Pet's you wish weren't sold at pet stores

[KoleyLarie]

To start off not all pet stores are evil, some actually will spend time educating the costumer on proper care of the animal they are intrested in, this includes some Petcos (very few but some). I was fortunite enough to work for an awesomely perfect Petco, before i transfered out of state. This perticular store only hired experianced employees and had them working in the deportment that they were well educated about, they also encourged us to spend time educating customers and to deny any sale we felt that the animal would not thrive in. Despite us fully being able to deny sales we always met are quota because our customers were loyal and returned on a regular bases due to the employees knowledge.Now the other 2 stores I worked at shouldn't carry any animals but this is the fault of managment not properly scheduling time or hiring people that or experianced.

There are some small pet shops that should just be shut down (ex:Sun City Reptiles in El Paso, TX) as they have no buisness saleing reptiles.
Some pet shops (ex:Noah's Arch El Paso, TX) should be able to carry what ever they want because the owners are knowledgeable about everything they sale and spend the time to educate about the animal in question.

Things I think should not be sould in Large Chain Pet Shops due to the fact most animals purchased from them are impulse. ( Usually if you go to a specialty store you have an idea of what your looking for):

Green Iguanas - I adore these guys but they really do need experianced keepers.

Aquatic and Semi-Aquatic Turtles: although they can make awesome display animals most people arn't willing to supply the appropraite habitat.

Water Dragons (Chinese): pet stores sale these instead of aussies because they are "prettier" but they require a large habitat and are pron to nose rubbing.

Anoles: These poor little guys too often are thrown in kritter keepers without any proper lighting or humidity.

Ball Pythons: People tend to think these guys are a "beginner snake" when really they arn't, Owners need to have a basic concept of heat grads and humidity. Balls are horribly pron to bad shed and retained eye caps when kept improperly and can be finicky eaters.

Uros @ PetSmart: I hate seeing these guys in there, typically 2 to a "habitat" which is 12in long, 6in wide, and 8in tall. there is absoultly no way to get a proper temp grad for them in there. (last time I saw Petsmart with Uros it was a 9in S2T and a hatchling together while an employee told a customer all they need is a 10 gal tank with a heat bulb and to put it on sandand just feed it crickets *shakes head* needless to say i spent time with said customer reeducating them)

hedgehogs: If they keep them like hampsters they shouldn't have them, these guys really should be set up more similar to a reptile as far as habitat.


Dogs or cats: Unless it's sponsered by a shelter, some petcos and petsmarts have live in adoptees from the local shelter.

Like I said I have no issue with a reputable responsible independant petstore saleing what ever they want within the law.


I do believe it is the responsablity of the customer to educate them selves on an animal before they purchase whether it be a reptile, small animal, cat or dog.

I personally support my small reputible lps because they are educated and I perfer to be able to see, handle, and examine my animals before purchase.:wall:

 

[ZergFront]

Why hedgehogs? excuse my lack of knowledge about them?:?
Later, Tom

Lot of pet stores I've seen don't know how to care for them. I've seen some that weren't given vet care.

 

[SandDeku]

people would adopt more pets if there wasnt a stupid adoption fee

I'd adopt more animals if the shelters weren't a pain in the friggin' arse to begin with. Make you fill out forms(kay im fine with that), you have to pay(kay also fine), but then you must wait untill they process it and later only to find out they adopted it out to someone else who came on the spot! Making you wait a week or so for an answer! that irritates me very badly. lol. It's the end result. Plus I shouldn't have to pay more for something that is of lower quality to begin with. You know? Go to a rescue and look at the reptiles. Try finding those reptiles on expos or online. See a difference? See that one from the rescue just looks like one who came from a petstore and not even good quality? Only for them to make you pay a large fee? ussually the fee isn't just 50bucks(even for something like a RES they make you pay that much) it's ussually more than that. Sometimes even up to a 100! I wouldn't pay 50bucks for a RES. I could just get one from a good breeder at a lower price. So it's something to think about too.

 

[QuantumGears]

I don't think rodents should be sold in bulk like they are in pet stores. I've seen plenty who's gerbils, hamsters, mice, etc. were in horrible condition. I woudnt suggest even using them as a feeder to snakes! Regardless pet stores should see the worth of a gerbil, mouse or any other rodent as more than a feeder. To some they're pets.

I think dogs and cats shouldnt be sold unless they're from a local shelter. A local PetSmart here sells cats but they're from the SPCA. They even have little tags that talk about how old they are, their ability to be with kids, general playfulness, etc!

 

[fantasticp]

I just want them to stop selling hermit crab sponges......

