Let's pet?? Let's not....

[ac3j0k3r]

Okay so this local pet store, Let's Pet, is where I have to get crickets when I'm in a bind...and that's what happened today. I'm trying to up my dubia colony so I ran out of the feeder ones and had to do an emergency cricket trip until the new feeders come in and I go in and while they are counting out the crickets I look around. I felt so bad for this little bearded dragon. I wish I could get it but 1) now isn't a great time to add another beardie with the move and all 2) I dont want to give them a reason to get more beardies and 3) I dont have the space at the moment...but I got into a little argument with the manager. The little guy is really small, had a dish full of ICEBURG lettuce (which looked like it had been there for a couple days), had horribly dark stress marks, already missing a foot, and had 2 full grown crickets in there and not even MY beardie is big enough to eat them and this beardie is about 1/2 the size of mine! So I started off nicely..."Is that iceberg in there with the baby beardie?" I asked. "Oh yeah I think so, I just pulled it off my burger the other day"....I had to bite my tongue and my little sister looked at me like "oh boy, here we go"...I said "Oh..You know that's gonna give him a tummy ache and the squirts" and I kinda added a little chuckle to let him know I wasn't TRYING to be rude but still trying to get my point across. "Well whatever. At least it has food in there"...I couldn't bite my tongue any longer. "Okay so when YOU eat would YOU only want to eat something thats going to mess YOUR stomach up?? NO. You HAVE the stuff to feed him properly so why dont you do it? Pure laziness. It's cool though I guess when the animal control people get here to arrest YOU then your story will change huh? Or maybe I should just stick you in a cage and treat you like you treat him. I mean if you would take 5 minutes to open the books that you sell on bearded dragons that's RIGHT BESIDE him, then maybe you wouldn't have a sad bearded dragon." I swear man, *****s that like piss me off! There are TWO things in this world that piss me off when I see them mistreated...thats children and animals.. I did manage to snap one picture of the beardie before I stormed out.

 

[Firebonbon]

Off his BURGER? Did you hear that right?

I'd laugh out how lazy and stupid he was acting, even in front of a customer, but I feel too bad about the poor bearded dragon. I see the crickets on the cactus too. How did he even think the little guy could eat those?!

I probably would have told him off too.

 

[INReptiles]

Pulled it off the burger? Seriously? I can't even stand people like that, when people get animals they really need to realize that the animal is 100% dependent on them to give them what they need to not only survive, but thrive. Some people do not just realize this or just blatantly don't care (kinda like this guy?) and in all honesty should not own an animal or have spawn really because it is the same idea :/

 

[ac3j0k3r]

Yep ... off his burger. I swear some people I wonder how they have lived as long as they have. I contacted a local rescue out here and they are getting the proper paperwork together to go get him. I'm making sure that somebody with some knowledge can come get the poor thing :-( it breaks my heart...makes me want to bring home every animal that's being abused ...but I don't want to end up on hoarders lol. I think I need to just stay out of pet stores to save my sanity.

 

[INReptiles]

...but I don't want to end up on hoarders lol.

oh god I can see it now, walk into some some guys house and find nothing but 40 gallon breeders lining every inch of the walls, and in the basement there are dozens of tubs full of roaches/crickets.

Not to mention your electric bill :wink:

 

[ac3j0k3r]

lol omg could you imagine?? it would be like a 1200 dollar electric bill!! **shudders** And I dont think I could sleep at night knowing there were millions of roaches in my basement haha. I'm PRETTY sure the dubia would start to stink then too.

 

[INReptiles]

I don't know how any animal could not stink if there were that many, not to mention you would not be able to clean out all of the dead ones so I imagine that would make it even worse

 

[ac3j0k3r]

oh man...and there would be no way you could clean up all the poop from the dragons before it started stinking. uugh...I think my nose is going to have nightmares tonight! lol :lol:

 

[ac3j0k3r]

oh man...and there would be no way you could clean up all the poop from the dragons before it started stinking. uugh...I think my nose is going to have nightmares tonight! lol :lol:

 

[INReptiles]

Lol you're welcome

 

[jacody]

That is a nasty looking "enclosure".. I'd @ least write a letter to the BBB and def. never shop there again.. I too have been in a shop like that where that is their specialty and I never set foot in the store again and did a lot of "word of mouth" bad reviews for anyone interested in dumping their hard-earned cash in such an establishment.. some places have on-line reviews for their own store and you can usually sneak in a terrible review before they remove it, but the damage would've already been done..

 

[Sauzo]

Even sadder is that this is far too common. In my area, there are only 2 pet stores I've seen that do their reptiles and amphibians justice. Both of these are independently owned, not the chains like Petco and Petsmart which we have lots of those around as well and all but 1 have rather poor conditions. Even the 1 that isn't poor is far from good Saw one poor little 3 inch beardie all by himself on a log in a 75 degree tank with crickets bigger than him. He looked at me with some sad eyes, I almost bought him right there but I really don't have the room and funds to afford another baby beardie atm.

 

[INReptiles]

I only have one pet store near me that isn't a chain and I absolutely refuse to buy anything from it at all because of how they keep their animals.

 

[disturb3d0n3]

At least they don't have him on sand, which is the most common substrate I see in pet stores

I really don't see how these stores are not getting charges of animal abuse. They need to do their research before trying to own these reptiles.. all they see is $$... They obviously know nothing about them. Poor little guy!

 

[Brandonforty2]

This is the best thing that you can do. http://www.bornfreeusa.org/b6e_petshops.php