Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi--I haven't posted here for a while. Got great advice a couple of years ago when I set up a tank for an adopted Malayan Box Turtle, named Timothy. He is doing fine in our living room. This week while at PETCO. I saw another MBT. It was in one of their dry compartments, with a shallow pan of water, and a bowl of not very appetizing food on the dry bark mulch. The care instructions were grossly inaccurate. I spoke to two workers there and explained what the MBT needed to be happy. I said if someone bought him and set an environment up like what they see in the store, it would not be healthy. I went back today and nothing was changed. I left a printout of the Malayan Box Turtle Webpage for their enlightenment. I said I would be back again.

As much as I would like to purchase this MBT just to get him out of there, it would mean setting up another separate tank, which I don't have much room for. Also, I realize by purchasing him, I am just perpetuating an evil. I also feel if I go back and make too much of a stink about it, they will simply throw the turtle away and tell me "he was bought."

If there is anyone out there who is looking to get an MBT, this store is in Torrington, Connecticut. I would be willing to pick it up and transport it (within reasonable distance)to a new home.

There is a pet shop right near me here in ohio that has a smaller 4" asian box turtle, with the same set-up you describe. they have had him for a few months, and he is usually in the same spot everytime i go back, i have 1.1 huge adults my self that are 5 year captives, but i would like to buy the one at the pet shop but if i do i am sure they will just get another one in and so on, mine are also eshtablised and i know the fresh import could spread more dieases to my adult pair, I really think most pet shops assume the asian box turtles are just like the north american box turtles, i always see them set-up the same, its really sad, they make great pets over time

Andy

RedoFootMan@yahoo.com

Please go to www.planetfeedback.com and lodge a public complaint. Your complaint will be sent to the CEO, Brian Devine, and then forwarded to the regional manager. Plus, by making the letter viewable by the public, you let others know that this is not an isolated incident (the Timonium Petco in MD had an Asian in with Russians). Your address will not be available to the public. You could also e-mail Mr. Devine yourself:

Brian Devine
toll free phone: 888.583.6044 X3046
Use this number to call Brian's secretary: 888-583-6044 x3046
fax: 858.677.3033
e-mail briand@petco.com
Mailing Address:
9125 Rehco Road, San Diego, CA 92121

Here is their Customer Satisfaction hotline:
toll free phone: 888.409.4567
toll free fax: 800.571.2952
e-mail: customersatisfaction@petco.com

Katrina

This falls under the heading of 'stick it'. Every one of us developed our passion for this hobby from the pet trade. For us to be so judgemental is wrong. If your passion has grown so strong that you would like to make a difference to the use of these animals it would be better served if you worked torwards cooperation rather than judgementation.
Ed

Gee EJ, wassa matter...panties too tight today? I thought I made it clear in my original post that I WAS being cooperative. I talked to three different PETCO employees about what they could do in-store to make the MBT more comfortable while he was on display. I went back with printed material that explained where he came from and why he needed to be treated differently than the "dry land" box turtles. I even suggested they give out the web address for the Malayan Box Turtle website to anyone who might be interested in purchasing him. My aim in posting to this forum was to let anyone in my area know that there is an MBT available.

Whether or not it is right to sell ANY live animal in a store is up to each of us to decide, and I am not aware that my personal opinion one way or the other was the issue here.

You have my humble appology. I guess I did misunderstand your original post. I do agree with your plan of attack.
Ed

Um, beg to differ here. The pet trade did not launch my love of reptiles, thank you very much.

Petco has shown a pattern of mass wild-caught tortoise and turtle sales, and the inability to care for them properly in their stores or to educate their customers properly on the care of the animals they sell in the stores. It seems rather hypocritical for a store to say they won't sell puppies or kittens due to humane reasons, but sell wild-caught reptiles and have emaciated reptiles in their stores.

Katrina

and where did your passion develope?
Ed

Hi guys,

I dunno about you all but my passion for having turtles as pets came from just liking turtles to begin with as a kid. I would watch nature shows, read books, and see them in zoos and always wanted one but never thought I would be ready to take on the responsibility. Where I grew up, New Jersey, pet shops aren't allowed to sell turtles so I never saw them there. My first turtle was a painted and I was 10 years old--scooped him out of a pond in my home nearby. Along with catching tadpoles, salamanders, and frogs, that turtle sparked an interest that continues today with 20 turtles at home (original guy still alive and healthy). I understand catching them was not moral (or legal) now but hey, whatcha gonna do...uninformed curious kid, etc.

By the time I saw turtles at the pet shop...that was last year when i was 21 in Texas and saw REd-Ears everywhere. They were kept in the most decrepit manner. Box turtles were too cramped in a tiny terrarium and looked like they lost the will to live. And obviously you see red-ears for sale along the streets in Chinatowns everywhere. So I can safely say my turtle passion (or any pet hobby for that matter)couldn't have been from seeing them in the pet trade. I do online purchases as well as expos nowadays and they work for me. But I must say nothing beats the joy of learning about them first from books and documentaries and then seeing them in the wild as a child. That way I feel like I got the chance to appreciate the animal for what it is in its natural habitat, rather than in a tank at Petco or Petsmart. I do wish they'd invest more knowledge training with their employees on how to care for their animals. Turtles are long-lived and deserve to be given that chance.

Heh...sorry this was so long..just my 2 cents. =)

Johnny

I've always loved all animals of all types, and would watch any nature show I could, and read anything I could. While in college in NM, I had to take work-study to make ends meet, and I asked to work in the university's natural history museum with a live reptile collection. Most of the animals were local wild-caught specimens, but we did have a RES, large Burmese python, boa constrictor, and eastern diamondback rattlesnake. I gave educational tours to school kids, cared for the animals' needs daily, and scoured the country side for additions to the habitats (skulls, rocks, plants, ect.) and new specimens. One of my college buddies shared my passion for reptiles, and we spent hours at dusk and dawn driving the back roads and dirt roads between peanut and wheat fields to catch glimpses of whatever wildlife we could find.

Even then, over ten years ago, we were taking in unwanted animals from the pet trade, but it was not the pet trade that started our passion. So not much has changed in that regard.

Now I own an iguana, bearded dragon, two mud turtles, an eastern box turtle, and caecilians. Of those, only the caecilians were purchased from a pet store (and only because I thought the owner wouldn't be able to get any more in). The other animals are all adopted.

Katrina

In my case, I don't really have a passion for reptiles at all, but rather compassion for eastern box turtles.
I knew firsthand of an area that was to be developed into a shopping center and in this area I had seen box turtles. So before bulldozing commenced, I went day after day, sometimes alone, sometimes with my husband, and sometimes with a neighbor, and we rescued as many turtles as we could find.
I only began this effort AFTER having done alot of reading on the subject.
I had also humanely trapped, had neutered, and found homes for over a dozen feral cats and their kittens from the same area.
Generally speaking, I frown on the keeping of exotic pets for a variety of reasons, one being that the pet trade has led to very serious consequences for these animals in many parts of the world.
I haven't purchased a pet in over twenty years because I have found it to be completely unecessary: there are plenty of animals out there waiting to be adopted.
Regards,
Stephanie

Amen...Exotic pet trade has many unintended consequences-introduction of alien species, habitat degradation, los of biodiversity and the inhumane death of thousands of animals