Quote Originally Posted by EventHorizon View Post
Exactly, I've worked in petstores, and while they aren't the most ideal place to get pets, the ones I chose to work for (no puppies, no kittens), all insisted you learn all you could about the proper care of the animal, that you'd be able to be asked about any animal we carried and reply with the correct answers, and that we were to refuse sales to people who seemed to not be willing to make sure the animal they bought would have a proper set up.

I always tended to be the reptile person, and so many people just don't seem to understand that yes, the initial set up can be costly, but if you set an animal up right from the start, most are fairly simple to keep up with.

Not enough people research before they buy. I had been commenting to a friend I had a reptile setup I had been wanting to fill, but I knew I was best prepared for a tropical reptile, and I kept being offered desert ones. I love them, but what I had was more for a higher humidity pet, especially where I had in mind.

So I guess it was just fate that dropped the little, sick Argentinian Horned Frog into my lap! But, before I took her from the customers, I already knew what the care was for a healthy one, because I had a male years ago who I absolutely cherished.

The problem is I feel, that too many petstores aren't like the ones I've worked for, where people just want to make sales, especially the ones where they work on commission! Not enough really school their employees on care, and people just don't realize that when they walk into a store. So many people mean well, and think that they can come in and talk to an employee- and get all the answers they need, and that SHOULD be the case, but sadly it's not in many places.

I feel for those people, who are trying to make a responsible, informed decision, but don't know enough on how the petstore trade is run to know what to look out for. Personally, to test the knowledge of a place, I'll go in and ask questions of something I know about really well, before I ask about something I don't (say, saltwater fish), but then I go home and use those answers as a starting point for research! Sometimes you need to have a touch of information, before you can really research it well yourself.

Sometimes it just makes me angry that this even needs to be an issue...
This is true and I believe sales should be refused to unprepared buyers and especially if they are unwilling to do research first. I rescued a baby Greddn Cranwelli from a Petsmart that's near me. Its the same one I purchased Grif from. I stopped to buy some fake plants and a light bulb for my little baby. Ofcourse I stopped to look at the reptile section and there again was a baby pacman on moist peat moss mixed with bark. I purchased the items I came for and imediately grabbed a manager and advised him that the frog was on the wrong substrate and if fed in the enclosure on that substrate that it was going to accidentaly going to ingest a piece of bark and die. I said it as politely as possible and told him that it would save them money if they housed the frog properly and showed him exactly what substrate to house the frog on. I can only hope that I got through to them. I acted on behalf of the frog but explained it in terms that a money hungry buisness would understand so that maybe they would change their ways, but I can only hope.