Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I may not agree with everything...but I think the organizations should not have this kind of power!

Andy

http://www.wkbw.com/Story.aspx?preview=&type=ln&NStoryID=13361
They will take your animals!

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Looks like this guy had way more animals then he could take care of. Unlike with other types of businesses, in the pet trade, the well being of the animals has to come first. Shame on him....

Your right Andy its not. Aren't you jumping to conclusions a little bit??? We dont know what kind of condition these animals were in. If they were being neglected and not properly maintained then the guy deserves to have them taken away. If you want to keep a live animal you MUST accept the chore of taking good care of them. If that was not the case and they were using proper husbandry techniques and the animals still got taken away then that is wrong and I agree with you.

Yeah maybe I got hot too quick...but I don't like the thought of someone having that kind of power...
These guys do alot of shows...so maybe they had not unpacked everything when they got raided...as you can see they were taking the hypos out in acyrlic displays...Andy
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I didnt see the video and really dont know the circumstance.
If that was the case I agree with you 100%. Its kinda a catch 22 in that regard where unfortunatly someone has to have that power to monitior the real bad guys and sometimes the good guys get screwed. If that was really the case I feel really bad for them and hopefully they will get there animals back. V

the only clear item that would be considered "bad" was the beardie skelaton. The video did not clearly show any bad animal situations.

They did say a bunch of animals were euthanized due to poor condition of the said animals.

Very hard to come to any real conclusions from this, we can't see anything really bad, yet if they were really putting down animals that were bad off, could they be correct????

IMO, the system needs to be there to protect the animals, and I fully agree the power can be misused. It does make me a bit suspicious that the owners refused comment. If it were me and my animals, I'd be showing the world my cages/stock and how clean they are as proof of what I was saying.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
10.22 BRB
10.15 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

From what I know (I spoke to a person who was there during the seizure), here's what happened.

Two days before the SPCA seized the animals, a DEC officer came and inspected Pets Plus on reports that illegal animals were being kept (which was true - out-of-season bullfrogs and some restricted snakes and monitors were there, without permits). Some knowledgable local herp people were asked to accompany the DEC officer to assess conditions as well. What they found (ignore the sensationalism of the lizard skeleton) was that there were quite a few animals in poor condition. Aside from the rack units (which the SPCA knows are widely used, but the news focused on them), there were piles and piles of single shoebox totes, stacked in a way that would make it difficult, if not impossible, to routinely clean, feed, and check the animals within.

What turned my stomach was seeing the video with multiple clutches of snake eggs that were left to hatch, die, and rot without any kind of care. That's not imported animals, that's plain neglect of captive bred creatures.

In any case, back to what occurred - the DEC officer and herp people saw the conditions, informed the SPCA. When the DEC officer left the store, no animals were taken, and the owners were NOTIFIED that an SPCA inspection would occur in 2 days. They did nothing to improve any conditions, and when the SPCA inspected (when the video was shot), they took the animals that were in the worst condition. They left thousands of animals that were in ok condition, they just took the very worst, life threatening cases. Some frogs and chameleons were so dehydrated that they were euthanized or didn't make it very long.

Who knows what caused this situation, but the SPCA did not just jump in willy-nilly. The people who helped make the decision to take the animals are aware of reptile distributor setups, and that rack caging may look cruel to those who aren't familiar with them. Most of the animals in racks were not taken. They consulted reptile experts (a zoo reptile vet was present to assess animal conditions) before deciding that hundreds of animals present needed to be removed from their surroundings, and scheduled another inspection to allow the store to clean things up.

To me, the fact that the owners of Pets Plus have been around reptiles a long time should mean that they wouldn't allow their animals to come to such a condition. I've heard the conditions blamed on crappy workers, but the owners are responsible, and come on, they were given a couple of days notice that they'd be inspected.

This is in my neck of the woods, so I have a keen interest, and have bought animals from this store before. I'm very disappointed at what happened and will probably not do business with them again.

Yea I think it is unfair to take animals away if they were being properly cared for. But that bearded dragon skeleton was a little to much. That seems to me like the guy was not caring for the animals. But I mean I wasnt there so I don't know. We all know how the news can blow any story about reptiles out of proportion.
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