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We breed rats...dumbos..hooded...rex...and african soft fur...we had his one adult female that was totally different from our others...we called her super rat...she was HUGE all brown and when she had babies within a week they were fully furred and walking around...she hasd something special in those genes...The woman who owns the pet store we have been going to for over a year and a half called us asking if we had any real small rats...about the size of a mouse...All we had was our favorite momma's babies that were small but too young to take from her...so she said well just bring her and the babies in and i will buy the babies and you can pick her up after the babies are weened...we said ok....we took her to the shop with her babies and as we placed her tank on the counter we told Linda that under no circumstances was she to sell our momma rat...My bf told her of ANYTHING happened to her he would come after her...(They had the type of relatioship to where jokingly he called her mom and she called him son)..He told her this was our PET...and this was her last litter of babies..that after she sold the babies that momma was coming home and living the rest of her life being spoiled rotten and that she was the best momma we had and deserved to be pampered...Linda said I wouldn't do that to you guys...well yesterday we noticed the pet shop number on the caller ID...but there was no message...figured Linda just needed some more cockatiel nest boxes (my BF built those for her too)...I had to go to work so we decided to just call her back today...Well when Anthony called the shop...Gene one of the girls that work there said that Linda was in PA and that she tried to call us to see if it was ok to sell our momma rat to a guy that neededa LARGE rat to feed his snake...Anthony said you better not tell me you sold our rat...she said she called Linda and told her that she couldn't get in touch with us...Linda told her to go ahead and sell him the rat and she would just pay us for her...she sold our PET!!!!!...a pet we told her NOT TO SELL when we brought her in to some guy for SNAKE food...I asked her why couldn't she sell one of HER big rats to him..her excuse was she didn't have one as big as ours...I am crying now as i type this...I have been crying since about 3:30 this afternoon...I LOVED HER...she was my PET...she wasn't just some rat we used as a breeding machine....there is no amount of money she could give to replace her...NOTHING can replace her...and thinking about HER being eaten by a snake kills me so bad inside i can't stand it...she meant more to me than that...she wasn't meant to be snake food....she was meant to live the rest of her life being loved...she wasn't disposable...She had a name....her name was Camilla

Don't mean to sound rude or anything but if the rat was so special why would you leave her at a pet store that was selling her babies as snake food. It sounds like you really loved her, I mean why take the chance of ANYTHING happening. Also, why did the pet store need small rats so bad that you would need to take your prized mama rat and her babies in and leave them? Just sounds a little strange but tragic. Sorry for your loss.

This woman was our friend..someone we trusted...she had a room in the back of her store that no customer was allowed in...it was the nursery where she kept all of the animals that were caring for their young..and she PROMISED US that nothing would happen to her...we are in that pet store twice a week normally...why wouldn't we trust someone we have known a year and a half...and I am sure there is someone in this forum that is just as attached to one of thier breeder snakes..but she wasn't one of our regular breeders...she had 3 litters and we still have ALL of her other babies..now grown up of course..we sold her those babies as a favor...but that still DOES NOT excuse the fact SHE WAS TOLD NOT TO SELL HER...she wasn't hers to sell...we own snakes...10 of them in fact 8 ball pythons..one columbian redtail and one nicaraguan...and we don't even feed OUR rats to our snakes...we drive half an hour further to another pet store to buy feeders..we breed and raise our rats because we enjoy them..and maybe someone may want one as a pet...they aren't just good snake food...they also make wonderful pets...we started out with 3 rats...now we have well over 100...if we were so into providing snake food do you think we would still have that many?...NOT...and they don't just stay cooped up in a cage...we take them out..play with them...hell we even have a leash to take them for walks...but if no one can understand how I feel about all this then just too bad... that's on them

Well that whole situation really sucks. What do you plan to do? I cannot imagine what I would do if someone sold off a beloved pet of mine for snake food. My first urge would be to cause great bodily harm to that person but there are better ways to handle situations like these I'm sure, especially since it would be hard to justify assaulting someone over a rat. A dog maybe. I'm not saying that a pet rat is any less special than a pet dog either. Once again, sorry for your loss and good luck!

well to some this may seem a little bit overboard...but I am thinking of contacting a lawyer...I don't want money...i don;t want a "replacement" rat.. I just want her to know how BIG of a mistake she made...and like I told her eployee Jean (mispelled it earlier)....to me it is no different than if I was to take one of her precious schnauzers and threw it to a retic...I asked Jean if there was any way she could contact the person who bought Camilla...she sais he was a regular and we probqbly knew him from the store...but had no info on how to contact him...I know she called Linda after i got off the phone with her....But we have yet to hear from Linda...The rat was sold Friday...and only one attempt to call us was made...BEFORE the sale..none afterwards...makes me wonder when we were gonna get told she was sold...were they gonna wait till we came to pick her up?

