Who Keeps These People In Check?

[torti]

Went to a pet shop and saw this. I wonder who allow these people to continue running their shops? I talked to the owner about the baby sulcatas and she said the lady from the Sacramento tortoise club told her how to house them. Mmmmm..... interesting. And isn't there a 4" rule that applies in California? I forgot to take a picture of these water turtles about 4-5 different types all housed in one tank, and they are smaller than my thumb nail.

 

[Melly-n-shorty]

who mixes tortoise and lizards? what if a tortoise decides to chomp on a tail? poor tortoise are probably stressed.

 

[torti]

So are the lizards. This is not the only tank. In another one there was about 5 tortoises and one little lizard. Poor thing was up against the wall just clawing.

 

[Melly-n-shorty]

Sad Face

you should file a report!

 

[ripper7777777]

That's wild, I'm used to seeing multiple tortoise species and sulcatas kept in mini saharas but this is the first lizard and tortoise cage I have seen.

 

[tyguy35]

we have a pet store here in ontario called big als its just the one in kitchener the rest are very clean. well anyways they have iguanas, box turtles, sulcattas, greeks, russians, long tailed lizards, curly tails in one small 20g tank. and at such a high price so no one can save them

 

[wellington]

You should file a complaint and I would also call the Sacramento Tortoise club and find out if they do recommend this kind of husbandry. If they do, I would report them also. You should also try to educate the pet store on the proper care for these animals and that they can not be housed together and anything else they don't have right. This is one of the reasons I with this country would out law pet stores selling animals. In it for money, animal always pays

 

[dmmj]

housing different species is not against the law.

 

[wellington]

It isn't against the law, but I bet you could surely find some animal abuse in there and that is against the law.

 

[torti]

I tried telling the owner about how to house baby sulcatas. Because they are really the only species that I know anything about. She told me she soaks them twice a week and that's all the water they need. She wont listen to anything I said. All she said was the person that runs the Sacramento tortoise club told her so.

She told me she had never lost a baby, which I believe is a lie. Because there were 5 sullies in there and 3 of them looks half dead. I couldn't rescue them because I just don't have enough room for 6 adult sullies later =(

 

[ascott]

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
10903 New Hampshire Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20993
Ph. 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332)

You can contact them directly about the illegally undersized tortoise for sale....this will get the opportunity for them to come into the business and check on the turtle sales....and if they find any other violations great....I would not warn the pet shop that you are going to do this...as those turtle can disappear quickly (toilets are a quick way that they are disposed of in a hurry)

While it is not illegal to house variety of species together, there is also a question of public relations...perhaps if you shared your photos with the local newspaper and a blurb from you then there may be some changes ...then again may not, you know?

---

By the way....what city and state is this pet shop in, if you don't mind

 

[Laura]

print out toms current care sheet and take that or mail it to her..

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Lyly:

The gal who runs the Sacramento Turtle & Tortoise Club is quite well-known in Sacramento and is very well liked. She also mixes her species at home, so it stands to reason she would find nothing wrong with the pet store doing it. She has been written up in the newspaper there many times and has written a couple box turtle books. She's been taking care of turtles and tortoises for many, many years and isn't about to start changing her ways now. I am a bit surprised she told them all those lizards and tortoises were ok in that small tank, though.

 

[Turtleswagg]

wat pet store is this??

 

[l0velesly]

That's really surprising.. I mean, how hard is it to separate the lizards from the tortoises.. I suppose it's OK sometimes if it's just one tortoise and one lizard.

 

[torti]

The pet shop is in Lodi, CA. They sell anything from large reptiles, to fishes, to birds (I don't mean small birds, I'm talking parrots). There's only two people that runs the store. And I believe they are the owners. The place stinks and there's bird droppings everywhere. I think 75% of the animals in the store is sick.

She didn't say Sacramento Tortoise Club told her it was OK to house the tortoises with the lizards, she said that's how they told her to care for the sulcatas. I know nothing about the Sac Tortoise Club, don't get me wrong.

I'm just a little mad that pet shops like these are still allowed to stay open. And people shopping in them just encourages the abuse.

 

[Katherine]

Who Keeps These People In Check

You do ! Any place or person who is keeping and selling animals with disregard for there welfare is likely doing it for the $$$ so the best you can do is attempt to educate them and refuse to do business with places or people who do not adhere to a standard of care you are comfortable with. When people are in it for the $$$; and the $$$ stops coming they often become more willing to modify their system...

 

[fbsmith3]

I was going to make a insulting comment on her keeping lizards with tortoises and then I rememebered I kept my water dragon and Box turtle in the same cage in the early 1990's.

As for this place, I agree call the MSPCA and USDA and do not warn them. Having sick animals will be a danger to human is taken extremely serious.

 

[Sammy]

While u was in the pet shop, customer complained to the shop keeper 'u said it's ok to house lizard with my star tortoise, lizard bit star's toe off', shop keeper replied 'it will grow back'.

 

[cherylim]

Similar situation to our local zoo, and this was one of their better tortoise environments: