Be wary of Boas and Balls (Rodent Factory) rodents. Parasites!

This did not print my reply. I said Give Lynn and Ken a second chanse to pull this around. I have known them for years and appreciate the fact that they put on the Rocky mt repitle show every 4 monts not and easy task. As for Peta and the thumping of rats and mice, ask yourself when no CO2 is available how do dispatch your food animals

While I realize that it's a common practice for many large operations, personally I find it abhorrent that they would put sick reptiles into the freezer to die rather than seeking vet treatment, or at least having them humanely euthanized.

Sorry but this goes way beyond thumping a rat on the head and PETA didn't ship out parasite infested rodents on their behalf! These people are a scurge on the entire pet industry and the fact that they are representing a show makes it even worse and more urgent that we all distance ourselves from these kind of people.

Originally Posted by indigos-r-us

As for Peta and the thumping of rats and mice, ask yourself when no CO2 is available how do dispatch your food animals

you don't thump a mouse/rat against your arm and you shouldn't have to do it 'multiple times', these people are messed up and those poor feeders suffer for it, all life deserves respect.

Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

you don't thump a mouse/rat against your arm and you shouldn't have to do it 'multiple times', these people are messed up and those poor feeders suffer for it, all life deserves respect.

I was going to say something,but decide that many people probably thump. Although the manner in which they are thumped makes a real difference. And looking at the feeders,kittens,how disgusting

those poor creatures.....i just want to pick them up and run them all to my vet and find them homes. that rat...kittens..omg when i saw that i went and threw up

Originally Posted by indigos-r-us

and the thumping of rats and mice, ask yourself when no CO2 is available how do dispatch your food animals

I don’t. IOW, If not via co2, I will not kill feed items (rodents, etc.).
Along with raising rodents, I still make purchases of frozen rodents.
That said, and while I cannot bring myself to do it, I think that (aside from co2) cervical dislocation, and decapitation, are acceptable methods. Thumping is not ... especially if done in a way that does not dispatch the feed item upon 1st attempt.

I don’t really feel any sympathy for this couple/business.
They have been around, more than long enough, to know better and to know what they should, or should not, do.
They have also been around, more than long enough, to know that, if they don't know something, they should look it up &/or do some research.
Then, if animals are left suffering without aid (or put down in an inhumane manner), that is just....

I don't raise enough mice to keep a bottle of CO2 around the snake room. I go by King Supers a food store in Colorado and they carry dry ice. It is relatively cheap and if you protect the mice from touching the ice the gas let into the atmosphere of a small bucket dispatches them within seconds. Quite effective with out pain. Seems like cervical dislocation would leave the animal alive for a minute or two?

Yes there have been studies that prove rat’s setup in crowded conditions are stressed and have high levels of stress hormones. Since rats are one of the smartest rodents the learn quickly to learn various tests presented. However a stressed rat is visibly stressed and does not learn nearly as quickly as rats that were kept in the "rat hotel". An enclosure not crowded, many levels, lots of toys to keep them from getting bored etc. Their cognitive abilities were almost twice what the stressed rats were. Fortunately the rats eventually got moved to non-stressed conditions and they recovered their functions. I would never feed a live rat unless it cannot be absolutely necessary if a snake will just not eat anything else. A rat will feel fear of dying that you can see visibly. The same with a rabbit. I do not feed any that have not been put down by responsible breeders that use CO2 to dispatch their animals. As far as someone feeding a kitten or puppy I draw the line. I would not tolerate that. I love these creatures so much that we have adopted 2 cats. 1 that was due to be at a kill shelter and rescued by a group that does that. The other was a spoiled little rascal that had "foster parents". We work with the SPCA shelter here in and no pet left behind. I don't care if they are feral, is far more humane than being fed to a snake. I would fight to protect them. I heard that a guy in Louisiana was going to a shelter and pretending to adopt pets from several in the area and feeding them as cheap food. He was eventually busted for cruelty to animals, had his reptiles confiscated and fined. I heard he even spent jail time although I could not confirm that. Good riddance.

I am posting this to talk about what has happened to us. I have not read the post above and will not read the post after this. Please understand this PETA thing is unreal and twisted lies.
I really don't know where to start. I hired Gram Dawson to help us by cleaning the tanks in the barn and feed about six months ago. While I was trying to finish the floors in the house so we could move back in after the fire. We only had a year to finish the house and the fire was April 20 2012. Ken and I had to do a lot of the work ourselves since we were under insured. I did not have business insurance and in the fire I lost 2 businesses. One being a sewing business I did part time and the other was Boas and Balls.
• Gram was so incredibly slow, I would leave him alone to work, and then later he would bring a friend to help him out, thinking less talk would get more work done. He claimed he was done, but Caryn (my daughter) and I would have to go out the next day and finish. The overcrowded tank on the video. I really think he moved the animals from other tanks together. I never kept then that full it was unsafe. Besides I had so many empty tanks after slowing things down when SNT started breeding their own rats, why over crowed.
• Next the hedgehog. She scratched her eye and got an infection. I treated it with the polysporin from the vet, and it was cleared up in 3 days. She did lose her site in the one eye. I gave her to Gram since he was so interested in her and thought he would give her a good home. She was a 4 year old retired breeder and about as sweet as could be. But the allegations that she suffered for months is untrue. If true and he was volunteering at our reptile store where she lived, then why no pictures of her when her eye was infected?
• Next the kittens. There are feral cats out here, and they have kittens. I was told by the vet that they had feline parvo. Since the parents did not have their shots then the kittens would not get the immunity from the mother. We would catch the kittens and give them their shots when we could. These two I never saw Gram must have caught those kittens outside I would hope he took them to the vet but I never heard.
. Oh we do have CO2 and use it in the barn. The kids in the video were volunteers and I have had a talk with them about the thumping thing. They no longer will pre kill rodents for customers until we get a CO2 tank in that store.
• Last the ugly rat, rats are not nice and we told him to put that one down and yet he tortured it by taking video and dragging it around town for PETA's agenda and then a vet put it down.
• Lastly Animal control came into our store. They took a few animals from the store including the large scalata. I have looked at the PACFA regs and the size of the cage was good. But the animals that they took they say were improperly housed. They took the chameleons saying the rain system we had did not work. But it is ridicules, we have a Mist King system the best set up with a filter and a timer that goes off every hour for one min all day (not at night). It is interesting that Gram was part of the raid with animal control.
• Everyone at the stores is torn up over this. We really thought we were doing a good job and customers were very happy with us. The store is back open and customers are very supportive and coming in and our sale have been very good. So I put this offer to everyone reading this. Come into the store. Come out to our rodent barn. We are not bad people there is just someone or something trying very hard to ruin us.

PS. my spelling stinks, I know I have dyslexia and spell like a 3rd grader. Spell check helps but it can mangle words.