Buying pets

[EcclesCake]

I've just driven past a local pet shop the sign out side advertises 'Tortoises now in stock', a couple of weeks ago the sign was announcing they had kittens for sale.

I'm really not sure how I feel about pets such as these being available to buy off the shelf. I'm concerned they could be made as an impetuous purchase rather than having due consideration applied to the decision.

Do pet shops vet their customers or can anyone just walk in and buy a pet these days?

[EcclesCake]

McMouse, that reminds me of the little buy who wanted to buy a box of crickets he thought they were pets......not the lunch of the various iguanas, geckos, etc......

[wolf63]

I went to buy a skirt for my grandad's funeral and came back with a 5 year old un-neutered Labrador/GSD. I was planning on getting a dog at some point but my mother egged me on and we went around the dog pound for a 'look'. He lived with me for 9 years and he was a bargain at £25. He was, alas, a total psycho with anyone other than me and the pound didn't vet me at all - if he had gone to a home with kiddies there would have been massive problems. I miss him.

[craft1948]

lol Eccles, he was couriered.

[dotty.]

if you keep a snake, where do you buy your mice?

[EcclesCake]

My friend buys frozen mice for his corn snakes, convenient as you don't have to feed a snake too often.

[snags]

''Tortoises now in stock''

Any customer vetting procedure aside, a pet shop needs a special licence to sell Tortoises and they can only be from captive bred stock not wild.