I stopped into one of the pet stores in town (one of the ones where I refuse to get fish) to get dog food and was browsing through the animals they had on. They had their regular small animals--cute baby bunnies (I wish stores wouldn't sell them around Easter time, but anyway...), guinea pigs, chinchillas, hamsters, degus. Wait a minute! Degus? That's not something they usually have.
I walk on to the reptiles--leopard geckos, tree frogs, a sulcatta tortoise. And then I stop and look at the tortoise. He's a baby, very obviously not over four inches (for those who don't know, federal law prohibits the sale of turtles and tortoises under four inches). Two inches at the most. I look around for an employee. Not finding one and being in a hurry, I shrug it off, reminding myself to inform whoever is at the register. And then I walk by the fish. All the usual fish, accompanied by blind cave tetra. What in the world is going on? Last I checked, these were illegal to own or sell in Kentucky. At this point, I decided the cashier was not going to be the one getting an earful.
I grabbed a business card on my way out the store after I saw it had the store manager's name and contact info on it. I'll be emailing her tonight or tomorrow. I could maybe almost understand them not knowing about the fish, but I don't know how they couldn't know about the four-inch rule. There is no excuse for a store to not know the laws.
I walk on to the reptiles--leopard geckos, tree frogs, a sulcatta tortoise. And then I stop and look at the tortoise. He's a baby, very obviously not over four inches (for those who don't know, federal law prohibits the sale of turtles and tortoises under four inches). Two inches at the most. I look around for an employee. Not finding one and being in a hurry, I shrug it off, reminding myself to inform whoever is at the register. And then I walk by the fish. All the usual fish, accompanied by blind cave tetra. What in the world is going on? Last I checked, these were illegal to own or sell in Kentucky. At this point, I decided the cashier was not going to be the one getting an earful.
I grabbed a business card on my way out the store after I saw it had the store manager's name and contact info on it. I'll be emailing her tonight or tomorrow. I could maybe almost understand them not knowing about the fish, but I don't know how they couldn't know about the four-inch rule. There is no excuse for a store to not know the laws.
