Snakes & Reptiles in NSW pet shops.

[mebebrian]

Just hope they make it really hard to gain a licence to sell in shops. And leave it to those with a genuine love for the hobby. Again i say Herp specialty shps only!!!!

 

[grimbeny]

The fact of the matter is, NPWS will never have the resources to monitor this industry. Even if they required stores to have 'trained' staff what would constitute the training procedure. On another note quarantine will become an ever increasing problem, correct quarantining procedure is impossible in a petshop.

Unfortunatly i think money will win out and the corporate industry will get what they want.

 

[herptrader]

To summarize your point: "Even if their is sufficient markup to cover the cost of housing the animals properly it will still not happen."

The main reason for setting up the Herp Trader was to allow purchasers of reptiles direct access to the breeder. One of the biggest problems I have with even well run pet shops - and I believe there are some that do a reasonable job of selling reptiles, is that if there are problems then the breeder is the one best placed to respond to them. If you put the pet shop between this critical link is broken.

The ideal Pet Shop selling reptile products would be one that has the Herp Trader up and running for customers to check out while they were there. Come to think of it this is basically how the Herp Shop operates :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

The pet shops I'm not fond of certainly sell puppies at a huge markup. Small fluffy mongrels (pardon me, 'designer dogs') go for $1000, but can be purchased from a rescue organisation a year later for $250. I watched someone buy a puppy in one of these shops and they were told to get all sorts of ridiculous gear like soft little beds which the dog was going to tear to shreds! The pet shop I like sells herp supplies and sets up demonstration enclosures with rubber snakes or plastic lizards in them. If you ask about herps, you find knowledgable staff and a nice selection of frozen rodents. I imagine that shop would sell herps well, but I hate to think of the conditions you'd find in the shops I don't like.

 

[euphorion]

regardless of price, live animals in petshops encourage impulse buying. pet shops would still be able to make a profit without selling the animal directly by passing on breeders details to interested customers. as for the reference to prices being high in petshops to maintain good conditions, its crap, i asked about this once and they simply said 'oh the high price is just to discourage impulse buying'... and the pups are in tiny cages with no airflow

 

[GAR]

I recently bought animals from a person who frequents this forum and claims to have been one of NSW biggest breeders. I have purchased quite a lot of quality animals from him in the past. This time however i had 3 snakes die within the first 4 days. Its not me because the other 20 in the same rack are doing fine. When contacted his response was bad luck. Not only have i lost 3 snakes but I now have to quarantine that rack for an extended period which creates more work.
He obviously can't look after himself anymore let alone his animals but how could i have known that?
My point is that if he had been a store, my avenues of recourse would have been much better and i would have been able to see over time that his husbandry practices had gone down hill.
I realise that there are 2 arguments going on here.
Firstly there is the issue of animal rights which everyone is passionate about, however the relative departments will succumb to the many complaints they will get and in time fix the problem or shut it down.
The second issue is that if you go into a store that has poor hygiene practices then you know this before you purchase an animal and you simply do not shop there.

 

[mick_304]

Another way of looking at it is, hatchlings we keep them in small click clacks dont handle them much. now look at a pet shop trying to sell these they will be in the open people touching them all the time most of these snakes will die from stress or will refuse to eat, so when people buy tem they will have no knowledge on how to get there reptile healthy again. because the 15 year old attendant needs to sell something to someone else. back to the prices i went past a pet sop and saw a foxy X maltese for $1000 that is ridiculous.

 

[wokka]

I hope you didn't impulse buy the foxy.

 

[Stark]

I hope to never see them in pet stores.

I am quite into fish keeping as my other hobby and to see the ways fish are kept in stores is just appalling, you pay a fortune because they expect 50% of their stock to die before it can be sold.

Most the twits in pet stores cant even get it right with fish, "Yeah, that adult angel fish will go well with those neon tetras" "You wont need a big tank for a clown loach" "Bettas dont need heat! They live out in the open" (in rice patties in asia where the water is 30 degrees not 8 degrees.

One pet store had a tank full of fish all being treated for ick, most of them on the verge of half dead, and they still tried to sell me the fish at full price!

Dont even get me started on "painted" fish "Yes, they just inject this brightly colored dye into the fish, they dont feel pain and will live a happy and healthy life"

I dont want to even imagine anything like this happening with herps.

 

[Vincey]

here here

and there are so many animals in pet shops are in such poor conditions, theres a fight to ban the selling of puppies and kittens from petshop windows, and now they are wanting reptiles to be sold in the same way...

Oh well, I guess you never know until it happens, the regulations might mean they take care of them as best they can.

Sophie

We already keep them in the same sized enclosures at home, so why not?

Pet shops in Perth are doing it fine. I have been into many and have not seen one bad set up yet. The only thing that hurts anybody else is the prices ><