Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone else seen conditions like these?

We visited a local petstore this weekend and I was shocked by what I saw. They were keeping a 9 foot albino burm in a 4x2x1 cage. There was no water. His hide box was a plastic wash basin for a newborn child. The poor thing was either in such a small space he couldn't move or the humidity was so low that his sheds were flaking off (not being shed in one piece). They had a high wattage lamp over his head and the poor thing was coiled up like a Ball Python, head in the middle of the coils (blocking light?) To boot, he was for sale...$600! I suppose to boost sales, they had a piece of paper on the outside of the cage telling the whole world how much he was given to eat it read:

Big Daddy for Sale!
Eats 1 large rat per month

Even worse than that, the poor thing was kept in the mammal room...can you imagine how he must feel being in the room with all of those food items and none he can eat? *sigh*

Sam

Wow that sounds really bad, that poor snake, not only not the conditions he requires, but underfeeding him, and posting how much they feed him, as if to show people they only need to be fed that often, so it sorta looks like a cheap pet..poor snake, i hope in someway that he gets into the proper care..i can say i would have a few words to say to who ever was running that place..

Well a local pet store near me has a yellow Anaconda,a red tail boa and a tiger retic in the same cage. They also have a burm and a carpet together. And others as well. The cages are not the cleanest in the world but are not real bad either.

>>Wow that sounds really bad, that poor snake, not only not the conditions he requires, but underfeeding him, and posting how much they feed him, as if to show people they only need to be fed that often, so it sorta looks like a cheap pet..poor snake, i hope in someway that he gets into the proper care..i can say i would have a few words to say to who ever was running that place..
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Thomas Jones
aligatorhunter@earthlink.net

Are you able to do SOMETHING to help this animal? I don't mean purchase or adopt but maybe notify the local humane society etc.

DZ

I have seen some poor usbandry and nothing suprises me any more on this matter. i still feel like the peopel shouldbe shot though. To me animal abuse should be looked at as child abuse. Nothing less. I wish we could feed the people who do ths just enough to live on and to water them every few days. and have a big light over them inside a 5' X 5' room. I would have no sympothy but then again I am quite cold hearted towards people I do not like. Just tell someone that can ge a hold of one of those groups that will help the things.
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Justin

with Brad Pitt? The killer takes a drug dealer and strings him out real bad. The dealer turns into a living skeleton, it's awsome. Sorry, but I'm all for torturing people that deserve it. It would be an awsome deterent!

DZ

I called the humane society in our area and a sweet lady picked up the phone. I told her I was a witness to poor care of a snake. She just sat there for a moment and said, "A snake?" another moment of silence before she finally said there was nothing they could do. I was given a number to the local shelter, but unless the petstore were to GIVE UP the animal by choice, there was nothing that could be done. *sigh* anyone have any ideas?

I would think the store has to follow certain guidlines and is held accountable from some agency if they do not. Where do they obtain their pet store license? Things like that. I know you have your own life to live but if you have the time you may make a huge difference. I would also call the humane society back and ask to speak to the woman's supervisor for her lack of concern about an animal. If she still won't help tell her she is stealing oxygen from others who could fill her position and make a difference and she should seek another line of work, say manual labor or fast food. What wretch! Sorry you had to see that. What is the name of the store/phone number. Maybe others with more contacts could get involved and assist the store in improving their living standards.

DZ