Bad petstores who stress T's, what can be done?

NYbirdEater

Arachnobaron
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May 25, 2004
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The only petstores near where I live have rosehairs or pinktoes and keep them in the worst conditions for any T let alone thses 2 specific species. Neither has knowledgable staff and they are often frightened of them.

The Petco megastore has flies IN and ON the tanks, usually no substrate, bright lights, and dead prey everywhere. The T I got from them was injured because they used a net to remove it from the tank, scared to grab it with their hand. Last time I ever went there.

Petland uses crushed walnut shells as substrate which is for birds, and keep the critter keepers inside of lizard tanks with heat lamps and lights. They also throw in about 12 crickets with any size T and no hide or water is given. Even people who work there who own tarantulas seem to think this is fine, and were actually trying to convince me that the Avicularia avicularia they had was a "desert tarantula"!!! {D Probably thought it was a rosie, but the rosies they get are always on some side of the keeper trying to avoid the swarm of crickets and the lights. God only knows how they keep their T's at home :eek: Needless to say, everytime I go there I am disgusted and often argue with how they treat these animals. Nothing changes of course but I do often make them blush when pointing out how foolish they are. :D

Can anything be done?

Do organizations like the humane society care about T's?
 

grammostola1953

Arachnoknight
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Jun 15, 2004
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I try not to look at the Arachnids in those stores, to no avail. It's so sad. But I have brought my observations to a mgr's attention, they say they'll take care of it. If they don't, I call their corp office if they have one. If not, I spend money elsewhere, after one more shot at the mgr/owner.
I'd be interested to know if "animal rights" apply, in these cases. I'm going to research this...
 

8 leg wonder

Arachnoangel
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If I ever saw that happen, I would get a job there and try to educate these poor fools and change it, if that was totaly out of the question I would go with what grammostola1953 said.
 

Fullstop

Arachnoknight
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8 leg wonder said:
If I ever saw that happen, I would get a job there and try to educate these poor fools and change it, if that was totaly out of the question I would go with what grammostola1953 said.
I'd liberate them... ;P
 

8 leg wonder

Arachnoangel
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Off topic: My girlfriend was at one pet store (petcetera) and she got mad at how they stored their beta's and she dumped them in the HUGE pool of fresh water plants and told me she "liberated them"
 

Hairyspider

Arachnobaron
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re: what can be done

Well the best thing to do to get the conditions better in those stores, is to file a complaint with you local Control agency, either with Animal control or with the City itself. Petco just lost a milti million dollar(i think that was the total) law suit, that claimed animal abuse and or neglect. Since most agencies don't patrol pet stores it is up to the local community to get involved. Fortunatly for my local petco, the Aquatics manager is well knowledged in the keeping of T's as well as other herps.
Most Cities have a web site that you can check and file complaints with. You have to check out the sections on animal laws for your state and local agency. Unfortunatly most states are not as strict as California,on the care and handling of pets for sale
Although I hear NY is pretty strict on what is/isn't allowed in the state. So my advice is to check out what the NY City/State web site has to say.

Later
Hairy
 

NYbirdEater

Arachnobaron
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Thanks I will check it out. The managers care even less than the employees at these places and all of them seem threatened when they realize a customer knows more than they do. 3 separate times I bought tarantulas from these places because I just couldn't leave them in that condition, I think the avic avic I got has nematodes but atleast it will be more comfortable in my place.
 

NYbirdEater

Arachnobaron
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WayneT said:
Now there's someone after my own heart!! I'd love to do that! :cool:
I think it would be more fun to hog tie the petstore people and lock them in a tank full of crushed shells, butt naked with a few HUNDRED crickets to keep them company :D You have to take out the guards before you can liberate the hostages!
 

