i agree and disagree.

when i was young, keeping toads and box turtles in a pen in my garage i loved going to petstores just to learn about what i was interested in. sometimes i was told stuff correctly, sometimes not, but im now old enouph to realized that often (especially at the mom and pops) they did there best. if i found out they were keeping somethings wrong i would tell them casually and often they would fix the problem. not always though, and some places (also often mom and pops) when it comes to reptiles there is a lot of apathy and nasty dead stuff in enclosures.

i am now a tattooed, peirced employee of a petstore chain, working mostly in the reptile and fish department (unfortunately also hampsters) i read constantly about new animals that come in, special order products we, or customers, need or books about animals we need more info about. i make cages that suit there needs, and explain to potential customers the pros and cons of species and how to keep them alive both the expensive way and the cheap way.

i have refused many a sale to people i dont think need the animals if its obvious they wouldnt be cared for. iv sent customers to other stores for things they need for the animals if we dont cary them. by expensive and cheap way i mean the difference between a 10 dollar bag of reptibark, a 1 dollar bag of potting soil or a 50 cent supply of newspaper thats easily stolen from the gas station across the street. im not saying were a perfect petstore, but its obvious by myself and coworkers (other peirced, tattooed up reptile people) that the store (a national chain) at least cares enouph to hire people that care.

but alas, your right, most pet stores suck horribly and im not a big fan of the pet market in general. i know il get either ignored or a lot of crap for this but i dont necessarily agree with the way a lot of breeders keep there animals either. opinions are opinions but i wouldnt be happy in a closet, and i doubt if a snake would be happy in a shoebox. sorry for the rambling

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