I apologize ahead of time if I say something noob-ish since this is my first post ever. I'm just here to set some things straight since this thread has caused a lot of stress for some people. I am an employee at AE Pets. I don't really know too much about the reptiles, since I'm mostly just a cashier here for the summer, but I can clear some things up here. You can trust me. I'm not a close friend of the owner's, I'll tell you exactly who I am, and anyway, I'm a journalism student, so I have to take into account both sides of the story and be factual and as objective as possible. This should be good practice for me since this seems to be a pretty divided subject here.
First of all, I sincerely apologize for any imperfections or bad conditions that anyone saw in our store. I can tell you that everyone who works there is putting an effort in to improve the conditions of our store, for both the customers and the animals. You'll find that it's cleaner and I'm sure that no one there will let a water bowl go empty ever again. Everyone there really does care about the animals, and I admit, mistakes were made, but we're all owning up to it. The truth is, there is no excuse for an empty water bowl, but people do make mistakes. What matters is that we all learned from it. It was a wake-up call. It won't happen again.
I wasn't hired to take care of the reptiles, but since this whole thing happened, I've been keeping my eye out on the displays. I must say, conditions weren't as bad as Tom said they were, but he was right about a few things, and now the store is striving for absolute perfection. As far as the quarantine room goes, it is not a public bathroom. Also, most of the quarantine animals are animals that have been brought in to us. The people at AE Pets have saved a lot of animals' lives. For example, there was a turtle that came in severely chewed up by a dog, and it received intensive care from our reptile guy. Now it is completely healthy, and probably one of the most active, happy animals in the store. You should see him eat his greens. It's the cutest thing ever.
Shannon does care a lot about the well-being of animals, as opposed to money. Actually he's a pretty terrible businessman. When people bring in puppies, instead of selling them he gives them away with the purchase of a couple bags of premium dog food so he knows the dog will be taken care of. Instead he could sell the dog for a profit along with some crappy dog food he'd make more money on, but he honestly cares a lot.
I would never work for people that were abusing animals. I care deeply about the well-being of animals. I refuse to buy products tested on animals, despite cruelty-free products being more expensive, I take care of my own pets, I've done a ton of volunteer work at the animal shelter, and I would have no respect for anyone that mistreated animals intentionally. The collared lizard was indeed brought to the store in the condition it was in. That wasn't a lie. The store takes in animals often. I'm apologizing for the shop as much as I'm defending it. It's a shame that the water bowl was empty; we're all ashamed that that happened. I have no idea why that was the case. It usually isn't. There's still no excuse, but like I said, I doubt any employees will let that happen again.
A mistake happened, and we're all sorry for it, even if other people won't admit it on here because they're stubborn. All I have to really say is that the store has learned from this mistake. Just to clarify, I'm not picking sides here. I agree and disagree with both sides. The animals shouldn't be neglected, and they certainly won't be from here on out. You're all welcome to come in and make sure we're doing a good job. If you see anything that needs to be fixed, I'll gladly make a note of it and fix it if I'm working there at the time. If not, the other employees are always open for suggestions too. We truly want the store to be as great a place as possible for our animals, and I think you'd be happy with the changes that have been made.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Like I said, I don't know much about reptiles at all, but I'll answer anything to the best of my abilities.
Lol on a serious note, I did not threaten anyone on my post. Believe me, if I lived closer, I would definitely be assisting Tom with visits to the store or contacting agencies. Although the owner of this store has already proved that he's not all there (threatening Tom), I definitely would not risk my career over Shannon Long. 
