Disgraceful Pet Shop

Fionnan · #1 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 01:59 PM

Ok so I understand that most people here are from America and Canada so this probably has no baring on you but I still have to vent. I live in Dublin, Ireland.
There is a pet shop close to me that I try to avoid if possible because of bad stories I have heard. Well yesterday, I was stuck and had no crickets for my two bearded dragons so I went up to the pet shop. I walked in and picked up 2 boxes of crickets and 1 box of meal worms and strolled over to the reptile displays. While looking, I over heard the owner of the shop telling a 14 year old boy and his mother that the albino burmese python he has for sale would grow to about 7-8 foot. As the owner went away to check if he had a heat lamp to sell them for the snake, I reached over and told the mother that a burmese python is more likely to reach a minimum length of 15 foot but more likely to reach 20+.
The mother stormed out of the shop shouting all kinds of profanity!
To my surprise, I was then escorted from the pet shop and told not to return!!!
Jokes on them though, I never paid for the crickets!!!

majkill · #2 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 02:06 PM

free crickets ^_^

razeraze · #3 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 02:11 PM

Great job at informing an uneducated customer.

Fionnan · #4 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 02:45 PM

Do you get much of this in the states? I would love a burmese Python, they are beautiful but they are huge and too much for me at the moment. Why would a pet shop owner want to risk selling a potentially dangerous, rather fatal python to such a young kid. My first snake was a corn snake as recommended by the guy I still buy my herps from and he wouldn't sell me anything he didn't think I could handle. Do pet shop owners really live with this sort of stuff on their conscience!? How would they feel if the python decided the the kid was a threat or a snack!!!?

RioBravoReptiles · #5 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 02:46 PM

Lots of people exhibiting poor behaviour.. just what the world needs more of.
.
Have fun, be safe..

morti · #6 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 02:50 PM

Yes, we have some pretty pathetic pet shops, dealers, and even the occasional bad breeder here too. Pretty much every city here on our side of the pond has at least one pet shop that is a death trap for animals.

I go out of my way to try to put the bad ones out of business.

spix14 · #7 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fionnan

Do you get much of this in the states? I would love a burmese Python, they are beautiful but they are huge and too much for me at the moment. Why would a pet shop owner want to risk selling a potentially dangerous, rather fatal python to such a young kid. My first snake was a corn snake as recommended by the guy I still buy my herps from and he wouldn't sell me anything he didn't think I could handle. Do pet shop owners really live with this sort of stuff on their conscience!? How would they feel if the python decided the the kid was a threat or a snack!!!?

ALL the time. At the pet store I used to work at, we had a lady call in and ask why her Ball Python wouldn't stop growing. The pet store had told her it would only get about 5 feet. I asked her how big it was and she said it looked about 8 feet. I asked her to bring it up to the store so I could take a look at it (after asking her about 5 times if she was SURE that it was a BP, she kept saying yes, yes, that's what they told me when I bought it) so she brings it up to me, and guess what it is? A freaking RETIC. She about pooped when I told her how big it would get.

Fionnan · #8 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 03:11 PM

Haha, its normally backwards here. I see a lot of people being sold ball pythons because they are told they are burmese. This has its good sides though, while it is very sneaky of the pet shop owner I do think that if the buyer can't distinguish between the two he obviously doesn't know enough to own a burmese and is safer with a BP.

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