Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:10 pm
Well, Petsmart has pretty much lost my business. I went into the one nearest me last night only to see their latest attraction---a very small glass enclosure that used to house lizards now being used to sell RES. This, after being told a while back that the store wasn't selling them because they knew how hard they were to take care of. The depth of the water was minimal---well under the height of the Fluval 2+ (maybe 1+) that was spitting out frothy water into the area they were supposed to wade in.
The RES they were selling were very attractive and in very good condition. (They have a new breeder---from Vermont, of all places---who will be supplying them with healthy turtles.) One unfortunate one had just been sold to a family, and I watched as one of the boys kept "tapping" it on the back, quite hard, only to be admonished by the staff not to do that, which of course he did again. After they left, I started in on the staff person, only to be told that the family had had experience with reptiles and even had a UVB light at home (HAD experience? How old was the UVB light I wondered out loud). They had left with a new 20-gallon long, already too small for the RES they had purchased.
This is just so par for the course. What really got me, though, was that the staff I talked to said that what she is dreading is if/when a new gov bill passes next year that will allow the sale of small hatchlings once again (not that they can't be bought now). I had heard something about this, thought it was basically a fantasy, but now wonder if it will happen. She's hoping that Petsmart will decide not to sell them but where $'s involved...
"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." -Antoine de Saint Exupery-
Maybe?
