Reptile & Amphibian Forums

went to pet smart yesterday and put my foot down im very sick of seeing sick died and mistreated herps swo i went and stopped a woman who worked there and said get a dam manager over here and i told that dude everything that was wrong and he trys tellin me im wrong by sayin leopard geckos love sand and heat rocks and that the dong eat crickets that the eat lettuce and tamato SO I BOUT ALL 18 babys that where in the tank will send pics soon...... SORRY FO THE LONG POST but we should all stand up for the safety of leopards..

THX FO UR TIME.......

RePlY what U ThInK

sorry misspelled lots tryin to type fast the guy said that they eat LETTUCE AND TAMOTO AHHHHHH

Yeah I overheard an employee telling a customer. "Lettuce is great to feed to iguanas." Yeah so is a staple diet of french fries for your kid. Luckily I was able to talk to the customer after the employee was gone.

that is a nice thing to do most peeps would just laugh and walk away like me but i am just very disapointed in these stores.. they do not properly care for there animals and it shows...

My name is ryan and i work at petsmart. one thing you should know is that the store gives us no training whatsoever on reptiles of any sort. its kinda stupid but if they trained us to know so much more stuff then they'd have to pay us more, which i dont think they're interested in. ive heard some stupid stuff said there by my co workers and have of course corrected them. its not as much the employees fault as it is the company for not educating us. that said i think they are a wonderful company and i know my store does its absolute best to take care of all the animals it has, however difficult it may be.

hey u work at a petsmart in north carolina??? just wonderin met a cool dude at on in charlotte... umm i understand thats why i said PETSMART not employees... and i understand what u say and how old do u gotta be to work there ima go and train these peeps or atleast take car of herps... ill even volenteer at all petsmarts in my area if possible......

that was a very honorable move dude even though that must have cost you a fortune way to be a good person

ya i bought 9 at 24$ a piece and now i have to nurse them back to health and sell them dont got enough money for my other leos food... im short on cash if anyone wants to donate...

i dont have any money and if i did what is your address so maybe if i get money ill be sure to donate bc i love leos and this is for a good cause bc im sure taht you wont sepnd it on crap yoll spend it on those leos

dont bother donating... in the end he is just hurting more leo's. Because every leo he buys the company is gonna get another shipment of them and the shipments will get larger as he buys more and more... hes in the end helping petco.
-kinik

yes well if he dosent buy them from petsmart or wherever then they wont restock fast enough the only way to fully help them is by working there and taking care of teh leos himself there insted of wasting liek hundreds of dollars buying them n feeding them

thank you... i see sombody on this bord has common sence other than me (not a bash on anybody)
-kinik

ive bout the 18 yall already know about and ima send and application to petsmart and see if i can work strictly on herps and i will nolonger purchase them these 18 are doin extremely well and they will al be for sale next month and some are showin great colorastion one has a carrot tail..

probably none of them are female blizzards... i have been looking for one for awhile that is cheap... anybody know if any shows are coming around southern PA?
-Kinik
-----
I have decided to name my 1st leo Maverick. His last owner didnt want him and neglected and underfed him.

hey i used to the live in southern pa where do u live there??? and nope no blizzards but i got albinos..

Do u have aim or something i rather not say stuff like that on a public forum
-Kinik
-----
I have decided to name my 1st leo Maverick. His last owner didnt want him and neglected and underfed him.

my aim is drsmith2429

While noble, it wasn't very smart. All you have done is put more money in petsmarts pocket. They will probably get a larger shipment in to replace the ones you bought. It would have been better to ask for a regional managers contact info and discussed it with him. If that got no results, keep going up the chain of management.

Rather than supporting them with a purchase, better to boycott the store and spend your money elsewhere, the only thing a corporation like Petsmart cares about is it's bottom line, all you did was add to their profit margin.

Not to mention that you now have an additional 9 or 18, since you posted a different number in 2 posts, geckos to try and take care of, which you say is a burden on you financially. I think you should have put a bit more thought into your decision.
-----
Sam
Gecko Den
Email Me

i did get 18 but i only have to care for 9 the other nine are in great condition that was just a typo...and if they restock ill buy them again and again and again i dont care i just want them to be in a good home...

with that logic you are eventually gonna have hundreds of them... what are you gonna do then? i agree that they rnt treating them right but i dont think buying them over and over is a very smart move

I'll take one...

I agree. It's just more profit for Petsmart. Petsmart donates some of these profits to the HSUS, which is against keeping reptiles as pets.
more info on Petsmart and HSUS

-----
chickabowwow

well thats fine if they dont support it i am just a caring leo keeper and soon to be breeder and i will do anything to take care of them i have all my adult leos in a 20l and all 18 babies in there own 10g so i will really go to any lengths fo leos and the next time i go to petco or petsmart ima buy more because i AM WILLING TO DO ANYTHING for this species.....

Trust me. You are not doing ANYTHING for this species by continuing to support these stores.

People need to stop shopping there. Then the companies will realize they're not making money by selling leos, so they'll stop selling them.
-----
chickabowwow

well i really am would u wanna live in one of themparasite infested cages dont think so... but if thats what u think and u think its fair for them to suffer than u let them im not ima buy them all even if they cost me 300 400$ a week idont really care at all and id like to find out who sells to them cause ill tell them not to cause there just sellin them all to broken homes and there all diein......

