reptile shop rant
*growl* Okay. There is this reptile shop in Tampa that I go to regularly. I got one of my snakes there (BCI). I thought this shop was good: they take good care of their animals (proper requirements, etc) and breed a lot of their own stock. Well, the owner, Fernando, is still in Daytona on vacation (he went there for the reptile show), and he left this 18 year old girl and some 10 year old kid (i think they are his family) to watch the shop. I went in there, and I asked the girl if Fernando was back yet, and if he had brought anything interesting back from the show. She informed me that he was not back, but that he had bought some BRB's to breed from some breeder. I asked her how old they were, and she said they were still hatchlings. Well, then I asked her, "are they from the same clutch?". She said, "yes, I think so. We got them both from the same breeder." So I went on to tell her that inbreeding is not cool and that they shouldn't do that. And she said "we inbreed a lot of our snakes and have never had a problem..". I was like MY GOD. I can't believe this. I bought my snake from them. Does this mean that my snake could be an inbred snake? I'm disgusted and upset, seeing as my snake has not had a bowel movement since I've had her (and this has been two months). Now it all makes sense. I got angry and went off about how stupid that is, and how I'll never come back to this shop again. I thought this shop was a good shop, a place for herpers to come and get good quality animals. I was wrong.
Anyway, do you think I overreacted? How common is inbreeding?
Do you think I had a right to be upset? My grandmother (who knows nothing about herps!) thinks that I majorly overreacted. I feel that I was right. I don't know. I guess I was just shocked.
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-Kristina
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