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

Im not allowed to post on their facebook page anymore, and they deleted anything concerning the problem

I hate to rain on everyone's parade but go to the Canadian boi and read "Red Deer Reptiles and such". Very similar story with absolutely no closure. There are a lot of tips there for dealing with these types of situations like writing a post on your own wall then tagging the pet store in it.

And they can just remove the tag...
Actually, they can report it as harassment, too - I don't know what, if any, action FB would take against a person doing that.

Originally Posted by Avilla Reptiles

Not sure if I can make a statement a former employee told me

You can...as long as you identify the person that told you.
To be clear, that means posting the person's full name

Having been involved in a huge ordeal with a seizure here in Texas, I can sort of understand why the local authorities and ASPCA might be trying to pass the buck so to speak. The SPCA here in Texas shut down US Global Exotics a few years ago, as many of you might recall. I was still taking in rescues at that point, and signed up as a shelter. Well, that experience caused me to quit rescuing except for referrals from close friends or other rescue organizations. Most local shelters and even the ASPCA have no clue about how to care for reptiles. When they get in one to a few reptiles, they have a list of rescues that will take in certain types of reptiles and they contact them and get them out of their facilities as quickly as possible. But that is much harder to do when a whole facility is shut down and the animals are seized. The USGE seizure was a fiasco. Yes, IMO, the animals in that facility were suffering, but their suffering did not end when ASPCA seized them until they turned them over to rescue orgs over a month later. By that time, the animals had not been given much vet care and had been cross contaminated. It was a huge mess.

This store is horrible. I wish that some authority would and could step in in cases like this, but honestly, I am very burned on the idea that such an authority exists. I think the best solution is public outcry, keeping pressure on them and making them lose enough money to get out of the business.

Not that I ever have or ever will condone such conditions of any animals, one thing I will say, most of these retail stores and even most rescue type places, have little to no knowledge of how to properly keep reptiles. Many species of reptiles sell for more than other species of animals, particularly in resuce situations. Their thoughts and hopes, are to just give the animal better living conditions than from what they came from, and they will move (sell or get adopted out) quicker than the animal will start to get worse. I think they assume that most people that come into a retail or resuce store, are just as uneducated as they are, as they probably assume that the true novice keeper will go directly to a high quality breeder, rather than a retail store.
That being said, regardless of what they think and their intentions are, stores and rescue places like that or remotely like that, need to be called out and shut down. Period. I run a reptile rescue out of my house, but, I know what my limit is, and I dont sell any of my rescues one able to go to a good, forever home. Whether you are a pure retail store or a rescue organization, you need to have some, at least basic, knowledge of all species you bring in or attempt to bring in, as well as up to livable standards for the animal. Pretty obvious here, neither of those were met. Cleaning up when called out on how bad it is, doesnt fix anything. At best, it mildly makes it look ok to the quick eye, not the animals conditions and what it will go back to in a few days

Since most legal entities have little interest in the well being of pet-shop reptiles, maybe contacting a local news source would be more beneficial? It may even give somebody a shot at educating the public on how to properly care for them and give some good exposure in a bad situation?

I run a rescue in Philadelphia and many animals come to me in very poor condition. I strive to bring them back to good health and yet still lose a few. Ive taken pictures of animals ready to move on to homes and have come under attack for pieces of poop in the background of the picture. Im wondering if they need help with the tasks of cleaning and general upkeep? I have a friend or two that come to help me once every two weeks and it makes all the difference. I put about 6 hours a day in myself feeding, watering and cleaning out the nastiest of the messes. My point being, no matter how hard you try sometimes you still need help, has anyone offered help to them on a regular basis? I'd take it in a second, I live on ssi am permanently disabled, many of the simplest tasks wear me out after a few hours. I offer $10.00 per hour credit towards any animal they like and offer the animal at very reasonable cost. I started my rescue while out fishing one day and watched someone release 2 red tail boas 6 to 7 foot and 1 ball python. Rather than try to get their license as my eyesight is poor I caught the animals, took them to a vet for a general check up and started posting, please dont release your animals into the woods, call Malestroms Reptile rescue @ 610-449-4125 and have found the response to be overwhelming at times. I work with my twp, the local SPCA and other rescues, I dont do turtles but have a friend who does nothing but turtles, same for rats and other rodents. I specialize in snakes and lizards, the rescue quickly became overwhelming and I found myself at capacity. Unfortunately, rehoming is about 1/4 the speed of influx and I have to turn animals away. my population is 98% healthy, I quarantine the sick and nurse them back to health or ease their transition to the other side. Anyway, despite constant harassment and slamming of my character on facebook, ill never stop trying to do a good deed. I cant imagine what would have happened to the animals I rescued had I not because of others discouraging me.
If you are willing to publicly crucify someones efforts, please be equally willing to help them out if they need it, its so easy to sit backand point fingers andmake accusations,its a lot harder to donate your time for love of the animals and see them taken care of.
I do not know these folks but from my own experience, (never this bad) I can only imagine they may be needing help. Its either this or they flat out dont give a hoot and are selling sick animals too. I ship all over the country, ill do what it takes to find a good home, if they clean up each time its brought to thier attention then maybe they truly are in need of some regular help, theres no justification for that frog in the water dish, the boas however may have been housed together while thier own enclosures were being cleaned, the beardies looked ok from the photo and of course they begged for attention, thats what beardies do lol! I have a few and they always want to be on my shoulder.
Again, I dont knw these folks and am not affiliated with them in any way. I just wanted to offer another perspective on the situation. Im not claiming to be right or know the ins and outs of thier operation, just offering another insight, hopefully im correct and they just need help and arent the monsters they are being made out to be.

My understanding is that this is a retial pet store (and Im sure as most retail stores go, they want to dabble in breeding certain things). If this was solely and only a rescue attempted organization, Id view it differently. And even if it is a rescue organization, then you dont take on more rescues than you can afford (money and personnel wise) to care for and rehabilitate. I also do a side rescue, but I know the number of animals I can comfortably handle and rehab to rehome, and will not go beyond that number.

Bottom line, the animals/conditions that are in these pics are terrible, even for a rescue.

Its like those animal hoardes on animal planet, most start out with good intentions trying to rescue and save all these animals, but too much is too much. Even as a retail store that takes in rescues, you have to have your limit to be able to properly care for the ones you have

Retail store taking in sick animals and making sick animals themselves. Sick animals come in, are then shoved in tanks with other animals and a price tag put on them. as you can tell by the pictures the tanks are not kept up and the animals arent kept up as well. this has been going on for months on end with this store so it is nothing new. Yes they clean the tanks after someone complains then it is back to just letting go again. Many in the area have offered to help them in the shop but they wont allow it. Hell people are offering to help for free as the shop makes money and they still turn it down. It boils down to money over the animals or the customers...............