CCSB Reptile Rescue- Chad Griffin

**Buyer beware**
So recently i have done business with CCSB reptile rescue, they contacted me about having gold tegus, that i have been looking for quite some time. At first they seemed to be very legitimate and responsive, they assured me their animals were healthy, and had been treated. I asked if they had any females and they said they did. They sent me a picture of the one they said was female. We agreed upon a price of 100$ (which ended up being plus tax, although im pretty sure you dont have to tax on live animal sales in NC) totaling to 106.75$. We arranged for me to pick them up at their location, that with traffic was close to 2.5 hours away from me getting there, and almost 2 hours coming back, on monday, today, august 7th. I arrived early in the afternoon, walked around a little bit and then went to look at my tegu, i asked if i could sex it really quickly in order to make sure it was female, and while it is difficult to sex at that age the one they showed me had an enlarged scale next to the vent which usually indicates male. I asked if i could sex the other ones sense this one was male, and if they had a female, could i get that one, they agreed. They told me they had just finished un packing them from the show last weekend, which i already knew they would be going to because chad had told me they would be going, aside from the 'female' he sent me pictures of. We walked over to the ten gallon with a single heat lamp with a type A bulb in it, so, no UVB at all. They took the other two out let me sex them, i showed them the one i thought was female and asked if i could have that one, and they agreed, never at any point in time did chad griffin say that i couldn't have one of the other ones, and if that was the case he should have at least made that clear to the people working for him. Anyway they pack the lizard up, and all this time the woman there had an extremely bad attitude, the guy not so much, but the woman had very poor customer service. Finally i look around some more and notice several other animals that were thin, and having trouble shedding. I didnt notice anything else, other than there were MULTIPLE animals in way too small enclosures. For example, They had a HUGE alligator snapping turtle in what looked like a 55 gallon in the back part of the store, it could hardly even turn around. And a couple argentine tegus that were also in too small of an enclosure (this was in the front, not in the back where they have like a mini 'zoo' type area, the argentine b/w and red tegu in the back had decent sized enclosures.) Unfortunately my phone was dead and i didn't take any pictures, but i urge you to go there and look for yourself. Anyway, i get quite a good bit aways home, and notice a clicking sound that i immediately recognized as something respiratory. So i immediately called griffin exotics and got an appointment before bringing this baby home where i have many other reptiles (even though i quarantine in a separate room) just in case it was something viral. They luckily had a slot available, and i drove back in the direction of kannapolis, after getting pretty close to home coming from their shop in kernersville, to take this sweet baby to the vet. The vet then came to the conclusion, that aside from having layers upon layers of stuck shed, being pretty significantly underweight and lethargic, this baby had a respiratory infection that had ether started as or spread into a skin infection that showed up as hard nodule like things down her back, and up turned scales around her feet. She was prescribed several medications and is currently on cefa drops, panacur, liquid calcium, and carnivore care in hopes that she can recover. After the appointment i contact chad, and let him know what the vet said, i also sent him the receipt and what the vet had written up, he said the griffin exotics is a good vet, and they are, in my opinion, the best in the state for exotics, thats why i drive an hour plus to get my pets treated there. I told chad that i was very upset he sold me a sick animal, without a reply i then asked how he was going to make this right. He immediately flipped and became very rude. Denying that the animal was sick, and going on to accuse me of giving his employees a hard time, and telling me that i was not supposed to get a different lizard, which he had said nothing about prior, and his employees said nothing about when i was picking the lizard up. He then proceeded to tell me to watch my tone and how i handle myself, even though up to that point i had been very calm and rational. I told him he had incorrectly sexed the lizard and that his employees had said it was alright to get another one, he then said that was correct, meaning i had chose the one i wanted, which is true, but i was also assured they were all healthy and treated by him before i even asked if he had a female. I told him his employees had said they had just came back from the show, and I said regardless he was selling sick animals. He said correct as in he was selling them, and that they had been vet checked before the show as they have to. I asked to see proof of the vet check, and asked which veterinarian he went to, which he didnt respond to. I told him the tegu was definitely sick, reminding him his husbandry with the gold tegus wasn't even remotely within the realm of correct, and that he had said just days before that they were all treated, and that was before i even asked if he had a female. He didn't respond to any of that even though Facebook said he had seen it. As a last resort i offered a resolution, he give me a refund, pay for the vet bills, and either pick up the tegu or pay to have it shipped to him. He then refused the resolution, stating that the vet visit was unnecessary (yes a RESCUE saying that a vet visit, where an animal was diagnosed with a respiratory infection, was unnecessary) i told him i would no longer be doing business him and that i would be posting to several pages about my experience. Overall i have come to the conclusion that this is NOT an actual rescue Believe it or not they actually have a 501C, but in my opinion they are no where near a rescue. Hopefully this will help you make an informed choice about choosing whether or not to do business with them. You will find our conversation and other useful information in the photos.