7 replies to this topic

[grungehammy27]

Hello, 

 

My family is on a vacation, and we went into this store that sold like NC merch and all that type of stuff. They had hermit crabs in a hutch, and they all had painted shells. They also were for sale and clearly marketed towards kids. They were sold in either tiny wired cages or tiny plastic tanks. I found these articles from people that are also upset about this 

 

http://www.hermitcrabsrus.com/community/threads/wings.5360/

 

https://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20160707/why-peta-wants-beachgoers-to-stop-buying-hermit-crabs

 

Anyways, i know literally NOTHING about hermit crab care, but this seemed pretty blatantly mean to me. 

I got kinda sad by this and we ended up leaving quickly, but we did buy some stuff there and i feel really bad that we gave them any service at all. 

 

Is this ok? something tells me it is not but again i know nothing about hermit crab care.  

Edited by grungehammy27, 23 August 2021 - 06:28 AM.

[PeaThePeanut]

I know absolutely nothing about hermit crabs either, but it moves me to tears how sad their lives are in the pet stores. Especially how a lot of these souvenir employees just don't seem to care about them at all.

 

I cried when I saw Pickles Pets video in Petland where she noticed a bunch of hermies dead in their enclosure. It makes me sad because I love animals, and they could have spent their lives happy and loved, but instead they died scared and alone in a pet store. :( 

 

No animal deserves that kind of treatment. 

[grungehammy27]

I know absolutely nothing about hermit crabs either, but it moves me to tears how sad their lives are in the pet stores. Especially how a lot of these souvenir employees just don't seem to care about them at all.

 

I cried when I saw Pickles Pets video in Petland where she noticed a bunch of hermies dead in their enclosure. It makes me sad because I love animals, and they could have spent their lives happy and loved, but instead they died scared and alone in a pet store. :( 

 

No animal deserves that kind of treatment. 

ikr my grandma was with me and my mom was too and they both seemed not very bothered and i was just confused as to how some people don't get upset by this type of stuff. I know that if the crabs were puppies they would be upset, but just because they are small animals they are thought of as disposable and an object. Its really messed up. 

[~Boba the Hammy~]

Hello, 
 
My family is on a vacation, and we went into this store that sold like NC merch and all that type of stuff. They had hermit crabs in a hutch, and they all had painted shells. They also were for sale and clearly marketed towards kids. They were sold in either tiny wired cages or tiny plastic tanks. I found these articles from people that are also upset about this 
 
http://www.hermitcrabsrus.com/community/threads/wings.5360/
 
https://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20160707/why-peta-wants-beachgoers-to-stop-buying-hermit-crabs
 
Anyways, i know literally NOTHING about hermit crab care, but this seemed pretty blatantly mean to me. 
I got kinda sad by this and we ended up leaving quickly, but we did buy some stuff there and i feel really bad that we gave them any service at all. 
 
Is this ok? something tells me it is not but again i know nothing about hermit crab care.

From what I know hermit crabs are hard to breed in captivity so the ones in beach stores are always wild caught . The colored shells are toxic but they force them into them so kids want to buy them. They actually need quite the same stuff as a hamster, 6 inches of substrate like sand and eco earth , a 40 gallon tank preferred, and they also enjoy hamster wheels, they also need salt water and freshwater baths

[hop~]

Yeah, the stuff at these stores for hermit crabs is horrible. I just got back from my vacation a week ago in New Jersey and they had one of these shops. Like half the store was bright colored shells and plastic tanks. I get so sad seeing the signs that are like HERMIT CRABS INSIDE! ONE FREE SHELL WITH THE PURCHASE OF A HERMIT CRAB. Sorry for the caps, but that's how they wrote it. I know people above me basically said the same the same thing, but I needed to have a mini rant about this.

[ChloesCritters]

i used to love hermit crabs and none of these are ok

[Ctshamhams]

I personally have had hermit crabs in the past and they are very social, it is recommended that there are at least 5 to 6 in a group and at VERY minimum a 100 gallon tank. I did not meet these requirements myself in the past but i did more research and found out about better care. The painted shells are toxic and are definitely not good. It is really sad to see things like this. :(

[MerryBB]

 

 

Hermit crabs are borderline impossible to successfully breed and rear to adulthood in captivity, so all (and I mean all) of these animals are poached from wild populations. That's the main issue IMO. Efforts to breed crabbies in captivity & improve their husbandry do exist, ex. the organizers of and participants in CrabCon, but it's never going to reach vacationer/tourist shops selling poached crabs because they aren't interested in animal welfare to begin with: why would they be? It's like expecting carnivals and walmarts to sell comet goldfish with all the needed life-long supplies.

 

It's depressing as heck to see those hutches full of crabs, even if they aren't all painted; if all of them are somehow still alive; and by some miracle they have some sort of substrate and multiple water dishes. It's a massive animal welfare issue that is currently only being addressed by an extreme minority of people. (And then there's PETA saying we should let crabs set up their own equal, autonomous societies to live independent from us or something.. No surprise they show up on the first page of google results for anything poaching related & always get the most press. )

Edited by MerryBB, 24 August 2021 - 12:17 PM.