Petshop over crowding newts with frogs and goldfish.

I went in the petshop to get some crickets today, and saw the petshop had some firebelly newts for sale, so I went to look at them. They were housed in a 50 gallon tank that was half water, half land. But in the tank was also goldfish and some type of frog. And what I learned from this website that is not very good. And then I started to notice how many newts , frogs and fish in the tank. There was about 6 goldfish, about 20 frogs and about 12 firebellied newts. I felt bad for all the creatures in there.

Although there was two firebellied newts I wanted to take home, I put the crickets down by the tank to look at them and two of the newts came over and so interested in those crickets. It was just cute. It just broke my heart to leave them there.

Do you think if I a buy two of those little newts that they will survive or are they doomed to die.

that is the case with most pet stores

If you have the room and have done ur research, and have a tank for them then I would see no reason not to buy them, just make sure you look them over REALLY good for injuries, white on the tips of their tail/fingers/ limbs and no missing limbs or fingers

I think you should consider that there is a definite possibility that the animals may die shortly after you purchase them. Even good pet stores can have problems due to the many stresses of shipping the animals from China. Newts often arrive in a horrible condition.

It would be best not to support a pet shop that inappropriately cares for their animals. Purchasing the newts from them would be a form of support and encourage them to possibly order more newts and keep them in bad conditions. If you must buy these animals it will be necessary for you to quarantine them before exposing them to any other newts you own and even then there may be problems.

I agree with magustrate - buying some of these newts will only encourage the pet shop owner to replace them with new ones. That's an endless circle. If no one buys them they will not order any more of them.
Sorry for the animals, though.

Your best bet is to just forget about it no matter how hard it is and deal with most of what you need as far as animals go either at trade shows or on line ( if it really bothers you) cause in truth as long as you are a enthusiast period it still gives grounds to them thinking they will make some sort of sales. Being an employee at many shops I know that a knowledgeable customer is a minority out of the many that come and just don't care.


Is it a independent shop or franchise shop, or is it a corporate chain?

If it is a independent shop try to educate them, but if it is a corporate shop forget about it. I have worked my fair share of both and even being a knowledgeable employee at a certain chain shop, the corporate office not knowing anything at all about animals always knew more as far as they are concerned so a customer definitely wont be able to do anything.

I'm not saying that what they are doing is right, but the real nightmare is happening before these animals arrive at your local store. I have read many articles from customs agents that intercept freight at the docks and such where thousand's of animals in health conditions ranging from great to poor are stuff so cramped that they cant move. Some dead and some on the verge of dying and in the mix is many different species of animals. The conditions at the shop can sometimes be a relief for these animals. In between the customs and shops is about anywhere from 2-4 ( or more ) different dealers, vender's, wholesalers, and what ever have you.

If you want the animals, go ahead and buy them. But just remember that you should always, regardless of situation and how many you buy from the same tank, quarantine them separately for a few weeks.

Oh may I also add that while the animals are on the ships they usually have a long journey with no food or water at all. Also, these ships carry allot of differen types of cargo and end up stopping at many different ports along the cost line before they finally arrive at the one where the animals get dropped off.

Actually herp and fish shipments come in via air freight and are not shipped (this hasn't been the case for decades) on boats so they are unloaded at the airport... (I have picked up pet shop orders of 30 or more boxes of fish that were shipped directly from Indonesia in the late 1980s for one example..)

When looking at pet store aquaria, isolation of aquaria is typically not possible as the tanks tend to drain into large communal filters which depending on the size of the store may cover up to a hundred tanks or more. So while seperating the newts from other animals may reduce or eliminate mechanical injuries caused by the other animals, it is not going to decrease the exposure to other problems.

Ed

I have myself picked up many fish orders at airports ( mostly salt water stuff ) but never any orders of reptiles and amphibians. If this is something new than I am sorry ( it must be very new ) but I am only giving info and what I have recently read and have heard from customs agents along with some distributors I have delt with at some of the independant shops I worked at. When these animals come into the country they in most cases do come from boats. I do know and will admit that it is something they are constantly trying to fight but are not winning acording to statistics.

Some shipments may come from air but alot come from boats unless you are dealing with fish.

I am trying to find the exact article in which I read a agents encounters with this, this is the article that made me most aware. I may have to go to the library but I will post info cause amphibians imported from China is one of the main topics. These imports are not always for pet stores, they are often for a mix of things such as science and study along with food for restaurants and the topic, PET SHOPS. When these animals are imported from countries such as China and any 3rd world countries they really do ship them on boats. This is in most cases Illegal but the whole concern is the fact that the biggest percent sold in the trade are coming from just this kind of Illegal import and export.

Live animals are shipped by plane.. as the loss in transit of animals it too excessive when shipping in most cases transcountry (it might be acceptable say from Canada to the USA). There is a some level of smuggled animals being brought in along with drugs (typically parrots and anurans) and have been confiscated with drugs in boat and plane deliveries but areptiles, amphibians and fish destined for the legal live animal trade are shipped via plane.


the ports of entry can be seen at http://www.fws.gov/le/ImpExp/Designated_Ports.htm

Ed