pet store pity purchase

[pogvitt]

Last summer, I went into a nightmare pet store while I was in another town( I say 'nightmare' because as soon as I walked in I was assaulted by the stench of urine an feces, and stacks of animals in filthy tanks lined the walls). Not surprisingly, they had a beardie for sale as well. She(?) was about 7 inches long, skinny, and lived in a five gallon aquarium with no lights. Her water dish was a poop soup, and she was covered in mites. I talked to the owner, and managed to get him to set up a light for her(not a UVB, just a regular light bulb - I guess it is better than nothing). However, I was rudely told that they take exceptional care of their animals when I voiced my other concerns (no uvb, skinny, mites, tiny tank with no proper temperature gradient, feces EVERYWHERE - I thought I brought these issues up fairly tactfully). Next, I asked how much she was, but they wanted . . . .drumroll . . . $200! I just couldn't afford it at the time, and I wasn't able to bargain with him. I still feel guilty that I wasn't able to help that little dragon

Has anyone else had luck in managing to bargain with a store for a 'pity purchase'? If so, what did you do?

 

[Jess]

As sad as it is, I think that it is probably best that you left her there. Those horrible pet stores need to learn that NO ONE will buy animals from them if they neglect them and treat them like that. Paying $200 for her would just put more money in the stores pocket, so they could buy another beardie to put in her place. Then that new beardie would be abused and neglected until some one else felt bad for it and bought it, and they cycle just continues. By not buying her, you have hopefully saved other beardies from the same fate. If no one ends up buying her, the pet store will lose money, and are less likely to try to sell another one.

I did end up saving a Petco baby from being put to sleep though. I observe at a vet clinic, and the vet convinced them to give him to me for free instead of having him put down. He had SO many health problems though, caused by Petco and horrible breeding, that he passed away at 10 months old. I will save any animal if I can convince those stores to give it to me for free, but I refuse to pay them for sick animals.

 

[ziggy23]

the best thing you can do is to report it. We had a store like that years ago and eventually it got shut down because of it. If it's that bad, they will probably do something about it.

It can be hard to get them to do stuff for exotics because they might not know what is proper care is, but filthy cages and a store that reeks of foul is a no-brainer.