Quote Originally Posted by bcr229 View Post
Is it wrong of me to feel ill because some breeder wholesaled a pied (or more likely a group of pieds) at around $100 each to PetSmart knowing full well that they'd end up in awful conditions, when there are a ton of private buyers or even mom-and-pop shops who would happily pay double that for a healthy baby, and who would keep it correctly?

And yes I understand the whole retail/wholesale business model, heck I participate in it as a gun dealer, and I've sold some of my babies to a local exotic store, BUT I see how their snakes are kept with correct heat and humidity in proper reptile enclosures, and every single one is healthy, mite-free, etc. Their prices aren't any higher than PetSmart's either.
Not at all, I feel the same way. Seeing a magnificent animal like that in such miserable conditions absolutely struck a nerve. How could they say that nothing is wrong? And furthermore, it almost doesn't even matter because of his pricetag. I can guarantee you that if this were a normal ball that I had asked to adopt, they would have granted without much fuss. But because it's a 500$ pied, the whole game changes.