WayneT

Arachnoangel
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NYbirdEater said:
I think it would be more fun to hog tie the petstore people and lock them in a tank full of crushed shells, butt naked with a few HUNDRED crickets to keep them company :D You have to take out the guards before you can liberate the hostages!
Could'nt have said it better myself! {D
 

MrFeexit

Arachnodork
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I have to say my local pet store has taken the advice I give him and actually puts it to use. The T tanks are about as nice as any of the home ones I have seen on this site. They were using the water bags for a bit but when I told them how a T actually drinks they went to water in a lid. Keep trying to educate them with out sounding condesending or pompus. It really does go a long way. And honestly I think an employee would fell pretty good if he/she could answer a question with actual knowledge instead of misguided myths.
 

NYbirdEater

Arachnobaron
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MrFeexit said:
I have to say my local pet store has taken the advice I give him and actually puts it to use. The T tanks are about as nice as any of the home ones I have seen on this site. They were using the water bags for a bit but when I told them how a T actually drinks they went to water in a lid. Keep trying to educate them with out sounding condesending or pompus. It really does go a long way. And honestly I think an employee would fell pretty good if he/she could answer a question with actual knowledge instead of misguided myths.
The employees I talk to are very defensive especially the one who owns tarantulas. My girlfriend's sister is a vet, and she went in one day to look at their ferrets, and picked them up by the scruff, which they not only like but it puts them to sleep. This dude starts flipping out saying we're going to hurt them. Then the last time I went in I caught him scruffing the ferrets and he was trying to show us how to do it, forgetting we were the ones who were doing it in the first place. He felt like a schmuck to say the least. From my own personal experience, people in NY have very different attitudes then people from other places, especially when it comes to MONEY. So that's why I'm trying to find out how to forcably make them change how they keep their T's. No matter how nice I am, I get nowhere, and besides it's not just how they keep them in the store, they are probably telling the customers how to keep them and they don't know anything.
 

B.Munch

Arachnopeon
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Jul 9, 2004
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i went to a local "exotic pet shop" and they had 2 G.rosea in little pet carriers with no water no shelter and plenty of cricket corpses. their substrate was some type of hard bark chips. one was crawling up the side of the cage most likely haveing homicidal thoughts toward the employees. and the other was laying in the middle of the cage. i wanted to buy them both but my role in the house hold as "child" doesn't have much authority. maybee turning 15 will change that...not likely. but heres the kicker. i ask a girl that works there to get the T from behind this large glass barrier and she says quote "why do you want to buy one of those nasty things" i love thier great customer service and friendly employees who greet you with a smile. at this point im about ready to take every animal home, lock all employees in the building a tourch it :D. but good news the T i bought is happier than every and thanks me every day for rescueing it. what makes me sad is that was about a week ago so the other T is most likely dead. let us have a moment of silence.

i would like everyone to know i wrote this at 12:37am. so it is most likely incoheirent rable that would drive a news paper editor nuts with the fragmented sentences and misspells. but i dont care ;P
 

Rico

Arachnosquire
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Jul 9, 2004
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It is very sad when the people who keep and sell any types of animals are so ill equipped to do so. Liberating these animals would be one way to solve this problem, but if it were that easy I'd have a house full of animals running around.The only other way to do anything for these poor creatures is to inform and educate the people who are in charge of them on how to properly care for the animals. If that doesnt work, u have to hit them in the pocket book, because thats where it hurts the most. Spread the word like you were jesus and make the gospel how bad these places are. Whenever you hear somebody mention that certain pet store, tell them how bad it is. A bad word can go a good ways. I have seen this happen to one pet shop, it was one of the poorest facilities I have ever seen in my life, everyone in town knew this and never shopped there.
 

NYbirdEater

Arachnobaron
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I feel you B munch, also after you take a look at this forum, you'll notice splling dosne't takee pointts offf :D Except for the tight rumps who reply to your posts with the word spelled correctly in ALL CAPS. God forbid you happen to spell Chromatopelma Cyaneopubescens the wrong way while typing fast at 3AM glaring at your screen in the dark through a cloud of bong smoke. :D
______________________________________________________________

Rico

I'm glad that worked in your town, unfortunately I don't see it happening in NY, at least not with arachnids. A cute fuzzy wuzzy cat being mistreated will have every Scarsdale debutante tuggin at mommy's DK blouse until they save the poor kitty. Plus, alot of animals they do have seem fine... except of course for the parrot who's been there 2 years and has chunks of feathers missing, and the dead lizard with crickets eating its eyes. The petstore is actually in between Yonkers, one of the largest and poorest cities in NY, and Scarsdale, one of the richest, and I'm sure the last thing on peoples minds is how some "bug" is being treated. It would probably make for one wicked game of "telephone". By the time my message got to someone in the media they'de think these people were skinning them alive and serving them as deep fried dumplings on tooth picks.
 

