Awful Day

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

That's just horrible.

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!

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.

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:

Good idea.

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Well Godfather the petland down here sucks on everything includeing feeders. It was very hard for me to keep my cool in there!!!! But I did for the sake that I really didn't want to go to jail tonight. It sickens me to think that all those poor ball pythons are trapped in there with nothing to hide under piles of poop everywhere, and the tank was so over crowded. I would love to rescue the whole bunch but space and feeders is a problem. I will definatly be taking some kinda action soon. Not to sure on how good it will do. But who knows I might just get some media attention and start raiseing the awareness of how poorly these creatures are kept. The really funny part about the whole adventure today was the girl told me that they were hireing. And I should turn in my resume and put my vast knowledge of reptile down. She said that there was a good chance of them hiring me on. I could not deal with all that pain and suffering all day long. Thanks for all the feedback guys and gals.

Bring a digi cam, snap pics of the housing and ticks. Report how they lied to you and said they were captive bred. I'm sure they'll get in trouble.

Well I can't say for sure if they are or are not wild caught but I have never and I mean never seen a captive bred snake with ticks. And quite a few of them are pretty jump. But that could be due to lack of handleing and starvation. Because they are feeding them frozen pinky mice. That so rediculus, Correct me if I am wrong but don't they come out of the egg eatting hopper or weenlings???

demonic_rage, i think you should call somewhere and report them. it is not that hard to care for BPs and if they cant care for them properly then they shouldnt carry them. do us a favor, and mainly do the snakes a favor, and report them. how can you take such poor care of an animal? its just sick.

poor babies!!! atleast that one had felt a little care.....good luck!!

hmmm, about 98% of petstores are like this to their herps. If not ball pythons, they have crypto infected leos that are dying up for sale or red foot torts with eye infections. It's just a common thing to see herps being mistreated at pet stores now in days.

If nobody says or does anything about it, it WILL continue.

Light a fire under their a$$.

I definately would never buy anything more from them.
There's a really smarmy pet store in my area, and I don't even go in there anymore. It's actually the store that my rescue case BP, Striker, was bought at by his original owner. Conditions like you said. I walked in there and saw three full grown adult bps in a 20-g long tank!? And dead fish in many aquariums, also.
These places exist because ignorant people spend their money at them. I definately know that I am not one of those ignorant people anymore. Captive bred, my ass! I can only hope that the owners and workers who let animals live like that, are reincarnated into animals in the future and treated the same.
On a side note, you could file a complaint with your local Better Business Bureau. I did that, and the stupid pet store never replied to the complaint. But if anyone looks into that business' record with the BBB, my complaint will be on record there for, I think, 5 years.

Well guys good news from the front! :D I took your advise and spoke with the humane socity that eveing. They took the snakes without warning. Handed out a few fines and that about it. So caulk one up for the herps side. I have been working with them to try and find them better homes. But at the moment they are healthy happy and warm. Several of them died the same day I was in the store. Which bring us down to a total of 10 animals still alive. Several of the heathly animals have been adopted. But won't leave the shelter for a few more days. They are visting the vet today. As for me rescueing any of them I not going to. But There is a big 3 foot female up at the humane socity by my parents that has been through a rough life. But she is being taken care of at this point. I have been thinking of adopting her. If I do I will be sure and let you know. Thanks for all your help and support guys and gals. If it weren't for you guys don't think I would have call them. But you guys gave me the confidence that I needed.

Woohoo! I'm so glad you called and gave those last 10 a good fighting chance. I am sure without your intervention they would all have died soon. I hope the pet store will learn a lesson from this, and I hope you will stop in occasionally to check on the conditions of their reptiles.

I do belive that they will be periodicly checking in on them. But I think that as a pet store they aren't talking about keeping rptile there for awhile.

If they stop carrying reptiles, even better. Then they can't abuse or neglect them. And it's good to hear that animal control should be monitoring them. You may have prevented more reptile deaths and illnesses than we can know.

Yeah it makes me feel really good to know that. I would have liked to seen the woman that was suposed to be takeing care of the reptiles taken to jail for animal cruelty but at least she can't be cruel to them any more.

Agreed. If we can't get what we want, hopefully we can at least get what's important.

You are the man Rage!
That was a very nice thing you did, Im sure all of us will be keping our eyes open when vivsiting local shops, and will follow your example if something looks realy bad. Way to go! :P

That is AWEsome news! And a lesson for all of us to not assume that our local animal-cruelty organizations only care and take actions for the warm, fuzzy types. When we see cruelty and neglect on that level, we need to take action like you did...it's the only way any of it stands a chance of changing!

I couldn't agree more JLC. I just started reading this thread today and it made me sick. They were like that because people working there are afraid of snakes? MY GOD, you work in a pet store!!!!!!! youve gotta be kidding me!! AGHHHHH I just feel like screaming right now. But thank god demonic was able to save what he could of these poor things. Did you say it was petland? There is already a boycott for this organization out because of the puppies they order from puppy farms. And now this? I think its time to put petland under. Maybe we should start a petition....

Yeah the International Petland. Can't stand that place. Thanks agian guys for all your words of wisdom. And you apprication for what I have done. Being a part of the herp community in my mind is being apart of every reptiles life you come in contact with. No matter how some. I have been doing some research into becomeing a herp vet. And starting to make some changes around here in ohio. I have also been think of starting a herp club down here where beginers and advanced keepers can share knowledge on there reptile because there are some many reptile keepers around here its time to get them in the action.

well...did you say that the humane society took them all? Because I called them and they still have ball pythons and corn snakes for sale. Which kinda makes me a little angry that they would still be selling them

Yeah the Humane society took them all the ball pythons that were there. None of the corns though. I haven't been into town today so I shall be makeing a trip to investigate this. Thanks for the update.