What is the number or who do you call when you visit a pet store and see ill or near to death reptiles?

I visited a Petco near my home and saw baby Water Dragons that were just being treated for eye infections and supposedly under the care of a vet.

I know it isn't Petco's fault, but the person they bought them from sold them this way. Why are these losers allowed to breed and seell these poor animals?

Your local department of fish and game oversees exotic animals and the permit requirments.

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Answers are great. But I prefer questions!

Visit me at www.jaysreptiles.com

Hello,
What you are describing is far more common than people realize. The amount of reptiles that flow through petstores is astounding. In order for them to keep up with the demand, they require people that can produce them in large quantities. In doing so, these reptiles are susceptible to illness that a private breeder has the ability to avoid. Most of the illnesses like eye infection, cocidia in BD's, etc. is from the way the reptiles are housed. Mass production breeding normally means inadequate housing. If one gets ill, it spreads like the plague.

Depending upon which country the reptiles are coming from will depict if anything can be done. In Petcos position, they are required to NOT sell an animal they know to be ill without first informing the potential owner.

That isn't always the case though with other countries.

You can also contact your local Humane society and voice your concerns. Since Petco is treating the reptiles for the illness they are aware of, its going to make for a tough case.

This is a good time to remind everyone to quarantine new reptiles when they are purchased. Early signs of illness are not always apparent. If Petco didn't catch the eye infection and someone purchased that reptile, and housed it with their current WD, they could be looking at 2 eye infections.

Quarantining shouldn't be looked at as an option for reasons like this.
(I know I swayed from your initial question, but this was a good example of why quarantining is important. Follow Jays advise and see if there is anything they can do.)

Let me know if you have any success. Here in Florida you can't do anything about it. I've tried the local fish and game, and everybody else that I was transferred to from there and the truth is that in some places people really just don't care. The only thing that I've had even remote success with in these situations is to personally harass the people running the store myself, without breaking the law of course. If your lucky they get sick of all the commotion and straighten up their nasty rotting animal storage, , I mean pet store. . It takes time and energy on your part, but it's better than doing nothing. Give the officials a try first though and us know if it works out.

i hate hearing about this stuff
if people would care more about the health and happines of their animals, this stuff would happen much less in my opinion

good luck

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MY PALS
0.1.0 BALL PYTHON-JERRI
0.1.0 AMEL. CORN-BAYBE
1.0.0 GHOST CORN-BOSS
0.0.1 BLUE TONGUED SKINK-DOUGLAS
2.1.0 CATS-POJO, CHEDDAR, SAMMIE

Petco is notorious for having poor animal husbandry and their staff is usually not very well informed. I don't ever buy anything from there except to go in and have a look around. I hate how they usually have their small animals as well...support your responsible local pet stores instead.

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0.1 jungle/coastal carpet python: Sheila
1.0 anerythristic boa constrictor imperator: Severus Snake
1.1 rats: Eowyn, Gandalf
1.0 ferret: Walker Texas Ranger
0.0.1 gold fish: Tiger
3.0 dogs: Strider (Aussie/husky), Zoso (Belgian Malinois), Buck (husky/Rottweiler)

You guys remember that scene in " Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" when they release all the animals from the testing lab..... ...whose with me?!

Hey now, not all of us who work in a research lab are bad! Though I will mention that the animal liberation terrorists who break into research labs trying to free the animals do them a huge disservice. Most have been breed in captivity for generations, not to mention that if you trash all our data (which I would be *extremely* displeased with), we have to do it all over again on different animals. Anyways, when I got my rainbow boa a couple weeks back, the guy at the pet store was like, "Are you okay with pre-killing mice yourself?" I promptly responded by saying I have probably killed either directly or indirectly at least 2000 mice during my career as a grad student. The culled mice are my current source of food.

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0.1 jungle/coastal carpet python: Sheila
1.0 anerythristic boa constrictor imperator: Severus Snake
1.1 rats: Eowyn, Gandalf
1.0 ferret: Walker Texas Ranger
0.0.1 gold fish: Tiger
3.0 dogs: Strider (Aussie/husky), Zoso (Belgian Malinois), Buck (husky/Rottweiler)