Disgust with Pet Stores... A certain one.

For Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, I am dissecting three lizards to compare and contrast the digestive tract of herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. My specimens are an Iguana, Bearded Dragon, and Savannah Monitor.

Now this wasn't my original intended dissection. Originally I wanted to do a dissection of a reptile with Metabolic Bone Disease to show how the disease affected the skeleton of the reptile.

But finding dead reptiles is surprisingly difficult expecially when wanting such a specific specimen. Vets didn't keep bodies.

So I began to get a little desperate. I decided that I would secure some reptilian specimens and then build a project based on what specimen or specimens I could get. I tried pet stores. And one came through for me. Exotic Pets. Yes, it was beneficial to me but it also disgusted me to know how many dead animals were in their freezer. Two hedgehogs, an anaconda, a ball python, an iguana, a bearded dragon, a skink, and an ornate uromastyx. I found it a little disgruntling. But I needed specimens and now I had them.

I decided to use the Bearded Dragon and Iguana to compare the digestive tracts. Then I came across the monitor completing the three types of digestion.

But out of curiosity, I dissected them all.

The bearded dragon most likely died of an upper respiratory infection because it's lungs were filled with mucus. The lungs had a volume of 50 cc. Thirty of that was the mucus which I squeezed out. If he was that bad internally, then there were obvious visible symptoms that had to have been ignored. Upper respiratory presents with labored bearthing (often audible), mucus (from nose and mouth), and general lethergy.

The skink was a questionable species. I was told it was a schneider's skink. But from references, schnieder's skinks were supposed to be extremely tubular with short legs. The specimen on the table, was extremely thin and legs looked too long. When he was cut open, I released why he was so anorexic. His abdomen was filled with worms. Parastic worms were along the intestine, inside the stomach, and inside the lungs.

Now I know that I probably wasn't getting healthy specimens. Healthy specimens wouldn't have died. But at the same time, these animals didn't have to die either. Both conditions were treatable had the symptoms been noticed. Or worse, maybe they were noticed but ignored.

Now besides their dead animals, they have a lot of audacity.

Every time that I've stepped into their store, there has been something dead. Turtles, snakes, lizards, insects. And they'll insist that it's not dead but it is. Because it's not breathing, it's liver is black from decomp, and it smells something awful.

Then, they'll sell animals close to death. They've sold someone a snake that died within twenty four hours of leaving the store. But that's probably why they don't have a health quarantee on their animals. Because they know it's sick and dying.

What I don't understand it why Ken Foose is so respected by the herpetological world when his store is such a shame. He has an article in every Reptiles USA magazine describing the care of different herp species. Why would someone trust his word when there are so many things dying in his store.

I have stopped going there.