Torridnexus
Member
Not quite sure where to put this, but I just HAD to share. For those of you who didn't see it,
This was the horror story I ran into with my first bearded dragon, Fluffy 1:
http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=135143
When I went down to the pet store this afternoon to pick up some feeders and a new bulb, the man who usually gets me my bugs was talking to me about how a pet store closed down, and they recieved all of their un-sold animals. Curiously, I asked which one closed down, and why.
It was the pet store I bought Fluffy from! And the story as to why they were shut down was shocking! The pet store owner, we'll call him Jay, was in Russia during one point, and he smuggled a highly venomous, illegal-to-own (in the top 3 most poisonus list) russian scorpion (don't recall the name) back into Canada. In his shop he put this item up for sale. Know what else he did? Changed the name to a non-venomous breed and was trying to pass it off as a beginner arachnid.
So, after that ordeal, all of their animals went to my local pet shop. We saw some of the critters that came from the store but most of them were at the store owner/employee's homes, being nursed back to health. Nearly ALL of the snakes had MBD, had not eaten in approx. 4 months, and on top of that these adult, full grown snakes were all being housed together in a 15 gallon tank.
They also recieved a number of geckos, all which had deformed spines from severe MBD, they also got a lot of extremely agressive, stressed out tarantulas that won't stop flicking hairs at the workers, hopefully these aren't illegal species too!
Among the stock there was also a clutch of young bearded dragons, all housed together on sand without a UVB light, they seem to be developing the early signs of MBD and have been fed iceburg lettuce and mealworms all their life.
I feel deeply, deeply saddened that so many of these animals are going to die and won't make it, but I can rest easy knowing that they can't ever open up another shop and hurt animals again.
This was the horror story I ran into with my first bearded dragon, Fluffy 1:
http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=135143
When I went down to the pet store this afternoon to pick up some feeders and a new bulb, the man who usually gets me my bugs was talking to me about how a pet store closed down, and they recieved all of their un-sold animals. Curiously, I asked which one closed down, and why.
It was the pet store I bought Fluffy from! And the story as to why they were shut down was shocking! The pet store owner, we'll call him Jay, was in Russia during one point, and he smuggled a highly venomous, illegal-to-own (in the top 3 most poisonus list) russian scorpion (don't recall the name) back into Canada. In his shop he put this item up for sale. Know what else he did? Changed the name to a non-venomous breed and was trying to pass it off as a beginner arachnid.
So, after that ordeal, all of their animals went to my local pet shop. We saw some of the critters that came from the store but most of them were at the store owner/employee's homes, being nursed back to health. Nearly ALL of the snakes had MBD, had not eaten in approx. 4 months, and on top of that these adult, full grown snakes were all being housed together in a 15 gallon tank.
They also recieved a number of geckos, all which had deformed spines from severe MBD, they also got a lot of extremely agressive, stressed out tarantulas that won't stop flicking hairs at the workers, hopefully these aren't illegal species too!
Among the stock there was also a clutch of young bearded dragons, all housed together on sand without a UVB light, they seem to be developing the early signs of MBD and have been fed iceburg lettuce and mealworms all their life.
I feel deeply, deeply saddened that so many of these animals are going to die and won't make it, but I can rest easy knowing that they can't ever open up another shop and hurt animals again.
