Then and now

[evilxyardxgnome]

Every springtime there is a show in Richmond and with all of the newly import crates coming in, imported animals are all over the place. I watched a 30 gallon tank full of about 100 baby savannah monitors empty out throughout the day - being sold to all kinds of people from seasoned keepers to, no joke, a father buying his 5 year old daughter a "cute baby lizard." It was sickening, knowing that very few to none of these animals would live more than a couple of months, max.

Some of them are basically viewed by the public as "disposable pets." My time working in a pet store taught me that there absolutely are people out there that do not value the lives of animals in any way.

One thing that I'll never forget: There was one repeat customer who would bring his family into the store after eating lunch at the pizza place next door. He had 4 kids, ages ranging from 6 to 11ish. Every week, he would buy a feeder mouse fuzzy for his daughters - knowing full well the kids would play with them that day and then it would die a day or two later as soon as the kids lost interest. I realize that they are feeders, but I still value life and see it as a waste if it isn't used to nourish another animal.

Worse yet, I remember one sunday he bought his son a baby bearded dragon. Had no interest in purchasing the proper complete setup or any feeder insects for that matter. He had "heard" they can eat lettuce and thought that would be sufficient. They left the store with the lizard in a cardboard box and that was it.

3 weeks later, he bought another baby bearded. 2 weeks later, another. Some time later when I saw the customer again I asked him how they were doing and he said that they were "no longer with us." At 79.99 a piece, he could of bought the proper setup and still had the first one alive and well.

Disposable pets. The problem is not the availability of reptiles, but the values and attitudes of PEOPLE. Sorry for the long post, just thought I'd share.

Wow I wonder what he kept the beardie in that they kept on dieing?

 

[Ophiuchus]

Yeah, I remember when rosy boas were in the $60 range. But I also remember when crested geckos were like, $100 and leopard geckos were close to that.

 

[elevatethis]

Wow I wonder what he kept the beardie in that they kept on dieing?

He had bought the lizard and NOTHING else. No heat, UVB, nothing. For all I know, they could have been kept in a shoebox, which wouldn't have surprised me in the least.

 

[Brooklynella]

Yeah, I remember when rosy boas were in the $60 range. But I also remember when crested geckos were like, $100 and leopard geckos were close to that.

Rosy Boas were not around here, that's for sure. Couldn't find 'em anywhere.
I forgot about Leopard Geckos; very popular. Tokay's, house Gecko's, etc.

I also forgot about Jackson's (aprox $200 back then). They were pretty popular.

 

[Brooklynella]

He had bought the lizard and NOTHING else. No heat, UVB, nothing. For all I know, they could have been kept in a shoebox, which wouldn't have surprised me in the least.

Why did you sell it to him? Seriously, you should have told him you would only sell it to him if he had all the necessary equipment to keep it alive. I used to do this all the time; I even made it store policy.
People always wanted to take a parakeet or hamster home and then come back and buy the cage. I would refuse and tell them to buy the cage, etc now and come back and pick their animal. I even told them we would make a big deal about it if it was for a child. You know, make the kid feel special.
Usually they agreed but sometimes they would get pissed. If they didn't understand logic it was their problem. Go buy your stuff somewhere else.

 

[varanio]

I rememember when beardeds were 300 a pop for regular ones, my first ackie pair cost me 2k when I was 17 i saved money for 3 yrs and sold all my video game consoles just for them. ha ha ha ha ha ha those were the days...... Its too bad the reptile industry has just as many lowlife scum as drug trafficking.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Yes I remember buying my first pair of Plumed Basilisks for $300 and my first high yellow leopard gecko for $75. Don't forget Senegal Chameleons. I remember picking one up for like $40 bucks.

 

[elevatethis]

Why did you sell it to him? Seriously, you should have told him you would only sell it to him if he had all the necessary equipment to keep it alive. I used to do this all the time; I even made it store policy.
People always wanted to take a parakeet or hamster home and then come back and buy the cage. I would refuse and tell them to buy the cage, etc now and come back and pick their animal. I even told them we would make a big deal about it if it was for a child. You know, make the kid feel special.
Usually they agreed but sometimes they would get pissed. If they didn't understand logic it was their problem. Go buy your stuff somewhere else.

I sold it to him because I didn't want to get fired. The owner's policy was that while we should do our best to educate customers on how to properly set up the animals, we were not allow to refuse the sale of any animal if the customer wasn't willing to buy what we thought would be a "complete" setup. Its not really fair considering that the customer should be able to purchase supplies from wherever they want, and we couldn't do anything about it. That's just reality.

We did not, however, guarantee the health/life of the animal if the buyer couldn't furnish some kind of representation of knowledge or proof that the animal would be set up properly. This guy didn't care...he was banking on the fact that the animal wouldn't last a more than a couple of weeks.

 

[Brooklynella]

Pre bagged substrate wasn't even available. We sold indoor/outdoor carpet, gravel (though it wasn't exactly recommended) or simply said, "Use newspaper".
It sounds silly but there really wasn't much in the way of supplies either. Yes, we had hot rocks and incandescent fish tank strip lights (would you believe the animals survived? Yes, i'm being sarcastic) but no Zoo Med rock shaped water bowls, easy to clean plastic logs and hides that look like the real thing, no turtle docks (Make on yourself or stack rocks). It was like living in the stone age. If you needed information you read books or hopefully found a good pet shop. "Rack systems" had to be purchased from supply companies or speciality companies that made them for scientific studies or for colleges.
We used to get Yellow Napes ($799) in that sang in Spanish. Not kidding-they learned to speak Spanish in Quarantine. African Greys ($499), Nanday's ($79) Blue Fronted Amazons ($499) and Cockatoos & Macaws all came in wild caught. We had to tame them ourselves. This all changed with the Bird Ban (87-89 if memory serves). IMO, my favorite wild caught birds were Quaker Conures. They would come in all docile and fluffy; very cute.

 

[CTU2fan]

Hmm it's funny what was rare or common then vs. now. Obviously you have more "rare then, common now" animals:

leopard gex, argentine tegus, beardies (really all aussie herps were damned hard to come by 20 years ago - ackies, aussie water dragons, carpet pythons etc). Also mountain dragons, hard to get back then. I had one, great animal, mis-labeled and sold to me for $10 as a calotes.

But there are the occasional animal that was common 20 years ago and near impossible to get now. The one that jumps out is Solomon skinks. Also I used to see a lot more wild-caught South American lizards back then, like coneheads, helmeted igs (forest chameleons), and Polychrus sp. I also used to see more natives for sale at the LPS like leopard & collared lizards...of course you can get those now but I don't see them at the LPS as much as in the "old days".