I'm sorry I didn't post on here earlier. I happened to see the post on the other forum and figured I am in the area and I had never been there but had happened by it when I was searching for the bike place that used to be right there a couple weeks ago and had wanted to go check it out ever since... I'm currently in the market for a couple new babies because I want to get back into rhacs, I didn't know of this forum and for the need for "proof" on either side or I would have asked to take photos.... well I finally had a chance to go after my finals the other day and here is what I noted:
I went into the store on saturday after my finals, and some things chris said are true... although it's not nearly the worst I have seen. Sadly just a couple things off the top of my head were:
-the leos were on sand and were blatantly impacted and emaciated as well as having no water (because it obviously evaporated)
-the chameleons water source had nothing in it (the dripper thing) and I saw a big spiders web in the leaf decorations in the tank (ugh yuck)
-quite a few of the reptiles were not as plump as they could be but that goes along with the "maintenance diet" that someone mentioned on here in an earlier post - not the best for them and I don't agree with it, but if it keeps them alive... happy i guess is for the end owner to provide
(also noted that the dead crickets i saw in the tanks were not dusted with anything - but that of course could be because it was not their vitamin or calcium feeding schedule days....?)
-they had a new "local breeders" section where they setup a couple of the reptiles as if they were in a show in the little deli cups and sadly there was a little baby crestie that was in the middle of shedding and he had shed stuck everywhere and no moisture in the little cup (he was only $25 and I wanted him so bad but I don't have a tank for a baby crestie right now)
-there were a good number of tanks I saw the temp was too high (but then again I was reading it off the stick-on the outside of the tank thermometers so it def. wasn't accurate, but if it wasn't accurate then that means they couldn't know the temp themselves...? unless they have a handheld), the water had evaporated, dirty inside, etc.
You could definitely tell which animals were favored and which ones weren't with how their tanks looked. OR what their cleaning schedule is and those tanks just happened to have been cleaned recently.
But over-all that's definitely not worse than I have seen at places like the old Petco's (before their policies were changed), pet-land discounters, and some individual pet shops.
I know of a shop that the owner fired one of their employees so the employee went to the ASPCA of Boston and told them what the guy was doing, then the owner heard about it and burned down his own shop with all the animals in it just so he wouldn't be brought up on animal cruelty charges and lose his animal distributor's license. They never had clear evidence that he did it but everyone in the community knew the timing couldn't have been that much of a coincidence. THAT was heartbreaking.
(that I do have proof of
http://www.boston.com/news/local/ar...op_blaze_deliberately_set_fire_officials_say/ )
I used to work at 2 different pet shops through college and I know how hard it is and this was not even close to being the worst but things can always be better
I think he is doing a good job with the educational classes/birthdays and everything and I hope he keeps it up, we need to keep the next generation motivated!
