Dealing with Minors

My parents have been with for every purchase I have made. In fact if I had gotten anything w/o their consent I would be in big trouble

And yes I have been keeping since I was four. I had a ball python. Two years later I got a columbian boa constrictor. After that I just started filling my collection. I had everything from gold dust day geckos to cornsnakes and spinylizards.

I came to these forums hoping to find some people who cared about keeping herps, not ragging on other people because it makes them feel big. I have already stay out of most sites because of jerks like you. i.e. kingsnake.com

Michael,

You needn't be too sensative about this. It's just that there is no way for a four year old child to "keeping" reptiles of any sort in a way that is competant. Further, for young people, such as yourself, to try to use those early years as quality years of hepetological exposure is at best innocently misleading to those who do not understand the difference between being the same house as a reptile, and actually being a herp keeper. That is why many get a little aggrivated when they see people say something like, "I'm fourteen and have ten years experience keeping herps!"

As to whether minors should be treated as adults, I would say absolutely yes, and absolutely no! Yes, they should be treated with the same respect and consideration due to any person of civilized society. Even so, as a minor, there is no way I would enter into a contract with you (which a sale constitutes). I would sell animals to your parents, and THEY can give them to you, if they like, but there is a dramatic distinction between what can be sold to a minor versus what can be sold to an adult.

It is rather simplistic for anyone not see that distinction, in my opinion. But ... each to his own, I suppose.

Michael, I know I came off sounding fairly harsh, Darin summed it up in a much more politic manner.

I grew up with animals in the house as well, it makes it very difficult to pin down exactly when I was solely responsible for the health and care of any of them but to contend that there were animals which were your responsibility at the age of four is absurd. You may have "helped" your parents by filling a water dish under supervision or dropped some flakes in the fish tank... and while those are valuable experiences that led to a greater understanding of animal care, that sort of interaction can't really be utilized as evidence of responsible ownership.

There are people who have been dealing with these animals at a professional level for fifty, sixty years in some cases... There are others who haven't been around long enought to do so but have put in a good twenty plus. Dealing with these animals for ten (Or fifteen or five) years implies a certain degree of experience and education, it grants weight to the opinions and thoughts of anyone who has done so. By claiming ten years experience at the age of fourteen, you cheapen the experience of others to some degree, you imply that your experience while in kindergarten was equal in quality to theirs while they were responsible for every aspect of their animal's health and well being.

This isn't to say that being exposed to the animals at a young age is without value, simply that someone in grade school will not get the same net education out of the time they spent in supervised interaction.

As unfortunate as it is, selling anything live to a minor just isn't safe these days. There are exceptions, as has been noted... if a shop owner/employee reccognizes a repeat customer and general permission has been given by a parent then it covers anything which may go wrong.

As I have only had 2 animals shipped I have purchased tons of herps from shows.

That's great. Where are the tons of herps now? Quantity doesn't make up for quality of care.

Lately I have been bombarded by kids in response to my ads. You can tell they are because of the kind of questions they ask. For example: "can I send cash on the mail"? "Will it be delivered to my door"? One of them tested my patience to the limit, a total of 14 e-mails (plus pictures) with similar number of replies from my side. In the final one just he just plain told me he didn't have the money yet. Another one straight up front told me he needed to ask his mother, which of course I encouraged him to do; that one was easy, never heard back from him. A third one asked me to write a letter to his mother to convince her into letting him have a snake as pet. I also did but it seems it was not very effective as he also dissappeared without a trace. Sometimes is tough!

Regards.

Just got done reading through this thread.

This is why I have a policy not to sell to anyone under the age of 18. Unfortunately, when selling over the internet, it is difficult to tell who is under the age or not, as some teens know how to act "adult" when they need to.

I agree, its unfortunate that kids are being put in a bad context nowadays, but unfortunately, with the majority running wild in the streets (especially around here, WA has a big problem with underage mothers) and stores.

I've never worked in a pet store or zoo, but I've been in them when kids were poking and banging on the cages. I've been on the receiving end of a parent's wrath when I told their child that herps don't like to be poked and don't like their cages being hit.

Most kids, when their parents show up, deny they ever did anything. The parents sure as hell don't bother to keep a close eye on their kids, so how will they know?

Here's the other problem. 90% of parents (being a parent myself) will tell you they "know how to raise a child" and don't need to be told how. Some do, most don't have clue, but like the rest of the human race, they will never admit it.

When people admit their faults, or what they do not know, only then will they learn from such things, get along better.

I'd have to agree with the 1st page of posting.
If the buyer/trader is a minor, defenitly contact the parents. Dont even get into price, or trade talks with the kid until his parents know what's going on. Just think, if you got an email from an extremely peterbed (sp must be off there LOL) parent, who is going to take you to court for selling a live animal to a minor. Or if the snake dies do to the minors fault, and there is nothing you can do but refund the money because all deals are voided anyhow.
Go figure. Minros just let your parents do the dealing, after, or better yet before the original contact.

Originally Posted by Mark and Aimee

Just ask for ID I guess?

Mark

And possibly a phone number. A cell would probably be preferable too. I know when i was 18 i didnt have ID i got my permit at 19 im pretty sure... though i dont remember well, and when i just wanted to HOLD an animal some stores would give you crap for it.

You probably didn't even have your ID when this thread took place then....LOL.

Originally Posted by Cat_72

You probably didn't even have your ID when this thread took place then....LOL.

lol probably not, or i had just gotten it.

Im really bad at not checking the dates, i see something up there in the threads when i click new posts and respond.... gotta work on that one :P