Are you kidding me?!?! (Rant Warning)

[wolfy-hound]

First, "going off" on a employee or "raising some cain" is not a way to be seen as a reasonable reptile keeper who is concerned with the animals. It's the way to be seen a PETA whacko that thinks anything is extreme abuse and will go off at anything.

First, you should bring concerns to the attention of the employee in a reasonable adult manner, addressing illnesses or extreme husbandry, taking into account the manner a STORE has to display animals for sale.

So address the symptoms of severe illness on the baby BP. Point out the symptoms, explain what they mean and that the RI will spread to infect all the other snakes. Offer to take the snake to their in store clinic with the employee right then. "Hey, let's walk it over to your vet... he can look at it!"

Address keeping two species in a single tank, and keeping extreme size differences(if there are any) in the same cage. DO realize that yes, a store WILL keep more than one baby BP in a tank, that's going to happen. They can't have a single tank per animal in every case and keeping a few BPs in a single tank until they sell isn't neccasarily a huge thing.

If the employee blows you off, then ask to speak to a manager and address THEM reasonably. If they blow you off, then ask for the store owner's information, since they should know the health concerns will result in the animals dying, possibly after being sold, which will lead to not only lost income but a bad name for the business too.

If you present concerns in a well thought out manner sounding like a reasonable adult, in a way to shows the store that it hurts THEM as well as the animals... you would probably get a positive result. Ranting at some employee and shouting in a store makes you look like a nutcase, doesn't help the animals and can even result in the employees deiberately NOT changing how they do things "just because some weirdo screamed about it in the store".

Do you want conditions improved for all the reptiles? Or do you want some public placating and things to not really change? Sure, yelling and pitching a fit feels good but it's only going to alienate the people who have hands-on those animals every day. Wouldn't you rather have people who have proper knowledge of how to care for and treat the animals rather than some people who grudgingly do the least amount possible because they're angry over being treated like idiots?

Sometimes it's better to take a deep breath and behave more like a responsible adult than to pitch fits and threaten to call in the media or authorities. As you've found out, the authorities have better things to do than go check on reptiles in a store that have water and shelter, and the media prefer fluffy kitties to 'poor neglected snakes'. A media threat might make them clean the cages up for the cameras. Educating them as to why proper care results in better profits and healthier stock benefits the ANIMALS.

Just saying. Just my opinion. I try to think of the critters first, no matter HOW angry the neglect might make me.