Petition for petsmart and pet co!!!

[DragonMomSandy]

ez2bbad:
I notice your from Wisconsin too? Have you been in the locally owned PetWorld chains in the Milwaukee area? They are fairly large and JUST AS BAD as the petcos and Petsmarts. In the future, if you want the name and number of a really, really good reptile vet, I have one! She's located in New Berlin, WI and she owns beardies for many years, even bred them at one time.

I think what happened to your snake and this puppy is just horrible! I had an Albino Axelotyl (Mexican cave salamander-pure white with hot pink gill fringe-really a strange and beautiful creature) that I would feed small feeder fish to that I normally got from my favorite small pet store. Well, there was one week when I just couldn't get to the petstore, so I stopped into petco and bought some small feeders (I asked for small 1 inch feeders-rosies-and the girl hand me a bag with feeders that are a good 2 inches, made her dump them back and "go fishing again"!) Any way, after feeding these for a week, my salamanders gill fringe starts to go pale white-an obvious sign of illness with this species-so I call my favorite pet store and talk to the guy who owns it(who also got the salamander for me a few months before and it was very healthy to this point). Well, long story short, attempted to treat the poor fellow as we were sure it was parasites that he most likely got from the feeder fish from petco. The owner of the small petstore told me he stopped getting feeder fish from the same supplier that petco uses about a year earlier because all the feeders were coming in infested with parasites and dying. So, my poor salamander died because of this, once they become ill like this, it's very hard to turn it around because you don't realize they are ill until the gills loose color and by then it's almost too late. Needless to say, I was ticked, and I try not to purhcase any type of feeder from their stores if I can help it!

 

[Freddiemom]

Guess what? the woman from Fox Valley Herp soc called me this am & said to count her & her group in on anything we would need them to do. She agreed that the other reptiles there weren't so well taken care of either. The tanks are dirty & full of feces & the snakes all looked skinny to her. She also told me to contact another woman who is an expert on turtles-she would be more than happy to help write out what we want changed. Diane is the president of FVHS & she is used by the police dept for impounds of snakes all the time in NE Wis. She also has beardies, too. When I told her my story of Petsmart she was just appalled! Sweet lady-she sure loves her snakes (and beardies)!!
What about Facebook? How exactly is this gonna be done? I think we should compile the known offenses but start with a petition that states what needs to be changed & have available the written stories. Or just include pics. The most important thing to do right now is to try to get things changed.

 

[ez2bbad64]

i am from wi originally from the palmyra area now i live just north of green bay. where are you from?. when i was a kid we used to go to a petworld in brookfield. we got a box turtle there in 1990 they all had these wierd drill holes in thier shells the employee said thats how they identified each turtle when my dad asked about it.he had a eye infection when we got him he was terrified of worms and such too.i still have that turtle his name is mikey

 

[Freddiemom]

Sandy, that's terrible what happened to your salamander! I wonder if Fred got sick the same way. There was 1 time we got crixs there for convienance and Fred started to look bad after that. Wow these are some scary stories!

 

[Freddiemom]

i am from wi originally from the palmyra area now i live just north of green bay

R
Really? I'm in Shawano, where are you?

 

[ez2bbad64]

what a small world shawno isint far from me at all. i am in lena i got bacardi my baby beardie in shawno at jills pet shop

 

[Freddiemom]

Too funny-I love Jill. I live right around the corner from there. We bring Fredward & stardust in to say hi all the time. Mango gets very mad at me when I do. Do you go to Dr Lisa @ Northwoods?

 

[DragonMomSandy]

ez2bbad
I live west/southwest of Milwaukee. And yeah, it is possible to get crickets and other feeders from these stores that are infected with parasites, then your animal eats the feeders and becomes infected. That is why a lot of owners/breeders raise their own feeder colonies(as well as much cheaper cost by maintaining feeder colonies)

Liz, yes I think first we need Lance's petition that we can all sign,when Lance is ready, we should post it to several forums for signatures as well as the facebook page you mentioned, and included in that petition should be up to date care info for all species of reptiles that we can put together. Then, we should be gathering personal observations (the poor conditions we've seen) and personal experiences like my salamander or ez2bbad's snake or any other of the many, many horror stories from fellow herpers. Any one who has pics should also get these to Lance to be included with the original petition as a visual reference to the lacking care of the animals. Once Lance has enough signatures, and all the added info can be compiled together the whole works should then be sent to the ASPCA, USARK, local/state humane societies and the companies in question. I think as a whole, this info will pack a pretty good punch!

