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Posted by BeDreamin on April 14, 2003 at 18:48:21:
In Reply to: The Search for Good Petstores Continues- Today's Pets (long) posted by girlzilla on April 14, 2003 at 08:26:44:
Today I went to the pet store in the next town over, it's a little more out of my way than the one I usually go to so I hadn't been there in a long while (but that will definitely change). I remembered that the owner always used to have igs that people dropped off at the store for adoption, where they were taken very good care of, but the store dealt mostly in birds back then from what I remember.
I just had a tokay gecko dumped on me (evil, bad, evil), and I needed a nocturnal bulb setup for it, so I decided to hit this store up for a change. First thing, I walk in... it doesn't smell! Sure, smell of bedding and stuff, but not waste. So far, so good. I walked to the back to the reptile room and grabbed a bulb and some other stuff, then went in to look at the herps. I must say, I was *amazed*! The guy running the store is keeping THE cleanest herp room I've seen around here! Nothing overcrowded, nothing w/out food and water, and nothing w/out a hide box, and NOT A SINGLE baby ig.
When I got to the counter I mentioned the EvilDeathTokay to him and of course he knew what I was talking about. I asked him about the igs I remembered seeing, he told me that he has simply gotten away from taking rescues as of late, and then mentioned that he refused to stock igs. We talked for a good half hour about the current situation of the iguana, and I told him it was downright refreshing to walk into a store and not see twenty hatchling lying all over each other in a bowl of iceburg lettuce. He said that he discourages people from iguanas as much as he can, and recommends B.Ds to anyone looking for a lizard (he had absolutely BEAUTIFUL juvenilles about six months old by the way). Only if someone is completely insistent on an iguana will he go ahead and get one for them, I imagine this puts a huge dent in impulse buys.
Wow, I just figured I'd share with all of you once I saw this post. I wish more managers and employees could make sensible choices like this guy. I will most definitely give as much of my business to this store as I can in the future. For the record, the herp room contained the two young 'dragons I mentioned, a Kenyan sand boa, ball python, and a few misc. smaller lizards like curlytails, and a very nice looking leo gecko, all in entirely suitable setups, all the herps under UV, not just heat (No turtles... New Jersey). I walked out of that store almost completely dumbfounded...
:I went to a new store in the Annapolis mall last week- it's called Today's Pet. I went there after visiting a similar store in a mall in the Philly suburbs. There was no reptile section at that one, although they did sell supplies. Good so far, so I thought I would give my local mall petstore a try.
:I grabbed a sales circular, and went to the tanks at the way back of the store (weird, that's where the herps are always kept in these bad stores- maybe indicates priority? Maybe we need a Rosa Parks of herps!) and was pleased with what I saw. There seemed to be one of every animal in each tank (except for the tiny ones, like anoles and leopard geckos), and they were priced in an appropriately high range- a monitor was over $150, as was a turtle and a chameleon.
:Then I saw the iguana tank. Okay, I thought, not so bad. There seem to be only two fairly healthy looking iguanas here. Then I saw that there were TWO iguana tanks: One with only a few in it, rather wan and sickly looking ones, but still the healthiest of the bunch. That tank is on the eye-level shelf. If you look on the lowest shelf, you'll find another tank- full of the ones who aren't going to make it. It just broke my heart. They were skinny and brown, even though they had a bluish light shining on them to make them look good.
:I looked back in the top tank- I had been wrong. There weren't two in there, there were only two basking on top of a log. The rest, and there were a lot, were under the log, piled together (for warmth, I assume) and they all had their eyes closed.
:I stared at them for a while. There was nobody but me in the darkened "reptile cave" in the back of the store. As I looked at them, I tried to think to them how sorry I was that they were in the place they were. And then, something really weird happened. Maybe they noticed that something was staring at them, or maybe I made some little noise I wasn't aware of. But almost in unison, they all opened their eyes, and looked right at me, although they stayed perfectly motionless except for the eyes. It still gives me goosebumps to write about it.
:I turned around and walked out of the store, dropping off the sales flyer at the register on the way. Oh, incidentally- Almost every animal in that cluster of tanks was over fifty dollars. All herps were twenty percent off that week- making the price of an iguana something like ten dollars. Sickening.
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