petstore selling grossly mislabelled tortoises

[halfwaynowhere]

so the petstore at the mall near me has a tank full of cute little baby tortoises, labelled as russian tortoises. Now, russian tortoises are one of the smaller species, growing no bigger than around 10 inches. Except the tortoises they have are actually sulcatas, which are the third largest tortoise species in the world. Big difference.
Most of the people around here aren't going to know the difference. They are going to buy a cute little baby tortoise that they think will live in the house forever, and then after a year, it will have grown so much, they'll end up getting rid of it.
The problem is, its a really crummy petstore, selling overpriced mutt puppies (peke-poos, etc.) and "patio kittens" which were just found on someone's porch or something. I don't go in there very often, but when I do, I tend to be pretty annoying, talking very loudly (hoping to be overheard) to my friends about puppy mill conditions and whatnot.
I'm going to try to go down there next week and point out their mistake (I would have done it today, but I wasn't absolutely positive that they were sulcatas. I had to google it when I got home, to make sure). I hope I can get them to correct the sign. I'm going to bring printouts or something (I might even pick up a tortoise care book this weekend, which should have pictures) so I can show them their error, they won't just have to trust me. If I can't get them to change the sign, what are my next options? Is there someone else I could contact about it? I mean, it may seem like a small error, but it could mean that most of those tortoises end up homeless in the next year or so because people can't handle something that big.

 

[arachyd]

Possibly the office of consumer affairs or the police will take a complaint of whatever it is called when you say you're selling something and it is really something else. It comes under fraud, misrepresentation or intentional mislabeling or something like that. You could innocently happen to buy one and then take them to court and make sure the local paper knows to write up a little article so they never do it again.

 

[Aschamne]

I don't know why a petshop would intentionally mislabel a sulcata as a russian, considering the fact that sulcatas are worth way more. More than likely it is a true error in identification, which they will be more than happy to change(and then charge 3 times as much).

Just my opinion,

Art

 

[halfwaynowhere]

well, russians generally go for $100, while sulcata hatchlings have been selling locally for around $50.
I don't think they did it on purpose, they probably had russians in stock, and then got these in, and didn't notice they were different, and didn't change the sign. But I also don't know if they are going to believe me, or even listen to me.
Anyways, I'll go down there on monday, I don't have time this weekend. best case scenario, they listen and change the sign... But I have a bad feeling about the whole thing...

 

[spydrhunter1]

A lot of pet stores do not even know what they're selling. They buy from dealers who have a list of animals that listed by common names. Whats more is that may animal dealers don't even know their stock. There was a petshop here who labeled a giant Vietnamese centipede a giant millipede.
Another pet store got in an order of land hemit crabs (not realizing that there are multiple species, some requiring special care). Turns out the order of 12 crabs were Caribbean land hermits. These must be provided sea water for drinking. After I informed the owner, his attitude was not to be bothered with them. He boxed up the remaining 10 crabs not sold and GAVE them to me.