Dealing with Minors

I just had to poke at ya, lol.

Be fun to see how many of the original posters have changed or gone. I still wouldnt sell to a minor without their parents involvement. I feel its best for the animal and for the situation as a business transaction. If mommy or daddy or both want to be mad at me for doing so then oh well.

No way.

when I was 16, I really wanted a turtle. I asked my friend to get me one for my birthday - good thing she had more sense that that. At 16 (or younger) you don't always think things through. I never had any other pets than fish, and turtles are just like fish, right? I didn't do any research, and considering how long turtles live there's no way I would have wanted to take care of it it's whole life, not to mention I went to college and moved across the country. I would have got bored of it, tired of the cleaning, and dumped it. I would never consider getting a turtle now, even though I'm more financially stable than I was at 16.

I've grown up a lot in the mean time, I don't ever buy an animal unless I do months of research and have a set up ready for them, and the expectation I'll be it's owner for life.

That being said, there are adults out there just as thoughtless, as I'm sure there are much more responsible 16 years olds out there than I was. But better to cover yourself and your reputation as much as you can. A friend of mine recently had a deal go sour with a minor, and you have to take into account they are *not* mature, and react as such. That situation alone would scare me off EVER dealing with a kid.

I have many 'children' coming to my table at the taylor show wanting to buy theraphosids, they are denied. The past few months it has been a lot of these young folks. I even denied one young man that had his parents, they wanted to scare everybody [friends whatever] with a tarantula. I can just imagine the terror this spider could have gone thru.
I am strong on my stance of selling to minors, to me that means 18 and younger