 

[3ntomology]

Hermit crabs- Experienced and knowledgeable crab owners typically get 4-7 years out of a crab given perfect conditions.

mine has been around for 13 years (if not longer!)

 

[TomM]

Iguanas- I'm sure we all know why. Most people buy them when they are cute and young, then abandon/kill them when they are 6 feet of evil.

I saw the title of this thread and iguana was the first thing that came to mind. They start out pretty small and extremely cheap (~$20), and most of the people who buy them are just look for a cool, smaller, cheap lizard.

I feel like there should be a small written test before purchasing anything more complicated than a goldfish. Nothing crazy. Just a simple test that sees if the customer even knows what they should be feeding their pet, about how big it can get, and how long it will live. Basic questions that can easily weed out poor pet owners in a quick ~2 minute test. Just my opinion.

 

[mrbonzai211]

I saw the title of this thread and iguana was the first thing that came to mind. They start out pretty small and extremely cheap (~$20), and most of the people who buy them are just look for a cool, smaller, cheap lizard.

I feel like there should be a small written test before purchasing anything more complicated than a goldfish. Nothing crazy. Just a simple test that sees if the customer even knows what they should be feeding their pet, about how big it can get, and how long it will live. Basic questions that can easily weed out poor pet owners in a quick ~2 minute test. Just my opinion.

I STILL hear pet stores tell people iguanas will only grow to the size of their cage.

 

[shining]

i dont think anything should be removed.
i do feel each group of animals should be sold by knowledgeable stores broken up instead of big stores as petsfart and petho.
reptiles at reptile specialty stores.
arachnids and insects at arachnid/insect stores.
fish and aquatic inverts at fish stores.
mammals at mammal stores.
makes sense doesnt it?well not for sales it doesnt.

that being said i think they should add homo sapiens to the hobby.
:evil:

 

[Rohan793]

i was at a petsmart the other day and pretty much had to push the employee out of the way because she was telling someone how to take 'care' of their new beardie but really all they were doing was telling them how to kill it.

anyway i believe that animals should be taken out of the stores like petsmart and petco who dont know what theyre talking about. however stores who know their stuff and take care of the animals (ie specialty shops) should be able to sell any animal they want to responsable owners.

 

[flamesbane]

Too bad most hobbyist in the US won't support specialty shops because of the higher prices due to the costs incurred with maintaining a retail location.

 

[loreleisg]

After reading some of the horror stories off of this thread, I am happy that I can say that my Petco/Petsmart didn't sell any tarantulas and that the lizards seemed to be in decent sized cages for a pet shop. That being said, I think there might be an issue with who the pet shops hire as employees rather than what they stock.

For example, I went to buy crickets and they only employee that I could locate was a 17 year old teen, not much younger than I was, who was there to take care of the entire fish section, the rodents, the lizards, and the birds, PLUS the crickets all by himself. While I waited 20 minutes for him to finish helping the other customers who were already waiting, I looked around at the animals.

When I asked him why the animals looked a bit hungry, he told me that it was his job to feed them every day and that he received no help from the managers or anyone. This was a good kid and his intentions were to do the best job he could. Even though he was truly uneducated about what the animals were supposed to be fed and other information, he did know exactly what the managers had told him in terms of how to care for the animals.

That being said, I do believe it comes down to individual employees and management. If they manager had bothered to care enough to help him and learn about what the animals need to thrive, he would be able to be a better employee and they animals would be fed properly.

However, in response to the original question, there is only one type of animal that I cringe at seeing at a pet store.

Bettas are perhaps the most abused fish sold today. Just because an animal CAN survive in a cup of water, doesn't mean that it SHOULD. Male betta fish need a minimum of a 2.5 gallon tank per fish, plus a filter and a heat source. They are very intelligent fish and if you treat one properly and talk to it, they will respond to the sound of your voice and blow bubbles, which is the true sign of a happy betta.

peace.

 

[wesker12]

pittbulllady, heres my .02.... you wanna keep tigers and stuff, awesome til it kills you and escapes and becomes law enforcements problem, AKA my problem. like the lady with the chimps....if you wanna keep something that cannot be contained in a terrarium, and is dangerous, move to a third world garbage dump like india. i hear they have plenty of cuddly tigers there for you smart people........

Have you been to India? Have you seen people keep "cuddly tigers" as pets? Please before you insult my country have actual first hand experience and dont refer to an entire nation as a "3rd world garbage dump" unless you are truly ignorant and arrogant. Watch your mouth. Dont ever refer to a country as dump unless you live there. Whatever you "heard" was and is wrong.