Anyone who would do something like that just to make a sale is NOT a friend and deserves to be shown exactly how BIG a mistake she made.
There is absolutely NO excuse for selling your pet as a feeder after being told that she was not supposed to do that.
I would make her life a living hell for doing that to you.

I plan on it...I have given this woman a lot of business in the last year or more...Ironically the 3 rats i started with I bought from her shop...my male Charlie she practically begged me to buy from her to save him from becoming snake food...the we bought Dianna...then lastly Camilla.......we bought 2 ball pythons from her...and my BF hung some shelves for her and she gave us Fonzie...whom she told us was an Argentine boa...but after looking at pics online realized he is actually Nicaraguan...I have also bought a ferret...2 guinea pigs...2 cockatiels...hamsters...finches...parakeets and a chinese water dragon...I have spent soooooooooo much money in her shop...and do you want to know how much she plans on giving us for Camilla?...about $3.25...what she pays her supplier for them wholesale...but she sold my sweet girl for $6.99

This makes me so angry. I can't believe anyone would sell off a friend's pet as food period, much less for a lousy seven bucks.

I hope an attorney and judge will take this seriously, and that she is held accountable for her actions.

Good Luck!

While I'm said for the orignal poster, there is no significant legal claim here. I suppose she could take her to small claims court, but there is little to gain. Unfortunately, her only claimable real loss is the value of the rat (and not even replacement value, just fair market value)To get any more than that, she'd have to show that there was a contract that was breached. To get punative damages, I would think she would have to show gross negligence or malice, neither of which is "provable" in this case. Its a sad deal, but no way a lawyer even takes this case...

there may not be a written contract...but since wjen did a persons word mean nothing?...and what about the message that is on my voice mail from her now saying...I am sorry...how can I make it up to you...please don't be mad at me?

"there may not be a written contract...but since wjen did a persons word mean nothing?"

Oral contracts are legal but VERY difficult to prove/enforce in a court of law. Technically, though, I am not even sure you had a contract by legal definition. You lent her your rat for which she gave you no consideration of any type (unless I missed it). While you were most certainly doing her a favor, unless she gave you something for providing the rat that is not a contract. I'm not saying she did not break her word (she most cetainly did), I am just looking at from a legal standpoint.

"and what about the message that is on my voice mail from her now saying...I am sorry...how can I make it up to you...please don't be mad at me?"

Unfortunately, there is nothing she can do to bring back your pet. Whether or not there is anything she can do to make this right is soley up to you. It seems to me, however, that this person is not who you thought she was, despite the relationship you thought you had. If it were me, I would walk away and sever the relationship. You may feel the need to have this person "pay" for their actions but, as I said, no form of payment will bring your pet back. In the end, it is up to you how to proceed.

Rob

Since when did a person's word mean nothing? I'd say since about 1958, give or take a few years.

Seriously though, save the message in case you do want to try to go to small claims. Since she is calling asking how she can make it up to you, you need to soul search and tell her what you think is fair. Keep in mind though that legally she probably doesn't owe you anything more than the 4 bucks she gets her adult rats for. See what she's willing to give, and decide how you want to go forward...

I'm not kidding, and take offense at your reply.

If someone through malice or indifference caused the death of my pet, I'd make damn sure that they paid dearly.

It's possible that a court would be too short-sighted to understand that a rat can be a pet with emotional value, but I consider holding the supposed friend accountable for her actions absolutely essential.

NP

First, I apologize. No offense was intended. I was merely pointing out that in the eyes of the law, there really isn't much of a case here (as I pointed out originally) Secondly, I don't see this debate as "its only a rat". My point is that if the exact situation played itself out with a dog instead of a rat, the recourse would be the same from a legal standpoint. Lets say someone took their longtime family pet dog to a pet store. Suppose they were selling the pups and they weren't quite weened. Somehow, the momma dog gets accidentally sold in an untraceable cash sale. In this case, the plaintiffs would propbably only be intitled to fair market value of the dog. I'm on the original posters side on this, just pointing out the potential problems with a lagal case.

Sorry I snapped at you.

I don't have access to Lexis-Nexis, so can't gather any real data on this, but I did easily find a large settlement over a pet cat via Google.

