Moral Dilemma very long

[Countryboy]

For the last 3 months or so I have been helping a local pet store with there reptiles, I have been helping rid a baby burm of mites, getting her rehydrating and helping her shed thats just one of the one's I have helped, I have also been giving them advice on the care for them. Today I think finally convinced them that they shouldn't feed live, they are going to at least try prekilled but they said I would have to kill the mice they couldn't do it. The current employees are all afraid of snakes except for one who is the manager but she won't touch a snake if it even looks like it might strike at her. Last week they put up a sign saying that they were taking applications now I have been out of work since December and in desperate need for a job. I put my applicationin and had an interview with the owner he told me that he couldn't hire me at the time because of classes, I went back on Wednesday and told the manager to tell him that I could start workSunday because classes were over. He told her to tell me he had 2 more interviews to give and he would probably hire me. Well today I went in and he hired another girl who is also afraid of snakes and knows nothing about them, his excuse was that I would be going back to school in the fall we would have to rearrange the work schedule, BUT he wants me to keep coming in and taking care of his animals for him. As far as the school schedule goes he knew I could change it around so I could work. From what I have herd is that he really yells at the girls when he has a bad day at work ( he doesn't work there he works some where else and comes in after work to get the money and stuff) so they don't think he hired me because I would stand up to him. And the main reason is because why should he pay me to do work that I will come in and do for free. This is the same guy who fed a kitten to the Burmese python while customers were in the store. They now have the humaine society after them for neglect to there animals I think 12 dogs taken from them for various reasons including Parvo, There is always piles of feceese in the cages the ferret cage has a huge pile I don't think it has been cleaned in a month. There was a story in the paper today but I don't know how to make it go on the news section of the site. Anyway with all that said my dilemma is that I am debating about going in the store to help w/ the reptiles again I definatly won't go for a while. He basically won't hire me because I have been doing the work for free. He doesn't care about the animals just the money,an example is he won't quit using heat rocks because the heat pads cost to much he said [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif[/img] . The good side is if the store is shut down by the humaine society I get all the reptiles to place in homes [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] . If this happenes I am going to keep the Albino Burm because I have put so much work into keeping her alive and healthy. This is also the same store that had the Vietnam Blue Beauty rat snake that I was going to get and it died. Anyway I'm done venting there is a lot more to the story but I don't feel like typing it.
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	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[bensnacks]

Thats a tough one Countryboy.I would vote
'think of the animals'keep helping out it sounds like
they need you .To me its pretty obvious the guy didn't
hire you cos' of what you said 'volunteering etc.'
He sounds like a class 1 a-hole.
I reckon keep helping the animals & make anon.
complaints to humane society,rspca etc. aswell!!!
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Actually, As cruel as it may sound...

IF you were to continue to work for this guy for nothing taking care of all the reptiles that he could care less about for free. It is only going to show him that no matter what he does/doesn't do for the provision of proper care to the animals...He can still sell em as he has you to pick up his slack/neglectful ways. YES I knopw that more animals woul;d die off if you didn't do such..BUT in reality..ALL you are doing is to help make an animal healthy again so he can sell it and make room for yet another one for him to neglect blatantly.
His not hiring you just goes to show he has no appreciation for you for anything you have done for him also. Your already there doing the job...he should be paying you for such BUt went and hired someone else for it.
Don't go back there, file a complaint like Bensnaks said and then go elsewhere to find work.
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[Reticu-Lady]

Trust me, those complaints do work, helped me get a really nasty place shut down. I was so happy it finally was. It's horrible when snakes are mistreated, but I found 4 almost grown cats in a small cage in the bathroom with no water and a filthy litterbox they had to stand in because the cage was so small. They were hidden in the private bathroom because they had ringworm so badly that they had no hair and had infected oozing sores. That's what finally got them shut down, not the gorgeous and sweet tempered retic they starved to death. I cried over that one (that's why I have retics now, I was so attached to that guy. When I found him dead in his cage I took him out and threw him at the manager. Scared her to death, she was afraid of him therefore didn't feed him, and had no clue he was dead when I did that. I did that during working hours. I don't recommend you do that, but..
definitly try the complaints, and make it multiple complaints with a written record of all you see, hear, etc. Every little bit helps.
Good luck. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img]
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[Barrin]

WOW,'
This is all verry serious!!!
I hope all turns out for the better...
Does that pet store have any competition close by?
Tell them what you told us and then see if they can
give you a job and also help you close that nasty place down...
good luck!
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[Countryboy]

Thaks for the suggestions, I dought very seriously i'm going in there again. We do have another pet store in town that carries Beardies, Chamelions and such but they don't carry snakes and so that means the bad one is the only place in town to buy a snake. The owner has a court date coming up for the previous creaulty to animal charge and I dought this will help his case out much. I'm hoping they get shut down. I'v been talking to the president of the humane society at least 3 times a week so she knows my opinion on the subject.
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Don't go back, ever. I totally agree with Lori. Why would he hire you, he thinks he can still get you to come in for free.

Sometimes, some animals must die so others can live. I wouldn't even make anonomyous (sp) complaints, I'd make sure they had a name to go with the complaint. I'd go to the court hearing if I could too, maybe even try and find out who the prosecutor will be and offer to testify, but that's just me.

It's a tough choice, but a necessary one. Continuing to help with just prolong the situation. It looks like the place may well get shut down eventually, so it's probably better that you didn't get on there. Maybe you can convince the other store to start carrying snakes [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
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Now there's an idea [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] Maybe you could present yourself at the other store and offer to work for them, bringing your vast array of knowledge to them in the area of herps and help them to expand upon their stock options also. Don't hold back any oinfo that you know in regards tro the otherstore either. Let them know that they also have an opportunity to "advance" their sales by carrying the reptiles in greater depth too. They prolly have no clue , or are scared of the snakes and that's why they don't carry them also. Use what you know to your advantage is all [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
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[JuliusSqueezer]

best of luck to ya...always good to see that there people out there that care.
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[Countryboy]

Ok I have to go back in there one more time tommorow to see what they did. The animal control guy was in there Saturday I guess and said he saw nothing wrong w/ the condition of the animals. He said the conditions were what you would expect from any other petstore. Thats a bunch of BS. Someting screwy is going on they must have cleaned all day and all night to get that store in shape or someone got some money in there pockets. I'm gonna check it out and from what I see I might give the guy a call. The other store just hired someone a couple months ago and won't hire anyone else or I would go there and work. Thanks for the help I really want to help the animals but on the other hand I don't want to help the owner out in any way.
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[XzyluM]

This is a very tough situation. It's good to see people out there trying to help and care for animals. Just like you said, all the guy cares about is money. Petstores need people who actually have experience in the area they are working. I don't get it. Maybe one day laws will come down and all this will be the other way around. I just hope something comes along and changes all this.
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[JuliusSqueezer]

Have you ever walked through a humane society building? To them the place was probably spotless compared to what they are used to. I've never seen a pound that didn't need bulldozed over and started over.
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<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE> He said the conditions were what you would expect from any other petstore. </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

Doesn't say much seeing as most of us wouldn't expect too much from any pet store carrying reptiles.... [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]
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