tempusfugit
Hatchling Member
Wow... I'm still in shock about a)how terrible these guys treat beardies, and b)how terrible they treat customers.
So ~2-3 weeks ago I went in for crickets, and noticed a sub-adult in with a juvie. I then noticed the damage was already done, and the juvie had a freshly mangled leg and tail. I came back a week later and they were still in the same cage, and a week later the juvie was gone(I'm so sure someone bought it).
So on Sunday, I went in, again for crickets. He had just gotten a clutch of beardies in, and decided that all 20+ can fit in the small cage. Within seconds I saw the dead one on its back, and another on its way out - legs sprawled, face in the dirt, just waiting for it to end. The floor of the cage was littered with feces, on sand of course. I could barely stand to watch, but within the 30 seconds I managed, the biggest of them attacked a smaller one, who could only stand there and tremble and then run away to a corner.
On my way up to the register to talk to them, I passed some turtles. I'm by no means a turtle expert, or even knowledgeable at all, but there was a turtle on his back, barely even moving his legs in a feeble attempt to right himself.
So I make it up to the register, too frightened to look in any more cages. I calmly tell them, "I was just in here to buy crickets, but I'm gonna head over to petsmart, because you guys have dead animals all over the store, and last week I came in and you had a 12 inch beardie in with a 6-7 inch, and he badly mangled him."
One employee seemed concerned, and went to check out the turtle. He looked at me like I was retarded and said, "that thing isn't dead" Like I said, I'm no expert on them, and I didn't find out til I got home and my brother told me they can't breath upside down, so I just moved on to the beardies.
Before I got to the beardie cage near the front, the owner of all 3 reptile island stores yells from the back, "You know what? Hit the f@#$ing road!!!" Apparently this instilled some sort of courage/anger in the other guy and he chimes in, "ya, get the f@#$ outta here," while stepping up to my face.
Now, at this point I was mostly just confused, so I told them not to talk that way to me, and explain why I'm the bad guy for them having dead animals. The owner, continuing in profanity and screaming from the back of the store told me they aren't even his bearded dragons.. At this point I was begging for one of them to hit me so I could call the cops AND animal control, but alas they are all bark. I told him I don't care whose they are, they are in his store, stop acting like a kid and clean up the damn cage. I left and called animal control, who will undoubtedly do nothing about it.
I'm gonna go back this week to check on the dragons, since they didn't technically 86 me yet, but I'm calling on the community to check up on this store. Take pictures(wish I wasn't too angry to think at the time), write reviews on yelp, google, insider pages, etc. I work at a small business and reviews are what keep us in business right now. Also, if conditions are as bad as when I went please call animal control.. While one or two calls may not do much, they gotta do something if a bunch of people call.
This all happened in the Rancho Cucamonga store, but the owner who cussed me out owns all 3.. The other two being in yorba linda and stanton...
So ~2-3 weeks ago I went in for crickets, and noticed a sub-adult in with a juvie. I then noticed the damage was already done, and the juvie had a freshly mangled leg and tail. I came back a week later and they were still in the same cage, and a week later the juvie was gone(I'm so sure someone bought it).
So on Sunday, I went in, again for crickets. He had just gotten a clutch of beardies in, and decided that all 20+ can fit in the small cage. Within seconds I saw the dead one on its back, and another on its way out - legs sprawled, face in the dirt, just waiting for it to end. The floor of the cage was littered with feces, on sand of course. I could barely stand to watch, but within the 30 seconds I managed, the biggest of them attacked a smaller one, who could only stand there and tremble and then run away to a corner.
On my way up to the register to talk to them, I passed some turtles. I'm by no means a turtle expert, or even knowledgeable at all, but there was a turtle on his back, barely even moving his legs in a feeble attempt to right himself.
So I make it up to the register, too frightened to look in any more cages. I calmly tell them, "I was just in here to buy crickets, but I'm gonna head over to petsmart, because you guys have dead animals all over the store, and last week I came in and you had a 12 inch beardie in with a 6-7 inch, and he badly mangled him."
One employee seemed concerned, and went to check out the turtle. He looked at me like I was retarded and said, "that thing isn't dead" Like I said, I'm no expert on them, and I didn't find out til I got home and my brother told me they can't breath upside down, so I just moved on to the beardies.
Before I got to the beardie cage near the front, the owner of all 3 reptile island stores yells from the back, "You know what? Hit the f@#$ing road!!!" Apparently this instilled some sort of courage/anger in the other guy and he chimes in, "ya, get the f@#$ outta here," while stepping up to my face.
Now, at this point I was mostly just confused, so I told them not to talk that way to me, and explain why I'm the bad guy for them having dead animals. The owner, continuing in profanity and screaming from the back of the store told me they aren't even his bearded dragons.. At this point I was begging for one of them to hit me so I could call the cops AND animal control, but alas they are all bark. I told him I don't care whose they are, they are in his store, stop acting like a kid and clean up the damn cage. I left and called animal control, who will undoubtedly do nothing about it.
I'm gonna go back this week to check on the dragons, since they didn't technically 86 me yet, but I'm calling on the community to check up on this store. Take pictures(wish I wasn't too angry to think at the time), write reviews on yelp, google, insider pages, etc. I work at a small business and reviews are what keep us in business right now. Also, if conditions are as bad as when I went please call animal control.. While one or two calls may not do much, they gotta do something if a bunch of people call.
This all happened in the Rancho Cucamonga store, but the owner who cussed me out owns all 3.. The other two being in yorba linda and stanton...