It's from a site about outrageous settlements, and I do think this one was more than a little steep, but it does demonstrate that pets can be valued as more than property.

http://www.overlawyered.com/2005/05/woman-awarded-45000-after-dog.html

Thats really a different issue...Dog owners have long been held accountable for the behavior of their dogs...gross negligence, depraved indeifference all come into play with a fairly low threshold of proof...

I would expect that people would be held accountable for their own actions at least as much as they're responsible for the actions of their dog.

I don't see why killing someone's pet by being irresponsible with your dog is worse than arranging the death intentionally.

You know you should have never left your rat, at a pet store that sells rats as food!

If you did decide to leave the rat there, you should have put something in writing, with a dollar amount of $500 if for any reason your rat was not returned to you. I have a feeling you are out of luck. No proof of any wrongdoing by the store, nothing in writing???

Dave

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I agree - sucks what happen but if the rat meant that much - then it should have never been put in that situation to begin with. As well I don't understand why, if the pups couldn't be separated from their Mom, it was OK to sell her off - that makes no sense - what happened to the pups?
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Tosha
JET Pythons

OK HERE'S WHAT I'D DO.... Call the local news stations... they LOVE juicy stories like that.... people who love pets will boycott the store. (no offense, but unless she really did sell her and its not some SICK joke, shes NO FRIEND) She's just another petstore owner who saw money.... shes not a pet store person, shes a pet WHORE. after you get the media in it.... also call a lawyer... i doubt they will do anything... but the media might... and i guess you learned the hard way.... NEVER leave pets anywhere without a written document... I wont even let people borrow my snakes for breeding purposes without a document signed by everyone at the time. i'm sorry for your loss... but i wouldnt do any more business with them....
~kin
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~Sober Serpents~
www.freewebs.com/soberserpents
Corns, Creamsicles, A Black Rat, Thayeri, Cal Kings, A Jungle Corn(Just A Pet), A Ball Python, A Bearded dragon, Leopard Geckos, Green Anoles, a Snapping turtle, and a white cheeked mud turtle

well this wasn't just some pet shop we went to when we needed things...my days off were spent in that store...I mean my BF called her mom and she called him son for pete's sake...so in my eyes an ORAL agreement should have been enough...and when we told her not to let anything happen to that rat she said "I wouldn't do that to you guys" and I do think a complaint with the better business bureau is at least in order

I am no lawyer, however, IF she called you and left a message, asking if she could sell your female, that would leave me to believe that she thought she could NOT sell your female, and did anyway, without any veral or written permission. I would sue her ass just because. Go to small claims, claim the most you can, and see if she shows up. Tell the judge you were like family, made a verbal agreement, which she obviously knew about since she called you to see if she could sell the adult female rat. She went ahead, without your consent....see if the judge is feeling all jiggy that day

Dave

I know exactly how you feel, not about the betrayal aspect, but the loss.

Find comfort in the fact that you have a bunch of her babies to carry on the memory and bloodlines.

When my little snake "Speedy" died, I was a wreck. Then 2 months later his mate "Xena" had a litter. suddenly his time with us took on a whole new meaning. To this day I still have one of his children.

The news media idea can be brutally effective, but think it through.. Do you really want to destroy the pet shop? if so sit on that thought, in a week see if you still feel the same way.

"Heat of the moment" emotions are seldom productive and often very hurtful things get said that cannot be taken back.

Every pet loss bears significance, Cat, rat, goldfish, spider, snake, lizard or pony, but was it a mistake or intentional?

Perhaps that phone call that has not happened is out of fear, maybe she just cannot think of the words, what does one say under these circumstances?

We keep a female rat, and if I ever fed her to my snakes, I would have to hide from my daughter for a long time.

And yes, there are Ritz crackers in with these mice.

Condolences,
Wayne A. Harvey

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1.0.0 Ball Python - Python regius "Cane" Rescue
1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garters "spot" & "Zig"
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garter - Princess
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER" Growing fast!
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
0.2.0. Feline"Felix"(R.I.P. 4/27/08) "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

no amount of anything you do now will change anything. grieve for your little friend, [rats are terrific pets] and get another one, and give it a great life. don't focus on this for long, there is no satisfaction. kd

I placed an add in our local trades paper in the personals section titled TO THE OERSON WHO BOUGHT THE BROWN RAT IN THE RR PET SHOP....and the paper came out today....The person must have seen it because the pet shop lady left us a message (sounding kinda pissed off)..telling us that they are bringing my rat back Friday ...she has to exchange 2 rats to get mine back...unless she has her supplier bringing back a look alike....I will know when Friday gets here...because if it is a knock off...i WILL know

supposed to be PERSON not OERSON...lol