 

[Freddiemom]

ez2bbad
When did you get your beardie from Jill's? You didn't just get him did you? They had the cutest little fella there for a long time

 

[Twobeardieguy]

I want to say that I am very sorry to hear about all of these horrible experiences!!! But in the same paragraph I want to say thank you everybody!! And also please do not forget to sign Vicky s Petition!! This is what we need!! If you can and want to add any other info that will help, PLEASE DO SO!!!


Again thank you everybody, Lance

 

[munchkins9802]

I will gladly share my story because of their petcare sheet, I ALMOST lost our HERMES to MBD issues but someone recommended this site and they saved his/her life.
About 1 week (or less) after we got her, she started the twitching,etc. I had gotten the Desert 50 light (atleast it was tube and not compact-but still a bad light),and was only feeding her dusted crickets or pellets every 3rd day (as it says in care sheet 2-3x/week). . Once we added more calcium,vitamins and the REPTI Sun, she was like a totally different lizard!

 

[Zeke]

Id sign and write a letter. I bought Zeke from a petsmart and their craptastic information (which I knew was crap from the beginning) could have been very bad had I not done my own research in the first place. Zeke appears really healthy however and is actually eating like he has a bottomless pit for a stomach. Unfortunately I still buy crickets from them, but I gut load them and feed them for atleast two days before they are considered to be Zeke's next meal.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

Zeke, I would recommend a site for you to get crickets: http://www.ghanns.com You can get as little as 250 or as many as a few thousand. 250 is under $10 plus shipping (and the shipping is not terrible). Clean, healthy crickets. Just get a small, sliding screen top terrerium (under $20) for them so they have enough room and put egg crate and cricket food in. An orange slice helps to keep odor down.

Lance, already signed Vicky's petition. I am typing up a letter for you and a care sheet for the MHD's. Will try and get the care info for the corn snakes(these are the most common snake I see at these places) from Rich, And You already have the Beardie care sheet.

Everyone: Start righting your letters with your observations and experiences. And if you have pics add those as well! Lets ALL get this rolling and have these letters/info ready so that we can get them mailed to Lance as soon as the PO Box is ready!!!

By The Way: I think that EACH AND EVERY ONE of you who have responded should be very proud of yourselves. I am really amazed and impressed by the amount of response to Lance's idea! I think as herpers we are all sick of the way these animals are treated and how we are treated(especially new owners) with horrible info because these companies are too lazy to change and they think we are all stupid!

Remember: Strength in numbers! Thats our best shot at getting these changes made!

 

[midwestreptiles]

i have also had bad experience with petland. i have a 2yr old beagle mix i found him when he was just a little puppy on the highway. he has a heart condition and a seziure disorder and he needed eye surgery the tear ducts popped out and had to be put back. the vet scanned him and found a chip in his neck that came back to petland. i contacted petland who said it couldent be one of theirs and his number had been returned to the breeder and destroyed.i bought him in they verified him and offered to take him back i said heck no there was no way i was handing this poor dog over!. hes been expensive cost me $800 just to fix his eyes and its all genetic defects from poor breeding. sad thing is they sold him for $950 how could they charge so much for these poor puppy mill mixed breeds? between my experince with petco and petland i dont buy from those large chain type stores any longer

Im sorry to hear that happened. And by no means am i defending these companies but i needed extra money and had a part time job a petland and they dont use puppy mills i have been to all the breeders facilities. Atleast in the midwest i dont know about where you live?

 

[ez2bbad64]

freddie we just got bacardi. we belive its a girl but she sure is a cuttie and has grown ALOT in the short time she has been with me.
midwest. i am in wi the petland that my beagle came from buys from a puppy mill southwest of appleton they are known for buying puppy mill dogs and i know a few other dogs from there who have eye problems and other genetic defects. after getting picketed constantly they closed down that location