charged-with-torturing-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/297759\/","title":{"rendered":"CDE Exotics owner charged with torturing animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner of a popular Downtown Wilkes-Barre exotic animal rescue operation who is well-known in the community for his educational outreach efforts was arrested Wednesday on felony animal cruelty charges alleging he tortured and maimed the animals in his care.<\/p>\n

Cameron English, 38, of 5 Bow Creek Road, Fairview Twp., is facing 42 charges that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Luzerne County filed against him following an April raid of his business, CDE Exotics.<\/p>\n

Since opening in February 2016, English and his travelling menagerie of snakes and spiders have entertained and educated children at events ranging from backyard birthday parties to school-sanctioned events.<\/p>\n

The charges filed against English on Wednesday, however, allege the animals being offered up to the public as educational exhibits suffered torture, abuse and mistreatment at his hands \u2014 including allegations that he performed an amateur amputation on a bird\u2019s leg using a length of fishing line.<\/p>\n

\"CDECDE Exotics in Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (JASON ARDAN \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

The charges follow an April raid of CDE Exotics<\/a>, located at 95 S. Main St., by officials from the SPCA, the City of Wilkes-Barre and other agencies.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint, the raid came about after an animal control officer developed \u201csevere concerns\u201d about the conditions inside the facility following a visit April 1.<\/p>\n

Officers entering the building on April 21 were hit by the \u201coverwhelming odor of ammonia and decomposing animal remains,\u201d finding cages full of feces, urine, spoiled food and debris, the charges allege.<\/p>\n

Many of the animals lacked food and water, and they appeared severely emaciated, dehydrated, lethargic and sickly, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Police found diseased reptiles and decomposing snake carcasses in cages alongside live but emaciated venomous snakes. Also recovered from the facility was a live timber rattlesnake that was illegal to possess, the charges allege.<\/p>\n

Birds in the facility were suffering from an array of medical conditions, some having necrotic limbs after having endured what was described in the complaint as \u201ctraumatic amputations.\u201d Among the allegations is a claim that English amputated at least one bird\u2019s leg with fishing line.<\/p>\n

Soaring Spirits Sanctuary in Beech Creek, which assisted police in the operation, wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday that the facility was infested with maggots and flies, and featured what the bird rescue group described as an amateur \u201csurgery table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polly, a type of cockatoo called a galah, was found to have had one foot \u201cunprofessionally amputated,\u201d while the other foot \u201cwas literally rotting away from her body and mangled,\u201d according to the rescue.<\/p>\n

\u201cCameron English is not a veterinarian. He is not a veterinary technician,\u201d Soaring Spirits wrote. \u201cHow many animals suffered torture under the knife of Cameron English?\u201d<\/p>\n

The group went on to allege that \u201cdeath was everywhere\u201d at CDE Exotics, including in an unpowered commercial freezer that was \u201cpacked with dead animals\u201d and leaking decomposing fluids onto the pavement.<\/p>\n

During a\u00a0phone interview with The Citizens\u2019 Voice at the time of the raid, English denied mistreating the animals at his facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some reason, they were unaware that we rescued all these animals,\u201d English said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been a 501(c)(3) nonprofit since June 2020. There was no animal cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n

English similarly denied abusing his animals to the police, saying some of the birds had only recently entered his facility and were still awaiting veterinary care, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

However, the charges allege that his veterinarian had not treated the animals nor advised English to conduct the fishing-line amputation.<\/p>\n

\"CDECDE Exotics, located at 95 S. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, and on Friday, April 24, 2026, was ordered to be closed down following a joint investigation. (JASON ARDAN \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

News of English\u2019s arrest on Wednesday spread quickly on social media, with several animal groups taking to Facebook to criticize his operation.<\/p>\n

The Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center shared a photo of a mangled bird that was missing a foot, saying the center\u2019s owners had been among those who reported English and that they had been \u201cabsolutely crucified\u201d by his supporters for acting.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a license, calling yourself a \u2018rescue,\u2019 or telling people you work with wildlife does not automatically make someone ethical,\u201d the owners wrote in the post. \u201cA title doesn\u2019t guarantee compassion. A permit doesn\u2019t tell you what happens when nobody is watching. And sometimes, when people who actually work with animals raise concerns and go as far as reporting those concerns to authorities, there is a reason!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

English is facing 42 charges, including 10 felony counts each of aggravated cruelty to animals involving torture and aggravated cruelty to animals causing death or serious injury; 10 misdemeanor counts each of animal cruelty and neglect; and two misdemeanor licensing violations.<\/p>\n

Magisterial District Judge Kyle Halesey arraigned English on the charges Wednesday afternoon and set his bail at $15,000.<\/p>\n

According to online records, English had been released from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility as of Thursday morning after posting bond.<\/p>\n

He is next due to appear at Luzerne County Central Court for a preliminary hearing Oct. 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner of a popular Downtown Wilkes-Barre exotic animal rescue operation who is well-known in the community for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[202,182,803,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-297759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}