Had a frustrating moment yesterday with my local exotic pet store. We don't have big pet chains where I live without needing to drive 40 minutes one way. As such, I typically order most stuff online, and I get my feeders from a local mom and pop exotic pet store. Now they typically specialize in reptiles and fish, but do occasionally carry invertebrates. I don't always agree with the husbandry they display there. I've also noticed a shift lately to selling pets with enclosures as bundles like hermit crabs and bettas in vases. I don't like it, but its the only place locally for crickets, meal worms, super worms, and rats. Their reptile set ups are always very good.
I noticed yesterday that they had several tarantulas on sale on the front counter for Halloween, which in and of itself is a practice I hate. I don't like tarantulas being used as props for a holiday or stupid social media videos. They had two "Curly Hair" and one "Mex Blonde", so obviously from the start the non scientific names in a shop is a warning to me. These T's are juvie/subadult size, so I'm not convinced wild caught. They were bald. I don't mean somewhat typical bald patch. I mean the whole abdomen is bald. All of them are on about a .5" of reptile sand in exo terra nano talls, no hide, a water dish with a wet paper towel, and a small skull decoration. Not to mention about 4-6 large crickets roaming around. The T's are obviously very stressed and hiding under their own legs. The counter is right at the entrance in full sun.
I'm not a Karen, but in this situation, I gave them the benefit of the doubt since this is not a heartless chain store. I've been shopping with them for 8 years. I asked to speak to the manager. I spoke to her at length about the set ups, the signs of stress I was seeing, and compared the lack of knowledge on display to the reptile enclosures. I offered to bring in my own supplies from home to make the set ups more appropriate for the spiders. Offered to do it at no cost. Nope. She got defensive about what I was pointing out, doubled down that she knew more than I did. I mentioned my 2 years experience and collection of over 34 species, but that was that. Did not want the free help.
People just don't seem to care enough about invertebrates to do just a few minutes of research. I don't think I'll being doing business with these people any more. It makes me very sad for the animals, and I know buying them would just mean they'd make a profit and be incentivized to buy more.
I noticed yesterday that they had several tarantulas on sale on the front counter for Halloween, which in and of itself is a practice I hate. I don't like tarantulas being used as props for a holiday or stupid social media videos. They had two "Curly Hair" and one "Mex Blonde", so obviously from the start the non scientific names in a shop is a warning to me. These T's are juvie/subadult size, so I'm not convinced wild caught. They were bald. I don't mean somewhat typical bald patch. I mean the whole abdomen is bald. All of them are on about a .5" of reptile sand in exo terra nano talls, no hide, a water dish with a wet paper towel, and a small skull decoration. Not to mention about 4-6 large crickets roaming around. The T's are obviously very stressed and hiding under their own legs. The counter is right at the entrance in full sun.
I'm not a Karen, but in this situation, I gave them the benefit of the doubt since this is not a heartless chain store. I've been shopping with them for 8 years. I asked to speak to the manager. I spoke to her at length about the set ups, the signs of stress I was seeing, and compared the lack of knowledge on display to the reptile enclosures. I offered to bring in my own supplies from home to make the set ups more appropriate for the spiders. Offered to do it at no cost. Nope. She got defensive about what I was pointing out, doubled down that she knew more than I did. I mentioned my 2 years experience and collection of over 34 species, but that was that. Did not want the free help.
People just don't seem to care enough about invertebrates to do just a few minutes of research. I don't think I'll being doing business with these people any more. It makes me very sad for the animals, and I know buying them would just mean they'd make a profit and be incentivized to buy more.
