Shai Gurl

Howdy there! I know my wee title sounds a little harsh, but I will say why.... I LIVE in Wyoming, and have been to R&R Pet Barn, and the Zoobeck store they have in that town... I actually reported them to the FDA repeatedly for their violations (baby turtles) and to animal control for their inhumane treatments of the animals... And stupidity... I am against most forms of bans on any animals; however, what isn't said in that poor article is the history of the who/what/where/when/why of why this needs to be done in that town in particular. The R&R Pet Barn will NOT stop what they're doing, and already have done a lot of damage to a lot of animals and people. So if the town is unwilling to stop supporting that filthy person, and the FDA is unwilling to actually go out there and stop them (the closest FDA office is over 300 miles away in another state), then SOMETHING has to be done - Even if its banning specific animals. You want the rest of the skinny outside that article? Here ya go:

On the first encounter with this shop: The front window contained 2 very large burms, 1 5-6ft anaconda, 1 5ft redtail, a 4-5ft rat snake of some sort, a sulcata tortoise (12 inch or so shell length), and the following list of cage equipment: 1 large bowl of water with a 10 inch depth (burms could soak, but the sulcata would never ever be able to get in unless it used a snake's coil as a step stool - And if it fell in it'd die), a 2ftx3ft heat mat (one of them big red heat mats), and thats ALL... That is, NO hide holes, NO real substrate (cement floor, plywood walls), no humidity to speak of, no heat lamps, no UVB, and no food for the tort (let alone reachable water). When I went in I was horrified to find a 55 gallon tank to my right, NO LID, and easily low enough for me to reach my hand right down to the bottom (I'm just 5ft tall) - Inside? 10, yes TEN 10-12 inch COMMON SNAPPING TURTLES; and all of them were sitting in about 7 inches of puke brown unfiltered water. But don't worry, he wasn't alone - He had fiddler crabs, tadpoles, frogs, and turtles to keep him company. One tank down from the caiman were the BABY TURTLES... Yes kiddies, about the sizes of quarters to silver dollar size and all different species mixed in a tank where they could barely pull themselves out (and they only could get out by piling themselves on top of one another on slender branches). What species were in there? I'm no expert but I know what common snapping turtles look like and they were sure there, so were a bunch of RES babies, cooters, and the tiny little mud turtles (3 lined muddies). I counted 12 dead turtles with triangle shaped wedged taken out of their bodies - Can't blame them, there was no food in there but at least they had an over active filter that turned the water virtually into a whirl pool (about 10 inches of water in that tank). I turned about and there were the iguanas - 5 sub adults shoved into what was meant to be a cage... NO light, NO heat, NO chance for humidity being that the sides were a low grade chicken wire (the cage was shorter then I am, and no more then 2ft wide and 2ft deep). ALL the animals had at least 1 broken leg, one looked like all 4 were broken and had a tail that went off to nearly 90 degrees to it's right. The rest of the store was no different for any of the species... Including the 10 baby gators jammed into a 10 gallon tank with absolutely nothing but 2 inches of water (thats it... JUST water; no gravel, no filter, no rock, no heat, NOTHING).

Zoobecks: STUPID PEOPLE TOO... They were selling baby turtles as well, alongside showing off their prized possessions - Hots... A different hot every day in a specific cage towards the store front. The day I stomached going in was SICK... They were changing out their day's hot - A good sized GABON VIPER. He pulled it out of a bucket with a hook (NO TONGS, and he could barely use the hook for that matter), lifted it out in front of him, and proceeded to WALK across the WHOLE STORE from back room to the front with a god dang Gabon viper hanging from a stinking HOOK - And he did this with a good number of CUSTOMERS in the store!

I contacted the FDA about the turtles, and they did nothing until two people were hospitalized (that were reported) with salmonella (same strain cultured off their pet turtles). One of the people was a 6 year old kid, 1 and a half weeks in the hospital, and the elderly woman was in longer. They stopped selling the turtle hatchlings for a while but started up again later on. The FDA has done nothing, animal control has done nothing, so something has to be done - Its a matter of humanity people. How humane is it to get a gator when you have nowhere to put it in the long run? Or nowhere to put it at all, I've been told by the store employees that its ok to keep them for as long as you like in a bath tub. The employees also told several people its ok to raise a water dragon in a ten gallon tank, gators and caimans live for goldfish only, red cedar is ok for mammals, baby turtles are easy pets, theres nothing wrong with a little MBD in iggys, and so on. Come on people! How many of you out there actually think its a BAD thing to ban AMERICAN ALLIGATORS in a very Northern State? If the person was a "good" gator keeper they'd have serious trouble giving them a decent enclosure - 3 months maybe of a spring/summer then inside or the animal WILL freeze to death. I don't know about you, but I think it would be unfair to keep a gator inside most the year - They should ideally have a large outdoor enclosure with a habitat that can support it's needed environment. Or am I wrong there? I've only had to rescue one gator - And sent it off to Florida after a bit of fattening up (1.5ft long and it was fed nothing but 5-6 goldfish a week, with some guppies thrown in and maybe 5-6 crickets for a treat). They fed it this regiment because thats what the people at R&R Pet Barn told them to do, even wrote it down for them. Oh, and they gave the animal up because they didn't know that gators could bite "like that."

The American Gator and baby turtles are this shop's best sellers, they said it was nothing to sell a gator a day and at least 2 dozen baby turtles (mostly to younger teenagers, or to little kids by way of their parents who were never informed about the 4" turtle law).

Again, the FDA is doing nothing.

The shop's commerce is very high.

People are getting injured by their own ignorance of the species they're told "make great pets" that are "easy to care for."

People's lives and limbs are being put in danger.

"ALL" reptiles are NOT being banned, just some of the ones that actually suffer the most in these circumstances at the hands of these pet peddlers.

Anywho, thats my rant on this situation.... Like it or don't but at least you know a good bit more about whats going on and why here instead of thinking its just "another obligatory and unfounded ban on reptiles and some arachnids." (By the way, they weren't JUST selling emperor scorpions and regular rosehair tarantulas, there were many species there from desert hairy scorps to baboon tarantulas - All marked "Beginning to intermediate keeping animals").

These species should be banned from the wrong hands in the wrong state, ESPECIALLY the Gators. But then again, maybe I'm wrong? I just feel that yeah, many states go WAY overboard with their bans - But there are some one can not argue with.

-Sara Eyre