Aargh...a bad morning

What a morning. I went to my favourite pet shop to get a new tank and a few new C.o's, and I look in the tank and there's three dead newts on the bottom of the tank and one is rotting.

Usually this pet store is VERY good about the way they treat their animals, so much so that I've basically forsaken all the other local stores for them. I've probably spent close to a thousand dollars in the last two months there.

So anyways, I went up to the counter and confronted the lady who seems to run the place.

Her: Hi Ken! How's things going?
Me: Not very well, I'm very disappointed in you guys.
Her: Why's that?
Me: There's three dead newts in the tank back there, and the ones that are still are alive are pencil thin!
Her: Well that happens..*cut off by angry me*
Me: That doesn't just happen. It takes a while for a newt to start to rot...
Her: Well we were closed for a couple days...
Me: That's more than a couple of days worth of decay. What's the temperature in the tank?
Her: 80 degrees.
Me: WHAT?!?!?! That's way too hot for those animals.
Her: They've been doing just fine at that temperature.
Me: Obviously not, three of them are dead!
Her: Well like I said, that happens.
Me: And as I said, that doesn't just happen. Those newts look like they haven't eaten in weeks.
Her: Well we feed them.
Me: I'm tempted to buy them all, but I don't want to take them home and have them die right away on me. You have to get those dead animals out of the tank.
Her: We'll get to it at the end of the day.
Me: Do you know what kind of bacteria is developing in that tank right now? If that newt's been in there for a couple of days rotting, you're going to have to do a major water change.
Her: We'll get to it.

At this point I left. I was so freakin mad. I decided to take my chances and go to another pet store that has seemed to be pretty good other than never having newts. I still wanted to pick up a new tank after all. I went and looked and they had some Taricha which I'll probably "rescue" from them some time this week after I set up a quarantine tank and do some research. I may just get them and use a tupperware tub for now. Anyways, after oooing and ahhing over the Taricha's for a bit (and telling the staff that they shouldn't be in with Fire Bellied Toads), I went to look at the ADF's. Well there's probably four dead ones in the tank. I went up to the counter and told the lady and she tells me that even when they're floating and looking dead, they're just resting. They weren't floating, they were on their backs on the bottom of the tank getting kicked around by the survivors. I had to actually go and point out which frogs were dead to the lady, but at least she removed them and put a note on the tank to do a water change.

I swear I'm going to start a newt rescue operation here and go and liberate all the poor little guys from the pet stores.

I know I'm not the best newt keeper in the world, but I've got to be better than the stores they're in. At least my newts are fat and active.

Ok, I'm done ranting now. *sigh*

Have you contacted the local authorities? Something should be said!

Umm, Ken, take it from past experience 80 F is sufficient for severe decomposition to occur in an amphibian in a couple of days. At work the pathologist, once commented the only time I get an amphibian in decent enough condition to necropsy is when it has just been euthanized.

Ed

Ken, a few years ago I ended up closing down a very bad pet store in town by doing these things:
1. Contacting the BBB (which didn't do anything except write a letter to the pet store and tell them that a complaint had been filed against them, BUT it scared them quite a bit---note: do NOT give the Better Business Bureau your name unless you want to, because they WILL give it to the pet store, don't ask me why. I ended up getting personal threats from the store owner as a result).

2. Contact the local police (I'm serious here) and tell them you are seeing evidence of animal neglect, and they WILL investigate.

3. Alert the local veterinarian(s)---especially if they have dogs and cats in the store, because most likely they are "treating" them on their own and not contacting the vet about it.

It is the combined efforts of myself, the veterinarian, and the local police (who also contacted the Department of Health, who couldn't do anything unless they were selling turtles illegally) that eventually closed this store down.

A lot of effort, but worth it. Keep posted on this!