I agree with your post, and you hit it on the head, but still, something you said struck a nerve with me.



you said



"You may want to look at it this way: if I didn't sell various herps rather captive bred or not, other stores would."



I agree, and you are right, but just because we are in business and because of it we NEED to make a profit, that is no reason to compromise our principles. Just because other stores sell burms and retics to anyone does not mean that I will, even though I could have probably sold 3 or 4 in the last 2 weeks. If you are not bothered by selling something that is legal to sell, then by all means go ahead and sell it. But don't just sell it because if you don't someone else will and you will lose out on the money. If I ever get to that point I'll throw in the towel.





"Other stores may or may of not given out the knowledgement of care and other factores of the reptiles they were selling."





using the excuse, If I don't sell these animals, someone else will and they might not give the best advice on how to care for it so I had better sell them just to make sure that people won't kill them, is simply an attempt to justify doing something that in your mind you may not think is such a good idea. I offer people advice all the time on animals they can't buy from me because I refuse to sell them.



"I couldn't lose money because hey, I was in the business."



But you don't have to abandon your ideals just because you are in business



"Some of the captives that I had to buy were at times no better then some imports or wild caught animals."



I can't speak to this. I obviously don't work at the same volume that you did. Even so, I realize that offering substandard animals, no matter what the source, is not the way I want to do business.



Please don't take offense to my comments. It is difficult when conversing in this medium to know the exact manner in which the written words were intended. I am not at all saying that you operated with anything more than the utmost care for your animals. I don't have a problem with stores that sell WC animals. Its just that when you make comments like you did it seems like you are trying to justify what you were doing to others. You don't have to. All you have to do is take care of the animals in your charge and operate within the laws. If you do that people are free to have their opinions. Pet stores in general are looked at with negativity by some people, and I do not feel the need to justify my career choice to them.



Steve Schindler

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