The SPCA has received multiple complaints about the Exotic Pet Expo, which was held in the Forrester Park Hall and organised by Amelia Seales.
Inspectorate team leader Jamie Hancock said inquiries were under way about Ms Seales’ handling of animals at the event.
The two-day event was called out by attendees and stallholders, who said it was poorly organised and animals were kept in frigid conditions.
The Otago Daily Times was also provided audio of a customer asking for a refund, saying what they saw was "devastating".
In the audio, the customer can be heard telling Ms Seales: "What I saw was people poking cats through cages, mother cats with kittens that looked really disturbed, I saw kids prodding and fondling reptiles."
Ms Seales responds saying: "I’m pretty sure you are the b.... that was making posts about me on Facebook."
Another organiser of the event then says: "You are not getting a f...... refund, you can f... off."
Arts and craft stallholder Olivia Trainor said she and other stallholders pulled out on the second day after seeing the conditions the animals were being kept in.
She said she did not know anything about Ms Seales when she decided to operate a stall at the expo.
When she arrived at about 9.15am she said nothing had been set up and the building was "extremely cold".
"I thought they were just behind in setting up, but it didn’t get better."
She said tanks were overcrowded with as many 20 baby axolotls. Lizards were in open-top tanks with limited heating and rabbits were left in a pen without food or water.
Plastic bins with turtles in them were left unsupervised and she witnessed a child getting bitten by one.
When she got home at the end of the day on Saturday, Ms Trainor said she cried and later laid a complaint with the SPCA.
She said she felt guilty for promoting the event on her business’ social media page.
Ms Seales disputed any suggestions of animal cruelty and said the criticism was just "nasty people" commenting on social media.
"They said that there were axolotls and animals dying in the tanks, but they’re not, they just obviously don’t know what a sleeping animal looks like.
"People see axolotls in tubs and they say that’s so cruel, but actually that’s what you have to do with axolotls."
She said she had worked to rescue axolotls since she was 8 and had more than 60 tanks in her basement with all of her exotic animals.
She was planning on studying to become a veterinarian.
Ms Seales said the people leaving reviews on social media did not attend the event.
"I talked to hundreds and thousands of people [on Sunday]. Everyone was so lovely, saying what a great event and I got home and saw there were all these posts."
She said stallholders had pulled out because of "nasty" rumours that a child sex offender was at the event. The rumour stemmed from when she operated a since-closed pet store in South Dunedin and "accidentally" hired a sex offender.
She said the man was not present at the weekend’s event.
Ms Seales said the SPCA emailed her yesterday listing the concerns over the welfare of the animals on display.
She said she responded, denying complaints.
Ms Seales said the customer who was denied a refund "came storming in threatening a child", so Ms Seales yelled at her and told her to leave.
"I assume she is sending [the recording to] everyone."
She said the recording the Otago Daily Times received was edited.
