pet store crulty or animal not feeding?:(

[Nicky]

today as i went to my local pet store to buy a mosue and crickets for my pets i saw the most horrible thing ever. a mali umerax all scrunched up i one corner of his/her cage as skinny as a twig. it literally had no meat on it. you could practiclally see its whole skeleton. it wasen;t even moving. the workers knew too what. isn;t there like anywhere u can conctact so they'll help the lizrd. i would buy him/her but no money and no space. this is horrible what can be done to help it?

[C.m.pyrrhus]

IMO it is not a good idea to buy herps in that shape. For one, your still purchasing the animal from a place that should not get your money. And Two, more than likely your risking other animals in your home as well to the fact it may die in your care. Something I am sure you will see more often in this hobby.

Sad as it may be, it is a fact that places will be like this as long as folks can sell them. Not every place you go to is going to know what to do with herps, I feel this is true for most petshops.
You can contact animal control that I know of, other than that I have no idea, sorry. This is why I do not shop anymore in petshops, other than the ones I know of that do a good job.

[Nicky]

ok thx poor thing there should be some kind of law that pet stroes have to keep there animals in a agood healthy condition and if they get sick they recieve immidate medical attention or something.

[C.m.pyrrhus]

There are many laws that do help, but the fact is there are way to many shops (and the like) to control. Once they get found out, most the time it comes down to a fine, and the shop may remain open as long as they "fix" things. It in the end becomes just a temporary thing until the "peeping eyes" are gone.

There was a shop in Minnesota I checked out that was disgusting to say the least. Rats and mice eating each other. Herps as skinny as a twig. Months would go by without proper feeding, water or even as much as a substrate change in cages. BUT, folks still thought it was cool to go buy something they could keep at home, and then got all their information on husbandry from this fellow. His clients helped him to support this trend. The owner eventually burned his shop down 2 times to collect insurance from the "disasters" and replace his lost funds. Now "another shop" is owned by a friend of his, who actually does worse than he did, but has never been looked into by anyone. And frankly, the law has no means to check every place that is open for business. Sad truth in herpteculture.

[Nicky]

thats disgusting what a f***ed up world

[Kyle Barker]

here there are not too many shops, and most are exactly how you describe (i think anyway). Its grose, and inexusable. I have talked many times to the spca, nothing. They tell me what i need to do, and what exaactly needs to be done, by me and them (it also needs to be reported that day). They still "cant" do anything.

I suggest you look up your provincial gov's web site and do a search for animal cruelty. The BC one says at the top "This is not the official version." so who knows. But according to ours what the pet stores are doing is plain and simple illegal.

[eyespy]

Try getting as many people as you can to file a complaint. One person is often not taken very seriously but when a number of folks all make the same complaint you are more likely to get results.

I like to post notices in college dorms and commons, church halls, community centers, etc. so that other people can add their voices. Make sure your notice contains the phone numbers for animal control and the pet store and that posting notices doesn't violate any local ordinances. Sometimes you need a permit or management's permission before posting.

[Nicky]

ok kool hopefully that petstore will get what they diserve