Reptile & Amphibian Forums

someone told me about this local pet store near my house so i was excited and decided to visit it today. well let me tell you, i wanted to cry when i saw this place. first off most of the reptile were kept back in this half way dark room so i went into it and saw a mali uromastyx and asked if i could hold him. well he had no light lamps or heat lamps on top of his cage and when i picked him up he was cold to the touch so there were not heat mats either. when i asked why he did not have any heat lamps, he told me that they had run out of lamps for in store use so some of them had to do without. then they were selling bearded dragons that were only like 3 inches long. they had taken in an abandoned/abused boa, which is nice but it had these big gashes on the side and they had her living on sand. i am not a snake but i know i don't like sand in my wounds. the real kicker is that while i was there, this guy says "man, they cut off our water" which met replies of "i am not surprised" and "shouldn't they have given us a notice?"
oh my god, i have never turned someone into the authorities before but i called san marcos herp rescue and the san diego humane society and both were amazed that a pet store did not have enough heat lamps for its reptiles and that they did not have water. they both said they were sending reps out there to check things out and both said that they had heard of the store before. oh i hope it gets shut down. they have my contact information so i hope to hear from them soon. i hope you all never have to witness a pet store like this. i hope i did the right thing.
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vonnie
***One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne***

I'm glad they are being checked out. Obviously the place has some problems running but they shouldn't let that affect the way they care for the animals. It's a scary decision to call in the humane society people but sometimes it is necessary. One time I called the human society on a neighbor that had some starving horses, dogs, cats and chickens. By the time they had a permit to check the place out the people were gone except for the cats they had abandoned.

You did good Vonnie.

I think more people are begining to take action, and hopefully things will change for the better soon.

There are alot of good people out there also ! Lets hope they will always OUT NUMBER the not so good!
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Eve

Wow,
Glad you turned them in. A lot of pet stores don't know or don't care about there animals.
keep us posted