Awful Day

[Demonic_Rage]

Well today after work I need to replace my beardies light. (Dropped it on the floor)Anyway Hannah and I went into Petland :x. Well they didn't have my light so I was looking at the reptiles. Well they had ball pythons for $70. I asked they woman if I could go in the back and look through them. She said sure and took us in the back. There were about 20 of them in a 10 gallon. there conditions were bad to worse and cruel. Some had bad shed others had mouth rot, a few with respitory infections. Then I got to this six month old that looked like it had just fallen from the sky. His entire body was covered in shed includeing eye caps. He was seriously under fed and dehydrated. His body was in the triangle shape. That how bad it was. Well I got him out and looked him up and down. Meanwhile the girl was talking about how all of them were captive born and breed. Well I asked the girl for a pair of tweezers because the little guy I had ahold of had several ticks on him. I removed the ticks and gave hima lukewarm bath to help with the shed. I worked off a good bit of the shed. And started to notice what a beutiful animal he was. Well to end this on an even worse note the little fella died in my hands just before I left. I felt so bad and very hateful towards the people in there. The girl said that everyone in there are pretty much afraid of snakes and spiders except one woman and she doesn't know squat. Sorry for such a long winded post guys and gals but I need to vent off some anger.

[Marla]

That's terrible! Those conditions are bad enough that I'd think it well worth your while to report them to the local animal cruelty authorities. There is no excuse for them to be treated that way. I hope you have options to take your business elsewhere.

[JLC]

Wow.....that really stinks, man. I'm sorry you had to go through all of that. Those mega-chain petstores are almost always awful. For reasons that are beyond my comprehension, upper management has absolutely no concern whatsoever about who works in their stores and what kinds of skills and experience they might have for animals. Once my youngest kid is in school, so that I can have some free time during the day...I have seriously considered going to whatever such stores are in the area we're living in at the time (we move a lot) and just offering my time to take care of their reptiles, for as little as they want to pay to make it official for liabilities sake. Don't wanna stock dogfood or work the registers....just keep the animals healthy and as reasonably happy as possible...AND, try to ensure they're sold to people likely to properly care for them.

It's infuriating that they will sell snakes (and other critters) when not a soul in the store knows how to care for them!

[Demonic_Rage]

Oh I won't ever buy anything there again as long as there are open here in chilly. I do have other options. There is a place called World Pets down here. More on my wavelength. The guy that owns the place is cool, He hand feed all his reptiles(Seen it with my own eyes.) Knows what hes talking about when it comes to reptile in fact besides fish thats all he has in his store. Cheapest place to buy crickets too. He has a website its www.worldpetstore.com maybe you guys should check it out decent prices too. As far as animal cruelty if it don't concern a dog or a cat they really don't care down here. Not to many people realize that reptile are pets to and need laws to protect them. I might got talk to the guy at world pets and see if he can help me find some people that can help push the issue. Hes got some friends in high places if you know what I mean.

[Marla]

I would definitely say it's worth your while to at least talk to that guy and see if he can get anything done or tell you who in particular to call. If you can save any of the rest of the ball pythons from abuse, neglect, and death, then it's absolutely worth your time.

[gen]

I don't know if that makes me feel more sad or angry. Both! :evil:

That's just horrible.

[Smynx]

That is horrible! You should absolutely report them to your local authorities. If pet stores don't know how to care for certain animals, they should not stock them!

[The_Godfather]

From my experience Pet Land sucks for anything but feeders, they do have top notch feeders here.

Planning on rescuing any? Just tell them to cut you a deal because medical expenses, ect, to get them healthy will be significant. I think they'll understand, they'll probly die anyway.

[beaglegod]

Horrible housing, emaciated animals, stuck shed all over bodies, lack of knowledgable personel, Id say a report to a humane scociety like Marla said would be a good idea. Thats a real shame, I just cannot understand how people can be willing to buy/keep/sell animals they dont know about, and whats worse dont realy give a damn about learning about them either. I woulda went off in their. :cry: :x :evil:

[The_Godfather]

Good idea.