I am so enraged....

[Ginevive]

I saw on the news last night, that a pet store in the area has been raided (the owner said it was a disgruntled employee.) Well, turns out the store looked fine on the ground floor where people shopped, but according to the news, upstairs was clogged with reptiles, and other pets, that were in horrible shape (to them, anyways; I never trust the media without researching.) So.. my boyfriend called the SPCA of Erie County, who siezed the animals, and.. they told him that they intend to give some of the reptiles to a local rescue group, and euthanize the rest... I am so boiling mad about this right now that I can hardly type; I will give the link to the spca so you can see what I am talking about... can anything be done? I would LOVE to adopt some of those snakes; I am not just out to get the morphs they had and make a quick buck.. then again, the SPCA said that they need to wait a few weeks or even months before they7 do ANYthing w/ the herps.. my boyfriend asked them if it even counted feeding and they said yes...

Link.. http://www.spcaec.com/site/News2?pag...rticle&id=5797

[cassandra]

Jeez...that just makes ya sick doesn't it, all those animals couped up and improperly cared for.

Is there any local herp societies maybe that could join forces with the Buffalo Zoo and SPCA to help rehome some of the animals, even those that need medical care? I would start with groups like that, power in numbers who want to help the authorities with the problem.

[Ginevive]

When he called the SPCA, they said they were giving many of them to a "local rescue" and euthanizing the illegals (for that state, it means the rattlers and the retic.. I want to cry thinking about this...) He didn't get the name, and the SPCA is closed now; I plan on calling tmrw. morning and finding. Ther eare a few rescues/one herp society I know of.

[frankykeno]

Gin, any idea who owned this pet store. This guy must have been moving these poor creatures via the internet and it would be interesting to know what name he worked under. How terribly sad for those poor creatures to live in that kind of environment.

[Ginevive]

I saw the owner on the news; he was claiming that he was innocent and it was a disgruntled former employee who turned him in. I looked over to the TV too late to get his name; I bet that they'll have it on tonight though.
I wonder if there's a connection between these people and Top Shelf Exotics...? Kinda odd that this many pet-related fiascos are going on in the western NY area..?

[JLC]

... he was claiming that he was innocent and it was a disgruntled former employee who turned him in.

Who gives a flying flip who or why someone turned him in? If he got caught keeping animals under those conditions...then he's guilty! Sheesh. Does he even realize how dumb that sounds?

[xdeus]

I saw the owner on the news; he was claiming that he was innocent and it was a disgruntled former employee who turned him in.

Yeah, I think I'd be a little disgruntled if I saw those conditions as well.

Sad...

[Ginevive]

I called the local herp society and left a msg. Hopefully they call back; if they have any info.

[Adam_Wysocki]

Word over on Fauna is that it's some outfit called "The Kick Brothers" or something like that that was renting out the spaces up stairs???



Gin, local animal control units won't just give animals to "anyone" to foster ... you have to get on their list ... typically they actually pay you to hold the confiscated animals until there is a trial to determine if the owner gets them back or not ... usually, you can't "pick and choose" what you'll foster, you get what you get ... if the courts decide not to award the animals back to the owner, the person or group fostering the animals has the option to buy them.

At least that's how it works around these parts.

You might want to see about getting on the SPCA's "foster list" so that next time you can take in animals when something like this happens.

-adam

[rabernet]

I was about to say that rumor has it, that it's the Kick Brothers who run the space behind (or above) the store front.