To answer one of your questions, my herpetology and animal diversity professors (and many other people) don't know anything about the REAL herp industry other than that "there are people who go into a pet store to buy an animal, that it sometimes depletes certain wild populations if they aren't captive bred, and that sometimes certain species are introduced where they don't belong" (i.e. Burmese in the 'Glades).

Neither one of them knew about the much bigger online business of the industry...they were blown away when I told them about the ball python market, for example. These are people with PHd's and decades of experience directly in the herp field, and yet they still think of the herp pet trade in terms of "pet stores".

And so...Yes, I do believe that to average, ordinary people who walk into a pet store and see reptiles there, that is THE herp industry to them.

I have worked in pet stores myself, when I was a teenager, and people do often call authorities when they perceive neglect, abuse, etc. That's a given.



And to answer your other question, I have been in enough pet stores to have given notice to a few red flags that were plenty of cause for concern.

And many of the other people on this thread are and have been saying the same thing, so I believe it is a common concern among people here.

I have seen enough dead and dyeing lizards lying at the bottom of pet store tanks to be concerned, and yes...sometimes outraged.
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