Sickening

I stopped by a local pet store to pick up a few things for my BP yesterday. I thought I'd stop by the reptile section and see what they had for sale. What I found was appalling and heartbreaking. There were quite a few what appeared to be healthy balls there, but there was one that I don't even know is rescuable. Pictures are in the link below. The skin was practically falling off it was so malnourished, and there was a large bulge about half way down its body. I didn't even know what to say to the staff so I didn't. I unfortunately don't have room for a rescue. What should I do?

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/GzfWQ6VRoN2uJAMd9

If you do not like the way they treat animals in the petstore you go to you can

Address your concern and talk to an employee, if nothing is done do the same with the manager or owner.

And no longer support them by giving them business.

You do not rescue an animal from a petstore you buy it, and once you do another one will take it's place, so if you thing there is an issue than don't contribute to the problem by taking the animal of their hands.

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I'm honestly not surprised at all that a pet store would have an animal like that. What I am surprised about is that they would have an animal like that in an area that the public could see.

Deb already outlined your options so I won't repeat it.

I agree. When you rescue a sick animal from a place like that all you do is pay for taking responsibility of a sick animal and make room for another to take it's place. I'd much rather put the time, energy and funds into keeping my own animals happy and healthy. You can do more for those animals by reporting the pet shop to the Better Business Bureau.

https://www.bbb.org/

Good points all and I'll look into reporting them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cletus

I agree. When you rescue a sick animal from a place like that all you do is pay for taking responsibility of a sick animal and make room for another to take it's place. I'd much rather put the time, energy and funds into keeping my own animals happy and healthy. You can do more for those animals by reporting the pet shop to the Better Business Bureau.

https://www.bbb.org/

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by pressiniron

Good points all and I'll look into reporting them.

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Did you talk to them first or you just don't care about talking to them, sometime it's all it takes and that option is generally a much better first step especially if they actually address the issue.

This is the reason why I've mostly stopped looking in the reptile section of pet stores... It usually just makes me sad :( I agree that sometimes all it takes is mentioning the situation to the manager to get things changed, but I've done this several times at multiple different pet stores and I've basically gotten different variations of the same responses-- "We have a reptile specialist that sets up the animals, but I'll voice your concerns to him." or "We go off of what the vet says, but I'll take a look, thank you for your concern."

So they basically admit ignorance and blame the "reptile specialist" or "vet" (who is never there for me to speak to at the time) when all it takes to improve the situation is reading a quick online care sheet and making the necessary adjustments. Reptiles just aren't worth the effort or money to keep healthy, not to them at least.

You can also report to your county's animal control unit. They DO investigate alleged abuse and neglect in petstores. They even consult with exotic specialists when dealing with animals that they are not familiar with. Plus they have a lot more clout for meaningful changes to be met...

More the reason to not support box stores for live animals.

The box stores have nice fish. That's about it.


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