Beware of "Exotic Aquatics and Pets" in Kendallville, Indiana!

When dealing with small communities / townships there really is no governing power except local government. BOAH and DNR have no jurisdiction in cases dealing with exotics. There are no local animal cruelty groups and I know (since I am local and get the buzz) that the local county shelter just down the road sat back and did nothing last time this was reported 2 months ago to them. This boils down to whether the local police are willing to file a case against a business in a town where businesses are closing and leaving town at a fast pace right now. I had heard that the mayor was even contacted this time my a local animal rescue. The owner, Chad, as stated earlier is the owner but the other two are now running it. This shop used to be a very nice shop until management changed hands. Have I seen these horrible conditions, in a simple answer yes. Have I brought it to the attention of the parties involved, you bet ya. As several have stated they will clean tanks since it has gone public yet again. For someone not familiar with the care of animals they may walk in there and see clean tanks again with water in the bowls and not even notice the condition of the animals themselves. After the last time their shop went public about the way they did things in there they started cleaning up their act and I started doing business with the shop again. That didnt last long and after seeing that they are back to poor animal care I doubt I will ever step foot in there again. The next closest pet shop is about a 40 minute drive but it is worth it as I know they have a consistent record on their animal care. I really do hope they respond but I am not sure that will help their situation out at all, might make it worse for them.

There should be a county ASPCA that you can report to, even if there isn't one in the town. Many ASPCAs work out of a city and do a huge surrounding area.

http://www.aspca.org/Fight-Animal-Cr...l-cruelty-laws

As with all powers to be you are directed to report it to your local law enforcement. The reasoning, as explained to me, was that the local law enforcement is "local" and can assess the situation. With the animals being "exotic" it limits who can really do anything, this as stated by the BOAH and DNR. Indiana really doesnt have any laws concerning "exotics" as you can see by the link above.

I don't usually post much but this is sickening.

Kendallville Police Dept. 260-347-0654

They are spending tons of time today trying to keep their Facebook clean...can't delete the comments here guys...people are not happy even if you are trying to ignore this issue

They claim the issue is fixed. Where is the proof???? If I lived closer I would go and take some more current pictures of the animals as they are right this moment.

I will personally go in there tomorrow and attempt to get some pictures. frankly though, they have been through this before, as soon as someone starts talking about the conditions they just cover it up until it blows over. so even if they decided to clean it up for now, it will not last.

They are trying to keep up the cleaning on the page but also the shop one would think. They may get the shop clean but you cant fix sick animals over night. This is not a new problem as I stated earlier. The first pics were from over 2 months ago and many in the area went in and offered to help as he stated “come in and talk to us”. That got no where but right after the go around 2 months ago the shop had a bunch of animals missing. Some were very sick. His post on FB is that they do take in sick animals that people cant care for, but I have witnessed them just dropping them in a dirty tank with other animals and next thing you know there is a price on them. I saw the corn snakes that they had in the shop. Those corn snakes were posted on a FB page for sale as “king snake food or rescue” by the breeder as they had not eaten in almost 2 months. Exotic Aquatics immediately reposted them for sale on various other FB pages as hatchling corn snakes for sale. I spoke of this earlier in my post as well. When I went in the shop there they were in a dirty pet keeper right on the countertop by the register for sale for $35. Mind you they did not have any water either. These were the same snakes that he had posted on FB for sale and the breeder that sold them verified that by responding to his post questioning them. The post was immediately deleted but my walk in the shop was a day after that posting deletion and the snakes were there for sale. This kind of behavior cannot be fixed over night. This is just one example of how they keep their animals. Another example and my last as this makes me sick to think about all of this. Went into the petshop and checked out the snakes. There was a cornsnakes aborting or passing blood and slugs. Two days later I was back in to check her out and she was gone. The were just then wiping the slugs out of the tank to put in some Leopard Geckos they had someone bring in. They wiped down MOST of it and dropped the Leos in on the walnut substrate still stained with the filth. When asked why they did it they said it was just temporary till they freed up a tank. The leopard Gecko that I was speaking about is the one left in that tank still with the dead tail, as well as some newer additions. You can still see the bedding clumps in there, well maybe not today if they changed it. There are tons of stories like this that the local could probably tell you. The reason none will come forward is because it is a very small town. The owner of the petshop also owns several other businesses. If someone were to speak up publically there may be repercussions for what they say. In a small town that very well could happen if you speak against a local multi business owner. I don’t live in Kendallville and don’t visit to often now that I wont go to the petshop. You will see some positive post in the FB list above. Kinda funny the boys running the shop have the last name Pant as well does their big supporter that spoke up for them …… lol. This shop has had months to get this taken care of and just cleaning cages when someone points out the shop doesn’t cut it. Sure you can call the local police if you dare but when they go in the shop and see the newly cleaned tanks that is all that they will see. They wont realize the health of the animals just that the tanks are now clean and water in the bowls. No offense meant in that statement either, just stating that if they would take a vet in the store it may be a different outcome. Not sure if I can make a statement a former employee told me about what happened to the animals last time this all got fired up but I can tell you from my knowledge there were quite a few empty tanks and I did not go in the back to see if they finally set up a QT area. Thank you all for your support in helping to get something done. The mirage of post and messages to them may finally make its mark.

Its almost like a fiction movie. Most just dont think of pet store (particularly exotic pet stores) can or will do these things. Most pet stores, even if they get sub-par animals in at low prices and then retail them, they at least put them in fairly clean housing with proper set up, in hopes that the customers dont notice the sick/injured animals prior to buying them. These people are in a whole different league of animal abuse and neglect. They dont even try to create the image of taking care of the animals. I wish the store was here in Az, and I could go in. Good times right there

well like I said there are lots of people to call round me and the one group you dont want is the fish and game commission and then followed by license and inspection because they just take away everything close you down and fine the crap out of you. I would also think the health dept could get in on this as disease can spread. you could even call local police because its boarder line animal cruelty and that is a police issue.