Not sure why our name was mentioned in this thread, but I will respond anyhow for fun. As for owning monitors - some of them can be amazing pets. You are putting all monitor lizards under a blanket answer when you say that they should not be owned as pets. People outside of the reptile hobby would look at bearded dragons and say the same thing about you if they didn't know any better... Gotta re-think that answer! MOST monitors are actually awesome pets. One of the best pets we ever had was was our 5 foot Argus Monitor. Great pet, great animal, and very friendly. Takes the right owner to deal with larger species, but saying that they should not be owned at all just makes no sense. Now - you are correct that many monitors are wild caught. Not many breed monitors on a large scale. Unlike Beardeds, monitors are easily imported, and not easily reproduced. The hobby is improving on them every year, and we see more and more CB species, especially compared to years ago when only the high end ones were bred. Hopefully that trend will continue. We buy and sell CB whenever possible (i.e. argus monitors, tristus, ackies and many other species).
Feeding them? Not sure how this topic went from someone in a store talking about feeding lizards to their monitor (yes, that makes no sense, and is ignorant of someone to do, not to mention inhumane), but went from that to talking about feeding them rodents and other stuff. Sure, they will eat rodents (and canned high quality dog food is ok to mix in as well, and yes, they will eat it.) But one of the best diets for a monitor lizard is what we recommend, and what we do as well. Ground turkey & egg mixed with vitamins. San Diego Zoo came up with this diet, and it is great for most monitor lizards. Now - just like snake owners, there will be those who want to feed rodents to their pets. Just the nature of the beast. Again though - not sure how you can justify wanting to own a Bearded Dragon, but not allowing others to own monitor lizards? What if the cricket keepers of america were up in arms over you feeding live crickets to your pet? (that is a joke...).
What I am getting at is every reptile keeper should be respected until they do something that earns them otherwise (again, see the guy feeding lizards to his monitor). You will always see ignorant people like you met in the pet store that just creates a bad name for the hobby, but for the most part, people research their pets, and realize what they are getting in to before they make their purchase.
As for our animals - since you took a slight shot at our animals (I do appreciate your business, so don't take this personally back), myself, the owner, and our large staff all absolutely love the animals. That is the reason we do this. We go way, way out of our way to find the best possible breeders and dealers, and our cages are kept extremely clean, with the proper set ups, proper bedding, purified water (yes, delivered weekly), very specific diets for all of our animals, and one of the best guarantees in the business when you have something shipped to you sight unseen. But, that is the cool thing about us - you can come in our stores and see for yourself. We NEVER drop-ship animals. They all are in our stores. If you make a judgement over something someone told you, or the "I have heard", it doesn't make sense. If you have a personal negative experience, then you absolutely have the right to speak your mind. No - we will never make everyone happy, but I just wanted to stress that just like you guys - we got into this because we all
love reptiles here. I say this, as I think it gets overlooked sometimes at other businesses. That is why we buy from individual breeders (some of which are on this site), all the way up to the biggest name breeders in the US. We do our best to support the entire hobby (and answer questions on boards like this!)
Any questions ever specifically for us, feel free to call anytime or email us. I don't always catch all the threads on this board, but I do what I can.
Scott
LLLReptile & Supply