Matt

Arachnosquire
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Jul 21, 2003
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Hi!

IMO it is no tthe best to go and buy the T just to rescue it. Lets set up a scenario: I find a T in a petstore which is being neglected and is in a bad shape. I pay the shop $80 for it. The owner says OK there's a market here for T's so I'll take the money and invest it into 1, 2 or three more T's, which in turn will be neglected again. So for each T one saves from a petshop will bring on one or two additional T's in abad shape. And who knows if the neglected T will survive? At least I want a healthy T and don't have the money extra to spend on a ill T.
I think it is best to try to educate those shops in how to keep T's. But one has to keep in mind the keeping the T's in a selling container is different than the ones you keep them in a home. E.g. do you think a Haplopelma lividum (or any other deep burrower) will sell very well if it is kept the way it should be? The customers have to see what they buy.
If the store doesn't listen to you tips, then it ist best not to buy anything from them anymore. If they sell less, then maybe they'll think about what is going wrong.

... just my 2 cents


Matthias
 

NYbirdEater

Arachnobaron
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Matt said:
Hi!

IMO it is no tthe best to go and buy the T just to rescue it. Lets set up a scenario: I find a T in a petstore which is being neglected and is in a bad shape. I pay the shop $80 for it. The owner says OK there's a market here for T's so I'll take the money and invest it into....Matthias

Actually that was about 14 cents worth :D The thing is the most expensive T I've seen around here is a $12 pinktoe, rosies go for $9.99, no exotic species at all. I only bought 2 T's from that place in the last 2 years and I keep seeing new ones come and go. The only reason I do go there is they are the only store that sells glass tanks with those great metal tops that twist to lock, not the crappy mesh, plus they have the thickest juiciest crickets around. While you do make a good point that they may keep them in horrible environments because that's the only way someone will buy the gross little critters by feeling sorry for them, then that's definite bull and should not be permitted by any petstore. Plus the majority of people around here who buy a T are probably newcomers, and will think how they see it kept in the store is how you should keep it at home. You need to realize that most pet stores around here, if you go in or call them to ask if they have T's, not only don't they have them but they react like you asked for a rattlesnake or something. I live about 20 minutes from NYC, where they are illegal, you need to go at least an hour away from here to find something other than the common ones. Maybe we should get together and start mass e-mailing Animal Cops {D I want to see if that triple-chinned lady from the show would start weeping over a tarnatula like she does to dogs with feces matted in their fur. Or as a third option, we could all fill a pickle jar with urine and dead crickets and mail them to all these stores with an explanatory note, until they stop.
 

8 leg wonder

Arachnoangel
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I'm so glad I have a great petstore in my town with fairly well educated employees so that I don't have to rant and rave every time someone has a bad petstore experience
 

Catherine

Arachnosquire
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I've heard a people speak badly of one near me, staff have absolutly no idea how to treat individual species. My boyfriend was in there once and saw a tarantula, i forget which one, which had had a bad molt and was dragging the molt around behind it. My boyfriend pointed this out to the assistant, who just stared at the spider and did nothing. At this point my BF told him to dab some glycerin where it was stuck. Still the assistant did nothing! So then he actually offered to sort the spider out given that the assistant obviously knew nothing. But they wouldn't even let him try and help the poor thing. Unfortunatly its the kind of shop which is totally in it for the profit and not at all concerned for the welfare of the animals. I'm sure everyone on here has had experience of such a place.
 
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