OMFG the level of neglect amazes me! - Page 2

ChristinaM · 12-01-03, 11:30 AM

btw: the reptile girl muttered " the mealworms ate through there stomachs" that's why they died.

blah.....show's the level of knowledge eh.

python_diva_06 · 12-01-03, 03:49 PM

***** LIKE THAT JUST NEEDS TO STOP! OMFG!!! I WISH PET SHOPS ACTED 5% AS RESPONSIBLE AS THEY THINK THEY ARE!!! Thankfully i have a good (but rather small) herp section at my local pet shop...all the animals look healthy and there aren't any signs of mites...they really seem to care about the herps too, i recently got a BTS from there and i needed to pick up a new 10 gal tank lid for my Cali.king's set up and i think they were under the impression that i was putting my BTS in a 10. gal (BTW-NO!) and i was really impressed with the amount of consern they were showing...i wish all pet shops even remotely resimbaled this one!

ps. this is a privetely owned pet shop NOT a chain...

Wuntu Menny · 12-01-03, 08:46 PM

There are a few exceptional stores out there that genuinely seem to give a rat's glutes about the welfare of their stock. One of the best (worst) double standards around here is the local bigbox chain that regularly offends almost as bad as my original post. They actually have the gall to air TV commercials that pat themselves on the back for caring for sick or unwanted mammals.

At one point the camera zooms in on a dead puppy lying in a pile of trash to really generate some sympathy for their cause. The funny thing is, that shot of the puppy is frequently mirrored in their own herp depts and they honestly don't care one bit.

WM

TheRedDragon · 12-01-03, 10:37 PM

Oh, Invictus, you forgot the poor WC Savannah Monitors that were taken in. The poor things didn't have enough energy to move let alone open their eyes.

Then there was the Chinese Water dragons that are going to die either from the lack of required humidity, the mouth rout, or the respitory infections that they're suffering from; whatever gets to them first. One of those "two people" actually held one of them, and it was so sick that it couldn't even open its eyes or even attempt to get away from them. They removed scabs from its face and tail and applied Polysporin to the wounds. Its mouth was gaping constantly...it was horrible.

Oh, and the enclosure that Invictus mentioned that is housing 5 boas? Yeah, it's worse than that. One of those "two people" was cleaning the enclosure only to find it CRAWLING with mites.

Yeah, those "two people" also helped switch most of those poor snakes over to newspaper and dust them all with mite powder (which I doubt does anything) to try an control the mite outbreak throughout the reptile room.

Those "two people" where always trying to figure out if the horrid stench in the reptile room was coming from the reptiles that were dropping like flies, the rejected prey items that were rotting in the reptile's enclosures, or the fact that all of the reptiles are wading in their own feces.

Believe me, I'm looking elsewhere to get crickets and I'm not selling anything to that store; I refuse to support it in any shape or form.

Invictus · 12-02-03, 12:45 AM

Yeah, or the Sulcatta whose dorsal pyramiding made it look a g*d damn stegasaurus, or the beardies dropping like flies, or the wild caught Orange Uromastyx that was rotting in its cage for 3 days (not coincidentally on the caring peoples' days OFF, I might add) before anyone bothered to fish it out, the 2 baby bearded dragons that died from lord knows what, the frogs rotting in their pathetic cages, the 4 foot boas being housed in critter keepers, if they're not being housed with an extremely dominant 7 foot boa that likes to occupy the ENTIRE water dish, ensuring that no other boas can drink, and oh lord, where else shall I go from here.... OH YES, the 7 Calotes (Japaluras) that are sharing one critter keeper, or the 20 iguanas that are split among TWO enclosures measuring 2 x 2 x 2.

THIS PLACE HAS GOT TO GO.

maiden_canada · 12-02-03, 12:52 AM

haha and i thought the petstores in victoria are bad. one time here i asked someone what happened to all their baby chameleons and he said they died.

Invictus · 12-02-03, 01:16 AM

haha? What about this is funny?

ReptiZone · 12-02-03, 03:24 AM

If you think that is bad you should all come up and spend a weekend at my place in montreal. I have seen a few regulare Pet stores take better care of Herp then "One" perticulare reptile only specialty shop witch will remain name less. Do to the fact that the owner is on this site and I am not in the mood to get a nother thretaning call tomarow morning. LOL

I will keep the details to my slef lets just put it this way I have never seen a pet store of any kind licend to uthanise animals. and the best thing this company ever did for there animals was put them in a freezer. Note that is the best thing they did I will not get into how poor the animal care was.

The most marking thing that ever hapend to me while I was there was having a 5 foot iguana jump at me to save it's life.

