Poorly snake

[da_gleadless]

Hi All,

I went into a local petshop to see if they had frozen food for sale, I usually use crystal palace reptiles but its quite far away (but quality so I dont mind).

On entering I saw a variety of pets and a few reptiles, but noticed a very poorly baby BP. It had loads of retained shed and very erratic breathing along with the look of a very poorly snake.

I want to help the snake but I cant go around buying every uncared for animal I see, though I want to help.

I cant stop thinking about this poor lil snake and would like some advice on who to approach?

RSPCA maybe?

Cheers

[JLC]

If it was just one sickly looking snake among otherwise healthy looking animals, there probably isn't much you can do. Every pet shop will have some sickly animals from time to time. It's just poor business practice to put those out where customers can see them. They usually stay in the back until they are healthy enough to sell. I'm not suggesting that most pet stores actually go to much time and effort to rehab their sick animals...just that they don't always put them on display. So one sickly animal among all the healthy ones isn't necessarily a sign of a shop that needs to be reported to the SPCA or RSPCA.

I also wouldn't consider buying such a snake. Buying it only puts profit in the pet-stores coffers and rewards them for keeping/selling sick animals. If customers continue buying the sickly ones (even with good intentions of "rescuing" the animal) then the store thinks it's OK to continue selling them.

What I WOULD do...is offer to take the sickly animal off their hands at no cost. (THAT is a true rescue) If they don't take you up on that (and most won't)...then make some suggestions about moving the snake into the back room where it can get some peace and quiet...as well as offer some ideas for rehabbing it. Again, it's unlikely that they'll take your suggestions, but it never hurts to try.

[frankykeno]

Before you go that route I'd simply suggest speaking directly with the store manager to get a read on whether he/she is truly interested in being a responsible person. Depending on the store size sometimes the management cannot check every snake and depends on employees to do their jobs so start out first seeing if the manager is aware of the situation and is willing to address it quickly. Once you have that conversation you can then decide how to proceed. Remember as well, if this is a chain store, you should always report poor practises (especially if you point them out and they are not addressed) to their corporate head office. You may not get a great response from corporate but you then have a paper trail to show to the humane law enforcement folks.

We had a pet store here that wasn't doing a good job last year and it was getting worse. My husand and I raised issues with the store manager. I'm sure other customers did as well. We were polite but very firm about what we expected them to do for the snakes that were obviously ill. They seem to have done a complete turnaround and are now one of the best stores in town with lovely clean enclosures and healthy stock. The trick is to talk in a professional manner, not emotionally, but with firm purpose.

[dr del]

Hi,

I agree the store manager is probably your first point of call - explain to them how quickly and easily they could take care of the stuck sheds with a good soak and washcloth session. If he can't spare the the half hour that would take then he really does need to re-think his career choices.

The breathing could simply be from it noticing you looking at it - but it does indicate stress levels.

Being polite and helpfull can make all the difference in how the staff respond to this obviously but they deserve the chance to make it right.

Sad to say it can be tricky getting the rspca to see the issues we do as not all of them have had the right training or experience. They are much better at spotting problems with mammals than they are with anything else ( generally - there are good exotic inspectors I'm sure ).

Hope you manage to get them to help the little guy.


dr del