Pity pickups?

[Marrissa]

Ok so I'm new to BPs and all so I thought I'd ask. Now I was very much into bettas and had planned on breeding show quality ones (that breeding dream has now been replaced with BP breeding goals). Well oftentimes people (myself included) would see sad looking bettas at petstores on their last leg due to the store not treating them properly. Now it was generally advised that in order to fight the system where this is possible, you should not buy them, because you're giving that store their money to do it to more animals. I've seen threads on here about Petco/Petsmart pickups that were bought just because they were in bad shape. To me that seems like it's rewarding the store with a profit for their bad husbandry and lack of caring/knowledge. On the other hand if you don't buy the snake, it suffers. Seems like a catch 22. So how do you guys feel about these pity pickups from chain stores? I can totally understand taking in a snake from someone who is caring for it, or paying a super cheap price to take if off their hands.

[Capray]

Good topic!
I don't know what to think of it. I can hardly follow the rules..have been eyeballin a baby king snake at a pet store for a while. I've also had Petco bettas.
I'll have to think about it more, I guess they just have to change the whole scene of pet stores. More responsible care for their animals is crucial.

[meowmeowkazoo]

Well, the moment you buy that suffering ball python, they replace it. As much as it sucks, it's best not to encourage them to import more baby balls.

[threezero]

i think its unfair to categories all pet store as being uninform and overpriced. There are certainly alot of pet store that specialize in exotic pets and reptiles. A few like underground reptile and LLLreptile comes to mind. sadly we don't have any of that locally, just the plain chain pet store like petsmart and pet cetera

[BrandiR]

Prep your mad fingers!!

I've never been in Petco or Petsmart (the only two chain stores I know of around here) and seen an adult ball python, or adult anything else for that matter. They all look like crap, yes, but they're always babies. I'm by no means a ball python expert, but I've read a ton of stories on here about people who've rescued snakes of all breeds, sizes, and ages that have been in less-than-ideal all the way up to damn-near-dead condition and a lot of these snakes have been turned around, some in pretty short periods of time, after a little proper care.

My point is that even though pet store animals aren't usually in perfect condition, they aren't usually beyond help either. Does Petco off them when they get to a certain age? Send them back to where they came from? Or are they kept until they're sold? If they don't "dispose" of them at any point prior to a sale, then the snakes will be fine. If you don't buy it, someone else will. Will it be someone who's going to take excellent care of it? Maybe, maybe not. But that really goes for any pet regardless of where it comes from.

From what I've read, they're resilient little things and can last for quite awhile without proper care, and can fairly easily bounce back once mistakes have been corrected. I'd guess that most of the pets that are purchased from stores like these get to a new home, with people who give the animal proper and personalized attention, and they do just fine. It's sad that they live the way they do while they're waiting, but that "home" really is just temporary.

You can make yourself crazy worrying about things like this, best case scenario. Worst case, you end up on Hoarders

[Greekinese]

Better not to encourage bad practice. It's better to buy online from breeders and support those guys.

Also, the chain stores over charge hehe

[meowmeowkazoo]

i think its unfair to categories all pet store as being uninform and overpriced. There are certainly alot of pet store that specialize in exotic pets and reptiles. A few like underground reptile and LLLreptile comes to mind. sadly we don't have any of that locally, just the plain chain pet store like petsmart and pet cetera

LLL and Underground may not be uniform/overpriced but they're not exactly the best examples of healthy animals either...

[anwhit]

Prep your mad fingers!!

I've never been in Petco or Petsmart (the only two chain stores I know of around here) and seen an adult ball python, or adult anything else for that matter. They all look like crap, yes, but they're always babies. I'm by no means a ball python expert, but I've read a ton of stories on here about people who've rescued snakes of all breeds, sizes, and ages that have been in less-than-ideal all the way up to damn-near-dead condition and a lot of these snakes have been turned around, some in pretty short periods of time, after a little proper care.

My point is that even though pet store animals aren't usually in perfect condition, they aren't usually beyond help either. Does Petco off them when they get to a certain age? Send them back to where they came from? Or are they kept until they're sold? If they don't "dispose" of them at any point prior to a sale, then the snakes will be fine. If you don't buy it, someone else will. Will it be someone who's going to take excellent care of it? Maybe, maybe not. But that really goes for any pet regardless of where it comes from.

From what I've read, they're resilient little things and can last for quite awhile without proper care, and can fairly easily bounce back once mistakes have been corrected. I'd guess that most of the pets that are purchased from stores like these get to a new home, with people who give the animal proper and personalized attention, and they do just fine. It's sad that they live the way they do while they're waiting, but that "home" really is just temporary.

You can make yourself crazy worrying about things like this, best case scenario. Worst case, you end up on Hoarders

I can actually provide a little input here because when I was looking around I got very close to the employees at my local petco.

Let me first start off by saying that every store is different, and this is because this responsibility falls into the hands of the hiring manager. You can either hire a reptile specialist and pay them more, or get a high school student and pay them minimum wage. (Of course, I feel as though petco needs to have this required of their animal care associates just like they do their fish experts, but well, that's another argument).

Luckily, the petco near me does thing right. I have met two out of the three people they hired to take care of their reptiles and both of them have experience. (One was an ex-breeder).

Now, I'm not sure if this is how every petco works, but this is what they told me. Once a reptile grows too big for it's enclosure in the store, they put it up for adoption at half price, (sometimes 75% off), at one of their adoption days. (At mine, they have a separate adoption day for small critters.) What they do if they don't get adopted, I don't know, but that is what I do know.

That being said, I don't think refusing to buy live animals from chain stores is a solution to the problem, I just don't see it that way. But that's my view and I definitely see why people would refuse. (There are so many horror stories all over the internet.)

I'm just glad that I live near a store that's responsible.

[BrandiR]

I can actually provide a little input here because when I was looking around I got very close to the employees at my local petco.

Let me first start off by saying that every store is different, and this is because this responsibility falls into the hands of the hiring manager. You can either hire a reptile specialist and pay them more, or get a high school student and pay them minimum wage. (Of course, I feel as though petco needs to have this required of their animal care associates just like they do their fish experts, but well, that's another argument).

Luckily, the petco near me does thing right. I have met two out of the three people they hired to take care of their reptiles and both of them have experience. (One was an ex-breeder).

Now, I'm not sure if this is how every petco works, but this is what they told me. Once a reptile grows too big for it's enclosure in the store, they put it up for adoption at half price, (sometimes 75% off), at one of their adoption days. (At mine, they have a separate adoption day for small critters.) What they do if they don't get adopted, I don't know, but that is what I do know.

That being said, I don't think refusing to buy live animals from chain stores is a solution to the problem, I just don't see it that way. But that's my view and I definitely see why people would refuse. (There are so many horror stories all over the internet.)

I'm just glad that I live near a store that's responsible.

Thanks for the inside scoop! That's something I've been curious about because I go in there one week and there are 6 snakes in a tank, and a week later there is only one, or none. I've wondered if they really sell that many snakes, or if they're in the back, or....where the hell they went!

[threezero]

LLL and Underground may not be uniform/overpriced but they're not exactly the best examples of healthy animals either...

really? i have never been to their store i'm just going off their youtube channel. From what i can see LLL's video show pretty good care of their animal considering the amount of animal they deal with. Underground reptiles too, i don't really like the jackass style of video making but it seems like their venomous section is well taken care and the outdoor enclosure for the tegu and iguana is alot more than what most people could provide.

How about prehistoric pet? they seems to be pretty big in the retic game and i love watching them work with them big girls.