You know Ill agree with you on the vet thing. Youre absolutely right. I cant really say I blame the employees themselves because they werent taught any better. But I can blame the people that oversee training and decide what is and isnt taught. We should not be selling reptiles if people arent being taught how to properly care for them.

In their defense(as little defense as there is) They hired me specificly because they were aware that I knew a good bit about snakes(ball pythons inparticular) and they were aware they didnt have anyone with a sufficient level of experience. Experience that they themselves did not have. In corporations its really hard to make changes like that quickly, and if someone higher up doesnt care enough it will not happen at all. In the areas of birds fish and small mammals I found them to be very knowledgable. But these things are all very straightforward as far as pet care goes. Snakes and lizards are a bit harder. And a good amount of people didnt know any better no mater how much they cared whether the animal lived or died.

The fact that they 100% supported me when I asked to step up and try to feed the snake that just "wouldnt eat" and that they were all very happy when he did says to me that they care enough to learn and make the appropriate changes. They just lacked the opportunity until now. After all, with the majority of people in the reptile community having such a stimga against pet stores, naturally none of them would apply to such a place, and their cycle of ignorance naturally continues. With any luck I'll be able to talk to the district manager about communicating the necessary information for ball pythons to thrive in the stores environment, and the reptile area will lose some of its bad rap because it will finally be providing people with quality animals, and spot on information.

After all. Quality animals = more animals sold = more customers coming for quality animals = more money.

But change takes time. So taking it step by step, im going to read up on the rest of the reptiles in the area, do my best to keep them as healthy as I can, spread the knowledge, and eventually change will come.