Well you may be doing these 18 geckos a favor...but to the 18 geckos you save more and more breeding geckos have to breed more and more geckos that go out to all the stores in the USA...you may be saving the geckos at one store...but its not worthwhile because 100 times as many geckos will be suffering elsewhere. Its sortof like if you buy a puppy in the puppy store you think that you are rescuing the puppy but you are actually making thousands of mommy dogs suffer. The breeding geckos are not treated well at all and they are bread untill they can breed no more and then killed.
(sorry for the long post)
-----
I dont have any leopard geckos yet...
In a couple of weeks right now I am properly setting
Up the tank and getting "stuff for the little leo"
I do have 3 ferrets and 4 dogs.

Right, so if you spend $300-$300 a week to buy all these geckos, how do you afford vet bills for every single one of them? How do you house all of them in careful quarantine so they don't transmit diseases to the animals you already own? Do you even know what kinds of parasites you're dealing with? Do you know about crypto?

Something tells me the answer is no. It also doesn't surprise me you don't know who supplies these petstores with their leos.
-----
chickabowwow

i do know about crypto and i know about parasites also my mom is a vet and she gets me anti-parasite [bleep] all the time and i had lost a whole clutch of rainwater albinos to crypto i know all about it...

But based on what you have said you would need to travel the country over and go to every pet store and buy all of the 1000s that are out there. I have yet to see a pet store that properly cares for all of their animals. I buy straight from breeders, it is these middle men (big generalization I know) that don't have the facilites are the "want" to keep them properly. But like others have said, I think your motive is great but the way you are going about doing something isn't going to help. How about spending your time writing letters to those that can makea difference in these chain stores?

How old are you by chance? From the way you type and come across I would guess 11-13. How do you plan on spending $300-400 a week on these animals? You also have to buy more feeders, bedding, cages, heat tape, not to mention power bills.

Matt

im 14 and i have a job and i pay for everything and i what i do is rehabilite them then sell them thats what ive done for months and thats what ima do now except for my rainwaters thats what i do.....

By buying all the leos there, guess what that means to them....out of leos, better order some more. Order some more leos to give improper care to. You do NOTHING for leos when you spend well over 200$ or whatever SUPPORTING there store, and if you were smart you'd realize that. If we get the word out to people that are looking to buy leos not to support petstores, THAN they will stop selling them. Not by some 14 year old coming in, getting angry, but then supporting them by buying them all. How are you even gunna take care of all them? Your gunna buy their next shipment too? And the next? Well thank you superman but that does nothing to "help this species". I'm sorry but that was a very stupid move. By the way, I'm 14 aswell but I'm smart enough to realize that your supporting them and that a 14 year old cant take care of 9 sick malnourished need a vet geckos. You said you mom is a vet, well thats a start but just realize it'll be alot of work, and it may not even work out. Please, next time just turn your head away from those cages, and do the best you can to inform people that buying from these stores is wrong.
Mac

You have 18 10 gallon tanks setting around??? and 20 gallon longs for adults??? ...and you can afford 400 dollars a week (more for supplies & food) to buy all these leos???....are you rich??? You said you were short on cash...I cant hardly believe any of this since for my one leos supplys and care I spend over 200 dollars (tank,lights,heater,decor,hides)
-----
KRISTI Mommy 2 Autumn Rose (daughter) 2 1/2 yrs
Reign Michael(son) 6 months
Duncan (Budgie) Passed away 5/11/2004...Love you duncan
Asia ( Leopard Gecko)
Russia ( Albino Cornsnake)
Dublin (mini lop ear rabbit)
OH, And Ron the geckos #1 FAN!!! (owned by BlizzardGecko)

The following is my opinion, and NOT a personal attack. It applies to everyone who has though about/done this in the past, and is NOT meant as a personal attack against an individual.

It was an extremely noble thing to do... however I agree that you are not supporting the overall species. I am sure that these 18 will do fine now that they are in your care, but what about the 40 that they order to replace them? You claim you're short on cash but can afford buying all of them, every time they come in. You're simply not going to be able to buy EVERY leopard gecko that the store sells from not until it closes. Perhaps enough calls to the police for animal cruelty would do the trick.... never happen... but nice in theory.

It seems the way to get better care for the leos they carry, would be to offer free training to the employees, educate the staff, and work your way up the chain of command. Give them a stack of care sheets on the animals to be handed out with each sale. This way, ALL animals they get/sell can recieve proper care.

By purchasing these animals you ARE helping their bottom line. They want people to buy animals. Not to enjoy them for the incredible species that they are, but for money. Some stores and/or people at the stores may care, but many do not. You are telling them that this poor treatment is OK, and that they don't have to spend extra money caring for animals to sell their stock. Why would they spend the extra money when you've proven that people buy them anyway?

It's like going to a horrible breeder, seeing that they are bad, and buying them all. They are NOT going to improve things this way. The breeder will see that they can sell all of their animals exactly the way that they are, and produce more to make more money.

You did not do a favor to the overall species by supporting the 18 that you saved. You helped continue the cycle that supports poor care for animals as long as it supports the bottom line. Thousands more are being bought across the country that will NEVER recieve the care they need. It's much easier to educate the majority of people than it is to personally take on the responsibility of caring for EVERY leopard gecko sold.

I don't really want to start a huge war over this, this is just my opinion.
-----
Brian Skibinski
Milwaukee Reptiles
Brian@MilwaukeeReptiles.com

Way to say it Brian. i totaly agree with the statement Brian just said and its true. you should listern to all the people who have replyed to the thread they are all right.