• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

I need advice. Pet store snakes in terrible condition.

D

Denizen

New member
Last week while we were looking for our new corn snake we checked out each of the pet stores in town. Only two of them had corn snakes.

We went to a local pet shop first. We've been there many times, but not since I started studying husbandry for snakes. The man who owns it claims to be an experienced and trained herper. He says he's worked with hots, bred corns quite a bit, and decided to start breeding big snakes a couple years ago.

He had two corns that we looked at (a snow and rev okeetee, each a year old), but they were cohabitating in a 20 tall with no hide. I didn't like that, so we kept looking elsewhere and found a great snake to bring home.

MY POINT: We went back a few days later, and I started looking very closely at the snakes/vivs. The two corns were not only in a tiny tank with no hide, but they were OUT of water. The bowl was bone dry. I filled it, and the snow drank for over a minute straight. When I was scooting the tank out to fill the water, I noticed NO heating pad. I started checking on the other snakes. There was a Green Tree Python in a cage about 2 ft square, and no water or even a light to warm by (burned out). I asked to handle the Ball Python to examine it, and it had mild skin folds and a filthy viv. There were also two full grown Iquanas living together in a viv that was about 2' x 3' and the water was filthy. There were 5 sand boas in a 20 tall with shed skin and dirty substrate that my wife saw there two weeks prior (again no heat). The saddest of all was a large and very beautiful Albino Burmese Python with mites and absolutely terrible skin folds [not to mention yet another tiny filthy tank (3'x3') and water bowl].

I hope to hear some good advice. Is there someone I can call? Animal control? Fish & Game? If there isn't anybody else that can do anything, then should I confront him? I don't think the "experienced herper" will react well to having a new one ripped by some newbie, but that's exactly what I want to do.

On a side note, I want to say something in defense of Petco. I'm the last guy that would usually defend a corporation over the little guy. I can hate Walmart with the best of them. However, we had a great experience there. Yes, the hatchlings were cohabbing (as were two BP's and 3 RTB's), but the cages were clean, and the staff was honest about feeding. They were quick to tell us which ones were good feeders. We picked out a great little normal, and even went back to pick up a really great find - a Vanishing Stripe Anery. So, maybe not al Petco stores are so bad :shrugs:

Thanks for any advice you can give. I'm very worried about the welfare of these animals.
 
I forgot, there was also a little white kitten covered in dirt and fleas. It was also WAY to young to be away from its' mother. My wife also just informed me there was a milk snake in yet another filthy tank with no hide, no heat, and saturated paper towels as substrate.

Ugh, I want to throttle this guy :uzi:
 
Always so sad to hear about these things. Obviously I can't give you any advice on who possibly to call as I'm from Belgium... But I agree it's not always the corporation in a whole that's bad. The care given in a particular shop is just as good as the shop keeper there. Sometimes very good, sometimes very bad...
Does anybody know how Petco as a corporation thinks about these things? Of course they're in the business of making money, but a shop like this isn't a good advertisment for them right? Like I said, I don't know about official places to place a complaint, but would a complaint to Petco itself (not the shop but the general office or how do you call that?) maybe help a bit? If you tell them (besides of course that animals *should* be decently cared for) that custumers wouldn't be buying animals that look unhealthy and live in dirty enclosures, maybe that could work? After all, that would get them where it hurts most...in their wallet :)
 
My wife and I found a pet store, somewhat local to us, that had their animals in deplorable conditions. The poor girl behind the counter, who probably worked there, while still in high school, got the full brunt of my "anger." Which in hind site, was the wrong thing to do.

But anyway, I am going to try to make this loooooong story short. We wound up calling the local police dept/animal control officer. I had to do this repeatedly, before they finally acted. I know, that was "nice?!?!" When she would visit, probably because of the stink I made, the conditions weren't great, but acceptable. We also called the licensing bureau, animal rescue league, Chamber of commerce and anyone else that would listen. Most of this fell on deaf ears.

We finally got action on this by calling a few of the local News Papers and Television Stations. Most of them blew us off too, but one finally sent a reporter. He went in, notebook open with his camera. Called and interviewed me and wrote up a small, but nice little article about the "lovely:flames:" pet store.

Well, when it was all said in done, that store lost it's permit to sell live animals. Granted, there are a lot more details I skipped on, but I can't type that good at the moment.

So I would start by calling your local animal control officer/animal shelter. Keep on these people if they seem reluctant to act! Call the licensing bureau that issues permits to sell live animals. Call you chamber of commerce. If all else fails, Call the media! That usually gets their attention! But, do it last!

OH and BTW, I have a couple of PetCo snakes. They are the big "WalMart" of pet stores, but you are right. Most of them are honest and clean, ignorant too, but that's OK! Better then some of the Mom and Pop stores I go into!

Wayne
 
Wayne has given the best advice. My advice is a different issue. Sinc the Burm had mites, I hope you didn't get any where close to your animals until after you changed clothes and immediately washe dthe ones you were wearing. Those little buggers (mites) will hitch a ride on your clothes and get into your collection faster than you can imagine from what I hear. Luckily I have never had them, knock on wood.

I rarely handle reptiles from pet stores even though I often look in on them just to see what stores are offering.

Good luck with your situation and hope you get some good results and NO MITES!

dc
 
Thanks for your advice, everybody. I will weigh my options and see what can be done. I'll update with any changes/progress.
 
In most states it is animal control. You want to discover who issues pet store licenses for you state. Here in California pet stores get regular visits by animal control and can be easily shut down and fined for poor conditions. I do know that some states are a bit more stringent when it comes to creating laws and policing this industry. Your states web site should be able to help you do a little research, hopefully.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top