Other Turtle Discussion :: This is serious

[daredevilgirl013]

Well I got letters back from them..here's what the one from the store said

I received your letter today regarding the turtles we have in our store. I appreciate your concern. I have had turtles my entire life. I rescue and raise hatchling turtles I find on a bike path and let them go when they are large enough to avoid predators. I have had an African Sideneck turtle for over 15 years at my home. Turtles are my favorite animal, and I would not have them live in the small quarters they are in for the rest of their lives, just as I would not have a dog stay in a small pen once I took it home.

We do feed the turtles guppies, ghost shrimp, as well as supplement their diet with turtle food. The aquarium set-up we have is a temporary home for these turtles. The water gets changed on a regular basis in addition the filtration. I do agree we need to set up something for them to bask on and provide a better light/heat source.

We provide sheets with each animal and make sure the customer understands the basic care of these animals. It sounds like you take amazing care of your turtle. I appreciate your concern, and we will make some changes. Again, please realize, this is not a permanent home for any of the animals in the store. And, I would bet, we take far better care of the turtles than they receiver prior to their arrival here.

Respectfully,
Bruce Hill
General Manager
Petland of Marion
740-389-9765

Actually that letter worried me a bit more..we take turtles from bike paths and raise them..then let them go again after they've been taken care of by a human for how long!? And oh it's just temporary..well what if temporary means over a month or more? That doesn't seem like temporary to me.

Here's the letter from headquarters

Thank you for your detailed insight on the care of the Red Ear Sliders in our Marion, OH store. I have forwarded your information to the store general manager, our Director of Company Stores as well as our contracted marine biologist. Please know that the health of the animals in our stores is our top priority. We will carefully investigate the care of the turtles at Marion and do everything we can to improve their conditions.

Thank you again for taking the time to write us about this problem and rest assured it will be remedied immediately.

Sincerely
Lacey J. Clever
Petland Inc.


I had to go back there a few days ago as I went to all the other pet stores first trying to find Ghost Shrimp and none of the other stores had them..so I was forced to go back to Petland..not what I wanted, but I needed the Ghost Shrimp badly. The turtles are gone, whether from people buying them or the Petland headquarters taking them away I don't know. But I was treated rather roughly at the store as if everyone knew who I was and what I had done (probably because I'm the only one that comes in to get stuff for a turtle...) but they were rather rude to me and didn't want to help me, but I got the ghost shrimp. Hopefully where those turtles went is a lot better compared to the store and the people learn how to take decent care of them.

[kmichael55]

ugh bad pet stores disgust me. there's one near my sister's house that doesn't have turtles, but they keep dogs in aquariums! In 55 gallons or 20 gallons for the puppies. They never clean the poop out of the dogs' hamster bedding and most have diarrhea. They give them hamster water bottles as well. It's so sad the dogs are so dirty and look sick, yet the sell them for 700-800$ a piece. My husband and I go in to play with the puppies a couple times a month since they get no human interaction. The other day the shop lady was on the phone talking to someone about how a lot of the dogs had blood in their diarrhea but she said she wasn't too concerned. They also have a 25 year old spider monkey in a tiny cage and he looks terrible, has no constant source of water (not even a hamster bottle) and is missing 50% of his fur. This place disgusts me but I feel so bad for the dogs.

[steve]

Sorry you got some rough treatment, but you did a great, worthwhile thing. I haven't seen any real good setups for RES at any store I've been to, though there have been a few mentioned around here.

[Tenodera]

I once went to this local pet store and they had this Mississippi Mud turtle in this beautiful tank. But the poor turtle ALWAYS hid under this fake plant. I thought it was just shy and moved on. But 2 weeks later I came back and it HADN"T moved! I became worried and read the little info sheet right next to it's tank. It said that fast moving waters would frighten, and even KILL this turtle. AND THEN there was this big fluval filter shooting TORRENTS of water at the poor thing! I should had turned it down, but one of the employees told me not to touch...I just went back there two days ago and the turtle's not there anymore, with it's tank replaced with some fish...

But other than that it usually takes good care of its pets...