Reporting animal cruelty at a pet store...

[GartenSpinnen]

I just went to a local pet store in town which i have known to not take care of there animals. This is the worst i have ever seen it though. All the reptiles were starving, i seen iguanas that i could count every single rib on them and see there skull. They were so under fed that they didnt even move. Other lizards had raw skin on the face and appeared to have infections in there eyes and on there skin. They have a 4 foot alligator not set up properly that had infection all in its eyes and couldnt even open them. None of the animals were housed correctly. A water snake was in a 5 gallon terrarium with 4 inches of stained stinky nasty water where you could see prey remains rotten and floating around it. It was some of the nastiest stuff i have seen. Is there anything i can do about this?
-Nate

 

[naturejoe]

pet store cruelty

Depending on where you live, you should have a variety of resources to turn to. I am an animal protection officer in Durango, CO and here we would handle that sort of call, fish and wildlife would be very interested in the alligator and we have a state law requiring any animal facility to be licensed under PACFA (pet animal care facilities act). You may also have an ASPCA or Humane Society there that would be very interested in this situation.

If you tell me where you live I might be able to find out who has jurisdiction in this matter. It doesn't hurt to call all organizations that might have some interest in this. They will often try to pass it on to someone else so please be patient and persistent. Local political figures are sometimes good to contact as well.

Good luck,

Nature Joe

 

[bluefrogtat2]

good thread

i went into our local petstore and they had a similiar scenario.had a cage listing turtles and there was one that was soooooo dead its legs had swelled to ungodly proportions.(had been dead for some time)sux.wanted to call on them as well
andy

 

[GartenSpinnen]

I live in Michigan. I think where im at alligators are legal, and id like to keep it that way, however, if your going to own one they should have the proper care available to them like any other animals.
-Nate

 

[tyrant963]

Cant the local police help? if they cant, they could probably get you in touch with animal cruelty services.

 

[arachyd]

Report it to everyone to try to avoid the possibility that each agency thinks it is someone else's problem and it gets totally ignored. Contact the state office that handles issuing permits for nongame species (usually you can get that information from your state's fish & wildlife agency), local police, animal control, humane society and any animal rights groups in the area. If you get no results go to the local newspaper-every area has one-and tell them you've got a story for them.

The alligator is most likely a cayman. They are generally legal if you have the proper permits depending on your state. An alligator would not be legal in a pet shop.

 

[GartenSpinnen]

Its not a cayman, its an american alligator. You can tell pretty easily especially if you have ever seen one side by side for comparison. The bumps going down the tail are much different, and the head is also different. Not to mention the attitude! For some reason i dont think they are illegal to sell or own in my area, either one that is because i have seen other pet stores with both cayman and alligators, i even seen one setup where they were housed together! Also, ive seen some other type of croc species that was neither cayman nor alligator not sure what it was but it was pretty. Ill try calling animal control and the DNR tommorrow and see where i get. This pet store just started handling reptiles, inverts, etc and they have no business doing it. Matter in fact the only reason they did start doing that is because my favorite store that took very good care of there animals went under and they decided to take over the whole business around this area . Its sad.
-Nate

 

[LeilaNami]

There's a feed store like that around my area. Unfortunately even with all the complaints there has been no action against them.

 

[Jer]

Sounds like pretty much every pet store ive visited.

 

[LeilaNami]

Not my pet store

 

[GailC]

start buy calling the police, make sure you describe what you saw in regards to starving animals living in filth. They should send someone to take a look.

 

[Truff135]

Do you have an update, shammer?
That is just disgusting that people could treat animals like that. I mean, if you can visibly see how horrible it is, how could you in your right mind not do anything about it? (you as in a general sense - the employees)
Ugh, I really hope that gets taken care of ASAP.

 

[ErinKelley]

I am also interested in what is going on with this. Petstores somehow get away with murder, literally!

 

[Aarantula]

I would suggest (if possible) videotaping the horrible enclosures prior to saying anything to anyone. This will get evidence against them when their caught off guard.