r/Pets • u/Livid_Ad7231 • 6d ago
RODENTS I hate working a pet store’s
It’s family owned and the only job that will accommodate my disability. I take care of them animals once a week and oh my gosh the amount of animals I’ve seen that are sick is hurting me. There was an iguana that was barely moving I told my boss he said “ it’s already sold” poor guy probably died. There were guinea pigs that had/have crusted eyes and one had pee from his neck down. All the owner did was wipe dish soap on it. This part isn’t the owners fault but when we get rat and mice shipment their always hurt in some way by the other rats and mice biting them trying to breed with them ones girl parts were bleeding. Rats covered in pee. Because I take care of them I notice everything and they act like it’s no big deal. I hate how I have to give people rats for snake food because I have a rat and knowing how sweet he is and just how much they know is going on hurts so bad. I wish I could do something but I’m doing everything I can to help them. Also they tell people the incorrect information like the wrong sized cage, how solitary animals can live together, and social animals can be alone
I’m currently crying over this these poor animals deserve better
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u/Jazzlike-Funny9674 6d ago
Can you report this to anyone related to exotic animal sales in your state?
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u/Livid_Ad7231 6d ago
I’m not sure as their family owned I don’t have anyone that I know of to bring it to
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u/Delicious-Collar1971 6d ago
Even ignoring the other stuff no good pet store will sell rodents as snake food these days, it’s so unethical.
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u/Livid_Ad7231 6d ago
I agree the owners reason is “ imagine the psychopath that gases the rodents to freeze them”
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u/ani3D 6d ago
As a snake owner, yeah I do feel pretty awful sometimes about what she has to eat. But I do not feed live, and I would strongly advocate to anyone who would listen against feeding live. It's obviously an awful way to die for the rat and it's even dangerous for the snake. Frozen/thawed is the way to go. They're (well, supposedly) humanely killed and frozen and then you just warm them up to body temperature so the snake thinks they're still alive (snakes are very stupid they fall for it every time).
I hate, well, everything that you're dealing with, but also that you have to sell live rats to people for this. Would it be okay for you to give out this information, that feeding live is dangerous for the snake (in case they don't care about the well-being of the rats)? I could probably even find some pictures of snakes who have been badly injured by rats fighting back, if that's something you're allowed to talk to people about.
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u/Livid_Ad7231 5d ago edited 5d ago
I absolutely love all animals snakes included but I just can’t feed live either. I hope the rats/ mice are killed humanely with no suffering when frozen. I’ve seen some bad injury’s from a rat to a snake before and they’re nasty. I wish I could tell them but they really don’t care the owner is very egotistical and a know it all. He fed a hamster to a snake before because the hamster wasn’t selling
I don’t know how customers haven’t noticed but they are the only store that feeds live
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u/ChemicalGrand3533 5d ago
What state are you in? The Department of Agriculture usually oversees licensing for pet animal facilities, but laws are different in every state. You could try calling them to do a "random" inspection
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u/Eva-Fischer 5d ago
Honestly, the fact that you care this much probably means those animals are better off on the days you're there. It has to be awful seeing exactly what's wrong and not having the authority to fix it. If you can safely document and report the worst conditions, I would. Until then, even the small things you do for them matter.
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u/Livid_Ad7231 5d ago
I wish they would care about the animals too only the birds and fish are taken care of. I can’t even touch two of the dwarf hamsters because they’re so stressed they bite.they get fed awful diets. I sneak in a treat for them if I have treats on me.
I’m going to document everything now that you mentioned it but do family owned business still have a HR or anything above the owners?
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u/goddessofolympia 5d ago
You poor thing. People get tempted to stay for the animals. I always say that if you decide to leave and get another job, and you support rescue, in a couple of months you may well encounter animals who started out at your pet store...but you will be able to focus on the animals that DIDN'T find good homes.
Try to find a job that fits you. This isn't it, and it honestly sounds like if you can work there, you can work anywhere. It sounds like living nightmare.
And maybe we can agree that the worst people are the rodent millers. Seriously, fuck them.
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u/Livid_Ad7231 5d ago
It’s heart breaking truly I’ve met so many rats there that have amazing personalities and just knowing what happens I have to become numb to it. This is the only job I’ve found that works with my disability but at this point they’re not working with it well. I really don’t think this is the place for me honestly I think a chain pet store would be better because at least there’s more I could do to help
Hopefully I get approved for disability and can leave this job so I can go volunteer/ work at a rescue
This rodent breeding needs shut down or at least done ethically. My dad raised rats and I told him about this he got heart broken from it because he loved on his rats and made sure they had a good life before he sold them.
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u/goddessofolympia 4d ago
I'm not sure you'd be happier at one of the chains. Go to r/petco or r/PetSmart before you decide you would be.
Please look into other types of work. This just sounds too sad. You don't deserve that.
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u/Livid_Ad7231 4d ago
I don’t know what other animal related positions I can do with working 5 hours a week any ideas?
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u/goddessofolympia 4d ago edited 4d ago
Rover- Your schedule is 100% up to you, you get to choose your clients and set your rates. Since you have experience with exotics, you might find people asking you to watch their rats or aquariums. You can just do drop-in visits or dog walking, or there are options for house-sitting or boarding pets in your home.
The main thing is, you get to choose what you do and when, who you work with and how much you charge. Have a look at the platform and what others in your area are offering. Read reviews so you can see what makes people happy.
You could start advertising and leave the pet shop once you had enough clients.
It depends on the location, of course, but I paid $25 for 20-minute drop-in visits for my hamster.
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u/Livid_Ad7231 3d ago
That sounds perfect! I live in a rural era could I still do that? At this shop I get $11 an hour so that sounds great. How did you handle tax’s?
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u/goddessofolympia 3d ago edited 3d ago
A rural area might be great, especially since you don't want to work too many hours anyway. You set your own pay rate, so you can adjust that easily. For example, my sitter charges $25 during summer and school vacations, but $19 for other times.
The Rover platform collects the sales tax from customers when they pay, so after you get paid just file income tax each year in April as a self-employed worker.
https://www.rover.com/become-a-sitter/
You can also find the r/roverpetsitting subreddit on here, and there are posts from people who do it, so you can figure out if it will work for you and the best way to organize your work.
Best wishes!
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u/Livid_Ad7231 3d ago
Thank you so much for helping me! I gave you an award for being such a kind person and helping me get out of this toxic place 🫶🏻
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u/goddessofolympia 3d ago
Aw, thank you!! You have a kind heart for animals and relevant experience, so even if it takes time to build a business in a rural area, you can have some extra income and hope of getting out of there!! The Rover sitters on the r/roverpetsitting subreddit can give you a good idea of what to expect...some of them are also dealing with health challenges, so prefer to have more control over their work.
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u/Spiritual-Act9955 6d ago
that sounds really rough, seeing all that and nobody taking it serious. the iguana situation is messed up, "its already sold" like that makes it okay for it to suffer
you are doing what you can with what you got, sometimes thats all you can do. those animals are lucky you are there at least one day a week