Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sorry for the long post, but I am pissed off...

Well, I was in a pet store today in Iowa City, IA and was shocked by what I saw. They had a pair of carpets that were in horrid conditions. One was a coastal and one looked like a coastal cross. Both were over 6 ft and housed in the same 2ft cage. The cage was so humid it had water drips running down the front and when I opened it the stench of mildew hit me in the face. There were old stools with fur growing on it and the water was dirty brown. It gets worse. It seems the previous owner left a large rat in the cage with the coastal cross and the rat severely chewed the tail exposing flesh and bone. It is the worse injury I have seen in a reptile. It was mostly healed but the carpet has lost all movement from about 6 inches above the vent all the way down to the tail. Its just limp. Rather than taking it to the vet the previous owner dumped them at the pet store for free. Now the pet store wants $200 for this sickly pair they obtained for free. This is bad deal.

My dilemma... If you buy the carpets you support this type of business, but if you leave them they will also suffer?

I thought the best I could do was try to educate the store employee that the carpets each need there own larger clean cage with clean water & less humidity. Its not the employees decision and all I got was a agreeing nod, and I left feeling terrible.

I held both and they are not biters despite their poor conditions. I don't have the room or the money to save these guys. Nor do I want to support this business. I will be in the area in 3 weeks and will try to get some pics if they are still there.
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MY COLLECTION

Find a local reptile rescue or animal shelter knowledged in reptiles and work with them and the law to get the animals out of those conditions. All to often reptile shops have no clue, and anything you suggest follows the wind as you depart. BUY THEM OR WORK TO SAVE THEM!! Thanks for careing.

The animal shelters and animal control in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids are as ignorant as the pet shop owners. When my brothers het albino bullsnakes were confiscated by animal control they didn't even know what to feed them or how to house them. They eventually fed them HUGE rats that were twice as fat as the body of the snake and didn't have any heat for them. Keeping both 6ft bullsnakes in a 20 gallon aquarium. Luckily by pulling strings and contacting the breeder we got them back afer proving they were hets and obtaining permits. There aren't any herp rescue groups in my area that I know of, and like I said I am not going to buy them and support this pet store. I will call animal control and try to get some pics to email them. I will also try to speak with the owner, but this is nothing new, pet shops all over the U.S. keep snakes in horrid conditions to save space and money. It makes us all look bad.
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MY COLLECTION

I say DON'T DO IT!!! You are saving the animals I grant you that, but what will happen to the two Carpets they get a week after you buy those? Some pet stores do this purposely now to make the animals look like they are in need of help...they are but it's just supporting their business and they'll just get more in.

Douglas call the local humane society and inform the local authority in Iowa City, that is BS as is "the reptile expert" in Cedar Rapids.
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"Victory is reserved for those willing to pay its price"