Local pet store abusing chameleons....

[MattP]

Help,

I don't know what to do. Today I went into a local pet store and they had all of their chameleons in glass. They had two big male Veileds, each in their own 20 gallon tank!!! They were way too big for those tanks. Both of them looked pretty dark too. And one looked like it is starting to develope MBD. Neither one of them had a UVB light and neither one had any green in their tanks. I don't know what to do.

Is this abuse? Can they get in trouble for it?

Thanks,

Matt

[SpiralTailRanch]

If I were you, I would confront the store personally, in a caring manner, try to be informative and not like you are telling them what to do.

You can suggest all the proper ways they sould be keeping them. Sometimes (not often) the store doen't realize what they are doing wrong and that they are harming their animals.

A long time ago when I was unknowleged and bought my first chameleon, they sold me a 10 gallon tank and a heat lamp. That was what they had him housed in there.

The chameleon was a Four-Horned chameleon. Those are mountain species that do not require heat. It's actually bad for them. But they need UV like all chameleons...so, Now that I know better, I told the store.

Unfortunatly, it was that the owner didn't care. He wanted to house his animals as cheaply as possible with no regards to their stress or health.

So, after attempting to resolve it myself, I told the local animal control, who immediatly dealt with the situation.


So, try to give them some advice, and if that doesn't work, go higher.

Good luck!