I was lead to this thread through a similar thread in reptile rescue, Canada forums. I copied my post from there to post here because I think it's important enough to do so. I apologize if some of it doesn't make sense, as I said, I was replying to another thread. I'll post the link to that thread as well.
This is to be read in a concerned tone of voice, not an angry one:
For one thing, she didn't say he was the guy that owns all the crab kiosks. She said he's the guy who owned the former crab kiosk in that particular mall. Each kiosk is run by a completely separate person. There is not one man in every mall across the nation running all the crab kiosks . If you don't see what's wrong with a kiosk in a mall selling pets, I'll fill you in. For over a year now, the hermit crab fad has taken up residence in a ton of malls across America so we've been dealing with this problem for quite awhile.
First off, the kiosks are targeting impulse buyers, which in itself, is not a good thing. Mommy is taking little Charlie to buy school clothes and they end up with a gecko that they weren't prepared to purchase and know nothing about. Unfortunately, the kiosk workers are normally teenagers working their part-time afterschool jobs and they aren't very knowledgable and can't answer most of the questions asked about general care(sometimes they even make up answers. I was told that hermit crabs could live on potato chips at one kiosk). Normally, you get a caresheet that only contains half of the info needed to provide a long, happy life for your pet. Good thing they come with the 14 day guarantee...
Secondly, at first glance, these kiosks seem to be almost better than a petstore. They keep them nice and clean and I almost never find dead bodies or body parts in the display tanks(hermit crabs will drop limbs when stressed). Looks can be decieving though. I have not personally seen the gecko kiosk in question, but the crab kiosks I have seen have never been correct in the conditions they provide. They keep them in open sided tanks that don't hold humidity in and shine bright display lights on them. Those are desert conditions, crabs need tropical conditions. Crabs breath through modified gills and if you don't maintain a 70-80% humidity level in their habitat, they will slowly suffocate and die. Just remember that next time you pass a crab kiosk, that all those poor crabs are in there suffocating(Hey Alex- if you do know the *owner of all crab kiosks* could you please tell him that?). The kiosk owners have no problem letting people pick up and play with the animals, they actually encourage it. This leads to dropping them, poking and prodding them, and stressing them out in general. I read about one kiosk where some teenagers set the crabs free in the mall to freak people out. I'm sure the crabs really enjoyed that. Who do you think was more freaked out, the people or the crabs?
Thirdly, those kritter keepers they sell are not good homes for pets. We refer to them as *little boxes of death* on the crab messageboard. How on earth can anyone think these 2-3 gallon tanks could be enough to provide a permanent home for any creature except maybe a betta or some feeder crickets? There's no room to provide a proper thermal gradient, no room for a humid hide or a dry hide, no room to walk around, no room for things to climb on, no room, no room, no room. It's even worse for crabs because the lids are full of ventilation slits that don't hold the humidity in(more suffocation). Kiosk workers will tell you that you can fit 2-3 crabs in one keeper. I wonder how many geckos they think will fit?
As I said before, I have not seen the kiosk in question personally. The info I posted was from a woman I've been chatting with for over a year. I can't imagine she would be making it up. At any rate, even if this kiosk was the perfect kiosk selling perfectly happy pets, I would never support a place that sells pets to impulse buyers who, in most cases, are not prepared or willing to do the necessary research to provide a good home for the pet in question. After seeing and hearing the horror stories from the crab kiosks, I'm sure you can understand my fear that this gecko store fad will also spread across the country. Again, it's worse for the crabs, they have not been successfully bred in captivity so the crab fad is taking it's toll on the wild populations. I'm sorry to say that I have no website or business card to give you, as I am only a lowly housewife who cares about animals. Any breeders out there, I beg of you to think twice before selling your babies to any of these types of stores. They may look like a good investment $cha-ching$, but in the long run, don't you want what's best for your babies?
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