Let me explain:

I am sure you have all done this thah out your rodents for a feeding day and at the end of the day re freeze your left overs till trash day so you don't stink up the whole house or herp room.
well no invision the end of your day geting ready to toss you wast in the apropriat area in the freezer but when you crack open the ice box a frozen godzila is trying to climb your body to escape b4 you even realise it was in there now that will wake you up for the rest of the evaning. Well I said my pice.

but let it be noted that this was not just any good old fasion Pet store this was a "Reptile specialty shop" you can draw your own conclusions.

sketchy4 · 12-02-03, 06:54 PM

wait a minute? your saying they had an igg (when you said godzilla an iguana came to mind) in a freezer? now what is wrong with the picture there? some sick f^$#ing people in ths world. they need to have like a test to take to work at a petshop or something. that way they hire some people that atleast know how to care of the animals.

there is a pet shop around here in Dayton OH that actually have some smart employees. i talked to the guy running the herp and fish section of the store and he was like 24 and actually knows ALOT about the animals. i talked with him for a while before having to leave. he told me that before he started working here that alot of the herps were on sand and didnt have the proper housing and lighting. he actually spent over$500 out of his own pocket to make the enclosures better and cleans out every single one himself. that is the only pet store i go to. comes to show some people that work at the pet stores actually know a thing or two about the animals.

stevesemerko · 12-08-03, 12:33 AM

I have had the same sort of experiences. Due to these experiences I have vowed that when I do breed my animals they do not go to any pet store unless I personally deem it acceptable and from the ones I have seen it won't happen too often. This place in Calgary sounds just HORRIFYING! I would personally like to thank "those two people" for actually making a difference (even if only for a short while). I don't know how these stores can just hire any idiot who wants a job and pass up (or dismiss) qualified and caring individuals trying to provide people with an animal they can enjoy for 10+ years instead of 10 minutes!

Steve

Bighead · 12-09-03, 05:24 AM

A couple things: I just started working at a Petsmart in Bellingham (Washington). I'm not patting myself on the back here, because I just started there, but I wanted you guys to know that at least one of these big chain stores really cares more about the animals than they care about selling them. A customer just returned a guinea pig that they let run around on their kitchen table until it jumped off and broke it's leg. We wouldn't have taken it back, but we knew they would just "euthanize" it if we didn't. We spent over $1000 after x-rays, etc. to put a cast on this poor little $20 guinea pig. We have also had an anorexic russian tortoise at a reptile specialist vet for 3 months. Not sure what that will cost, but it will definitely be more than the cost of the tortoise. We mist all the tropical herp enclosures 4x per day and sign off on a sheet. The one thing that does suck that I couldn't do anything about is, most of the enclosures are only 15 gallons, which is ok for some, but we have a bunch of anoles in one and it's definitely overcrowded. Most of them are ok though. We have a gargoyle gecko on a 20 gal. vertical and a pair of small red-eared sliders and an 80 gallon.
I know not all of the Petsmart stores aren't like this too. The one nearest to me seems to lack a true reptile expert and it shows a little bit, but the animals don't seem to be in any danger. Just thought I'd try to add a little hope out there.

Are there any of you who know of a really good reptile store other than breeders? Any in BC?

If you feel like reading another horror story, I'll post one about a store I saw a couple weeks ago below.

Bighead · 12-09-03, 05:25 AM

P.S. The Guinea Pig customer is now blacklisted from buying live animals, including fish.

Bighead · 12-09-03, 05:29 AM

Thought I'd add another quick story- Theres a place i just visited in seattle calle "fin and feather." I went to check it out a couple weks ago and the 1st thing i saw was a baby corn snake crawling across the floor. I wouldn't have noticed it, but there was a rabbit hopping after it looking very interested (probably b/c it didn't have food or water anywhere that i could see). I picked it up and gave it to the lady. She said she knocked over a tub(?) of them and couldn't remember how many were in there. Their beardie enclosure was big (at least 200gal), but there was no UV lights and an old pile of wilted lettuce in one corner and no water dish. There was a Red-footed tortoise and what i think was a russian tortoise in a 40 gallon tank, both had approx. 10" diameter shells, no food, and BROWN water. I pointed this out and the lady said "oh, yeah. i keep forgetting to feed those guys. they're my favorite" She then threw in a head of lettuce and they went after it. There were numerous corn, king, boa and ball python tanks. In the half that still had water, it was brown. I don't even know how a water dish just goes brown, but i swear, all of them were like that. There was a red-eyed tree frog tank that was so dirty, i couldn't even tell if they actually had red eyes. There was a chameleon enclosure with a half dead, dried up ficus tree in it and a very skinny, dried up male veiled. that's pretty much it. no uvb lights to be seen, and only dead crickets in any of the cages. If you are ever in the area, I encourage you to see for yourself and give them a few words as well. Oh, the smell of ammonia was enough to make me put my had over my face as soon as I walked into the store.

ChristinaM · 12-09-03, 08:31 AM

I have to say, some of these are absolutely disgusting. Never will animal cruelty cease to amaze me. How people can do this is way beyond my understanding.

Vengeance · 12-09-03, 09:03 AM

Such is the nature of the corporate machine. Animal welfare takes no precedent over the all mighty dollar. For the big box stores it costs more money to hire competent staff and take proper care of their animals then it does to hire incompetent staff and take sub par care of their animals. Also because there are no laws outlining neglect when it comes to Herp's there isn't really much anyone can do other then Boycott any of the stores that treat their animals in this manner. Problem is since 85% of herps bought from the Big Box store's is usually the uninformed window shopper who thinks it would be cool to have the lizard with the big horns or the snake with the pretty colors, unless their are some strict guidelines that are enforced through hefty fines (the same kinda fines that are usually associated with mammal mistreatment) then this kind of thing will continue.