 

[mrbonzai211]

Have you been to India? Have you seen people keep "cuddly tigers" as pets? Please before you insult my country have actual first hand experience and dont refer to an entire nation as a "3rd world garbage dump" unless you are truly ignorant and arrogant. Watch your mouth. Dont ever refer to a country as dump unless you live there. Whatever you "heard" was and is wrong.

epic pwnage

 

[Fuzzy]

I think that all pets should be captive bred, period. Rare or fragile/sensitive exotic animals don't need to be taken from the wild while their environment is already being threatened, and that has nothing to do with animal rights. The only exception would be if new species are taken into captivity by specialists for breeding purposes.

 

[Matt K]

I would totally remove all Animal Rights activists from the hobby, that's what. I make absolutely no bones about that. As for animals, if you can provide for it, then you should be able to keep it. I've had animals like tigers, wolves, leopards, bobcats, large constrictors, venomous snakes, tarantulas, American Pit Bull Terriers, Akitas, and many others that this or that group says cannot be kept in captivity or maintained without either being horribly cruel to the animal or putting the lives of everyone around me in grave danger. Some of those animals I would not be able to keep again, due to my own lifestyle changes and age, others I would and still in fact do, in spite of the AR's screaming that it's cruel of me to do so. A lot of what you posted are just verbatim repeats of what anti-animal groups like PETA and HSUS spew forth to pursuade politicians to pass laws regulating ALL animal ownership right out of existance, and to convince the gullible John Q. Public that people who keep this or that animal are horrible, vile, evil scum-of-the-planet who should be treated like child molestors, if not worse. Name an animal, and I can tell you someone who believes that you should not keep it, own it, sell it or breed it because it's cruel to do, no one can possibly care for that animal properly, the animal is too dangerous, yada yada yada. There are many, many people who want to see tarantulas out of the hobby. There are people here who hate cats and would love to see cats erradicated. There are people who oppose keeping parrots or other birds. Do you think that there are people who abandon or mistreat dogs because the dog becomes too much trouble, or the owners can no longer handle the dog, or it gets too big, or any countless reasons? If you don't, check with your local animal shelter. Does that mean that because of the hundreds of thousands of dogs that wind up in animal shelters, that no one should be allowed to own, breed or sell dogs, that dogs should "be removed from the hobby"? The AR's sure think so. If all of us actually had the opportunity to remove from the hobby, as you say, whatever animals we don't like or would not want to keep or all the animals that the AR's tell us can't be properly kept without being cruel or shortening their lives or putting people's lives in dangers, what would be left, seriously? And THAT is exactly what they want-no animals being kept, owned, sold, bought or used by humans in any way, shape or form. I'm not especially fond of horses, personally. I wouldn't want to own one. I'm a bit scared of horses. Horses injure and kill thousands of people each year in the US alone, and many horses are abused and neglected and abandoned each year. With a few exceptions, we no longer need them for transportation. Does this mean I want to see horses banned, or "removed from the hobby"? Does this mean that I don't want anyone to be able to buy or own a horse? ABSOLUTELY NOT! What the AR's DON'T tell you, of course, is that for every mistreated or abandoned(fill in animal species of your choice) there are many, many more which are much-loved pets or valued breeding stock which are well and properly cared for. THAT does not suit their agenda, but all the sordid tales of abandoned pythons that got too big or wolfdogs turning on their owners or parrots pulling out their feathers tugs at people's emotions, and emotions, rather than logic, is what drives their success. You are simply repeating the PETA/HSUS mantra, you and Superpede both, and supporting their ultimate goal of an animal-free society. "I don't like it so no one should be able to have it"-I mean, egomaniacal control freak MUCH?

pitbulllady

Best statement in this thread....

 

[Elfpunk19]

I haven't read most of this thread yet but I will when I have more time. In my personal opinion anyone that would like to own a pet, (no matter what type), should take some sort of class,test or prove that they are capable & competent enough to take care of the animal that they wish to get. One of the things I have found is reptile rescues as well as cat & dog rescues amongst other types of rescues. People in general need to actually put thought & some time into the type of pet they want & hopefully, (since I can only speak for myself & my own personal opinion), in doing so the number of abused, abandoned this & neglected animals would go down dramatically. Again this is only my personal opinion.

 

[TomM]

I think that all pets should be captive bred, period. Rare or fragile/sensitive exotic animals don't need to be taken from the wild while their environment is already being threatened, and that has nothing to do with animal rights. The only exception would be if new species are taken into captivity by specialists for breeding purposes.

I couldn't agree more! Nothing upsets me more than the over-collection of wild animals that have already saturated the market. There should be more captive breeding programs.

 

[Elfpunk19]

I personally give Pitbulllady a standing ovation for what she said :clap:

 

[mwahvz]

i enjoyed reading this thread....