What should I do about this...

[CaptainMorgantown]

Hello,

So I work at this little exotic pet store in the middle of town. We take excellent care of all of our animals, and the health and happiness of our animals is our number one priority. There is another store across town that is our competitor, and was actually another location of our pet store. However, due to a series of events, my manager cut all ties with the other store and left the woman that owned that location to her own devices. The other store is bigger than the one that I am at, but they constantly lose customers because of how rude they all are.

Recently, several people have told me how a lot of their animals are dying. One woman brought in a savannah monitor to us that she had bought from the other store because they were starving it. They told her that they didn't think anyone was going to buy it, so they were just waiting for it to die (we restored it back to good health BTW). Anyway, we have been told so many stories this week that I decided to go up to the other store and have a look around. It was horrifying.

I have been keeping frogs for a while now, so they are very close to my heart. They had about seven or eight different kinds of geckos, frogs, and anoles in a twenty gallon short tank with wood chips as substrate. There were dried up frogs all over the tank, and one of the anoles was missing it's snout. In another tank, there was a dead baby leopard gecko in with a huge adult leo gecko. Luckily, none of their chams looked like they had MBD, but they had about ten of them in a screen cage that it looked like was a tall one, but they turned it on it's side so that it was short. The sizes of them ranged from a little baby to one that was about six inches long, not including tail. They all had a albino veiled chameleon (in it's own cage) that was labeled as a carpet chameleon, and they were asking 300 for it.

I told my boss all of this, but she is a very nice sweet older lady, and I don't think that she wants to start trouble. Something needs to be done about this though. It made me so sad and angry to go in there. I used to have a friend that worked there about a year ago, before it got really bad up there, and I found out that she was fired because she got into an argument with the manager because of the way the animals were being treated.

Is there anyone that I can report them to or anything that can be done?

 

[Solid Snake]

Call the media. They have the power to ruin the other stores. Get them involved.

 

[Graanto]

Quick google search resulted in this:

http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/animal_cruelty/reporting_abuse/pet_stores.php

 

[TriSARAtop]

Its sad to say but alotttt of pet stores are like that. We bought our jacksonii from a pet store and couldn't be happier with him but now that we look back on that pet store we only buy what we need from there like meal worms and crickets til we start our own cricket colony. Reptiles look horrible in this pet store we go to. No UV lights, no watering systems an we havent seen them water em, theres lizards that look almost dead and that are sleeping in the day. Very sad going in there. Some people just do it for the money. Half the time they cant even tell you how to care for what they sell and therefore people need to do their research before buying since pet stores will also give out false information. Even big name brand pet stores that are all animal base don't properly care for the animals. I'd do what solidsnake says and report to the media. It really will do damage because its all about word of mouth. Just like when you get bad service and you share with people about it, those people are normally going to share with others.

On a good note, I'm glad to see that you and the owner of the pet store you work at care about what you sell. There needs to be more places like that.

 

[Carlton]

Hello,

So I work at this little exotic pet store in the middle of town. We take excellent care of all of our animals, and the health and happiness of our animals is our number one priority. There is another store across town that is our competitor, and was actually another location of our pet store. However, due to a series of events, my manager cut all ties with the other store and left the woman that owned that location to her own devices. The other store is bigger than the one that I am at, but they constantly lose customers because of how rude they all are.

Recently, several people have told me how a lot of their animals are dying. One woman brought in a savannah monitor to us that she had bought from the other store because they were starving it. They told her that they didn't think anyone was going to buy it, so they were just waiting for it to die (we restored it back to good health BTW). Anyway, we have been told so many stories this week that I decided to go up to the other store and have a look around. It was horrifying.

I have been keeping frogs for a while now, so they are very close to my heart. They had about seven or eight different kinds of geckos, frogs, and anoles in a twenty gallon short tank with wood chips as substrate. There were dried up frogs all over the tank, and one of the anoles was missing it's snout. In another tank, there was a dead baby leopard gecko in with a huge adult leo gecko. Luckily, none of their chams looked like they had MBD, but they had about ten of them in a screen cage that it looked like was a tall one, but they turned it on it's side so that it was short. The sizes of them ranged from a little baby to one that was about six inches long, not including tail. They all had a albino veiled chameleon (in it's own cage) that was labeled as a carpet chameleon, and they were asking 300 for it.

I told my boss all of this, but she is a very nice sweet older lady, and I don't think that she wants to start trouble. Something needs to be done about this though. It made me so sad and angry to go in there. I used to have a friend that worked there about a year ago, before it got really bad up there, and I found out that she was fired because she got into an argument with the manager because of the way the animals were being treated.

Is there anyone that I can report them to or anything that can be done?

Pet shops are usually inspected on a regular basis by some local agency (it differs depending on where you are). It could be your local animal control or public health agency. Find out who inspects YOUR store...it may be the same agency that would inspect the other one. Once you get the office info, send them a report of the conditions as a consumer filing a cruelty or neglect report. You'll probably have to limit your descriptions to the trigger points like "no water", "no food", "sick or dead on display" or "cruel confinement" because often the animal cruelty laws only allow action under those conditions. If you can sneak some photos that's even better. Whether you file it as a private person or an employee of a competing business might have to be your choice. If the agency does not take action THEN you might go to the media.

 

[Carlton]

Its sad to say but alotttt of pet stores are like that. We bought our jacksonii from a pet store and couldn't be happier with him but now that we look back on that pet store we only buy what we need from there like meal worms and crickets til we start our own cricket colony. Reptiles look horrible in this pet store we go to. No UV lights, no watering systems an we havent seen them water em, theres lizards that look almost dead and that are sleeping in the day. Very sad going in there. Some people just do it for the money. Half the time they cant even tell you how to care for what they sell and therefore people need to do their research before buying since pet stores will also give out false information. Even big name brand pet stores that are all animal base don't properly care for the animals. I'd do what solidsnake says and report to the media. It really will do damage because its all about word of mouth. Just like when you get bad service and you share with people about it, those people are normally going to share with others.

On a good note, I'm glad to see that you and the owner of the pet store you work at care about what you sell. There needs to be more places like that.

When you finally stop buying anything from the bad shop it might help (and make you feel better) to send them a letter explaining why you will no longer shop there. You could also send a copy of your letter to the local agency that inspects and licenses pet shops.

 

[TriSARAtop]

When you finally stop buying anything from the bad shop it might help (and make you feel better) to send them a letter explaining why you will no longer shop there. You could also send a copy of your letter to the local agency that inspects and licenses pet shops.

Sounds like a good idea to me. I can't wait to stop having to shop there. Whats funny is, we always see them buying there reptiles at the reptile show that we try to go to every month and so if we don't buy from an online breeder we know where to get the ones from local breeders before they are abused by this store.

 

[CaptainMorgantown]

I am about to go into work now, and I will find out who, if anyone, inspects our store. I feel like West Virginia doesn't have strict regulations on pet stores. I know that no pet store is perfect, even for mine it has been a learning experience, but when we have three and four customers telling us horror stories everyday, I think that something has to be done. I will talk to my boss more about it and let you all know what we are going to do.