That's a sad story to hear. Most people don't realize how much damage that particular myth can do. At least he's in a better environment now.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

same as above, in jonesboro, the idiots up there told me all iguanas eat is crickets

how is that considered a rescue? I guess I am a little harsh in my opinion, but I feel if you are going to "rescue" an animal that means you will be providing the PROPER care and environment,, if you do not than you are no better than the person you "rescued" them from. Reminds me of the nightmare I went through last year with the other "rescue" around here. I use the term rescue lightly with him. I sometimes wonder what would have happened to Oscar (sulcata) if I had not have actually stepped in.
Things can actually be done,, you just have to sit on animal controls desk, literally. It took me a while and it was a long and drawn out, stressful ordeal but well worth it in the end.

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead

I agree. Sometimes you have to be the "bad guy" to get the good things done. though really, nothing bad about reporting, hassling, and so on, when someone is mistreating any living creature like that. Im glad there are still people who care enough to step in in these situations.

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"Nobody can do Everything, but Everybody can do Something."

I wish they had to go to classes in order to be qualified to talk to potential pet owners. The poor animals that end up in the hands of these people and subsequently into the hands of ill-informed buyers.

As a Pet Store manager that tries to eduate my staff and all potential pet parents, the hardest thing I have to deal with is "That's not what they told me at the other petstore". I have a store less than two miles from me that repeatedly has a special in their store of a free Iguana with the purchase of a 20 gallon tank......

I have been escorted out of there several times.......

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Answers are great. But I prefer questions!

Visit me at www.jaysreptiles.com

It would be nice if these managers, of these type of Pet stores would educate their staff or at least encourage them to do research into the reptiles or animals they are to care for.[/quote]

it would be nice but in the pet stores near me the managers are even worse than the kids working, at least most of the kids have a reptile living at their house... the managers dont like it when you come into the store and know more than them especially while theyre giving advice to a future reptile owner. one thing that bothers me also is that if you are going to sell a pet you should have a wide variety of products that go along with that animal and not a small section of useless high ticket items. EX. i recently had a problem with mites and you have no idea how hard it was to eradicate those little buggers. it took 4 days of hard searching to finally find reptile relief (thanks again to merlin!) after that all problems were solved. Anyways main point being that the big brand pet stores only care about selling there sickly 'pets' for grossly inflated prices.... i hate pet stores

used to have a petsmart and a petco near me. always hated going to them. always felt sorry for the animals.
where I live now, theres a Pets Plus about a half hour away, i don't like it any more then the other two, although it does seem a bit nicer.

luckily theres a really nice privately owned pet shop thats somewhat near by (its about a 40 min drive) i go there every week or two for food for my snakes and I love it, the staff seems very well educated and it seems like the health and well being of there snakes, lizards, turtles, etc is there top concern. plus, they don't try to push extra stuff on you when you buy something. they'll ask about what kind of set up you have and your experiences to make sure your ready to take an animal.

the place even holds yearly birthdays with an exotic animal show and other events for the stores mascot, a 9 year old salcata with a 15" carapace.

if anybody lives in somewhat near Harleysville PA: Fins, Feathers, Paws & Claws, Inc.

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i'd be better off opening my own small zoo.

my god I cant believe I started "the thread that wouldn't die" lol
i guess it speaks volumes about just how bad the pet industry in america (and other countries i'm sure) is. i don't want to assume everybody who contributed to this thread is in America, so any non-USA posters out there?

Off topic. I'm writing a persuasive paper for my english 101 class about why pet stores should teach their employees proper care of herps and pass correct info to customers. could I use quotes from this thread?

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I'm full of useless facts to know and say!

~Chelsea~

To see a world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wildflower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour...