HCA: Hermit Crab Association

There is a Pet Expo going on in my area. I personally was going anyway everyday as my dog is performing and promoting a rescue organization. They have a whole bunch of animals and I find that they have hermit crabs for adoption. They have this little hermit crab encounter area where you can touch and hold them. I see they have those little critter keepers for sale much like the ones you can find at the fair except these are larger and probably hold about a gallon. I go to look at the crabs and they have like 40 in a 10 gallon looking clear tank. They are mostly piled on each other with almost all of them wearing painted shells. They have sizes ranging from small crabs (They were the size of my thumb nail and there were only 4 this size) to jumbos which were the size of the palm of my hand. They wanted $50 for the large ones and $10 for the smalls, but because it is an adoption you have to get the critter keeper with a bag of dirt, dish, and sponger for an additional 35 dollars. I was interested and they told me that they cannot have saltwater. They said saltwater kills them, give them only freshwater! They then told the people next to me to feed them mac n cheese, chocolate, cereal, and or pellets. Lastly, they told me that they like the painted shells as they like the decorations! Then on top of this they said that they are conservationists, and their crabs would have died if they hadn't taken them, but they never gave a clear answer as to where they get them! they just said they come from their zoo that they have.
I could not believe it! And the people actually bought these crabs!! Everyone was walking around with their crabs and their little gallon plastic tanks! Every time I walked by their were people purchasing them and buying more!
For the amount of money the people were spending on these crabs, starter kits, and other supplies Mary Akers could have adopted out her crabs and actually educated the public!!

>:(

Call something an adoption, and everyone thinks they're rescuing an animal. These are sellers. The crabs were collected from the wild and they bought them from wholesalers for $1 a piece. Do not let them fool you, many expo sellers are high volume animal brokers selling wild caught animals, but they know the market and how buyers think and they use wanting to save an animal as leverage. There are some small scale exotic breeders out there trying to do the right thing, but you'll rarely find them at shows as they don't have the inventory or the extra money to spend on a booth.

wodesorel wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 25, 2022 7:52 am

Call something an adoption, and everyone thinks they're rescuing an animal. These are sellers. The crabs were collected from the wild and they bought them from wholesalers for $1 a piece. Do not let them fool you, many expo sellers are high volume animal brokers selling wild caught animals, but they know the market and how buyers think and they use wanting to save an animal as leverage. There are some small scale exotic breeders out there trying to do the right thing, but you'll rarely find them at shows as they don't have the inventory or the extra money to spend on a booth.

I know. It was so sad! I really wish there would have been a hermit crab booth there with proper info. Sellers off of Etsy and such with their nice homemade hermit crab supplies really could have done well there and could have helped crabs in my area. But I know there is not enough of them in my area, nor the funds to always get a booth. Maybe next year I can figure something out because what I saw just disgusted me, and there was little I could do. I really love my crabs. And they are not even that hard to take care of! I think having a little educational booth with a demonstration tank that shows a proper habitat for them would be really beneficial to the public. AND since this was a pet expo there were probably 4 dog treat booths that offered hermit crab safe foods!!! They had dehydrated duck heads, chicken feet, beef liver, chicken breast, elk antlers, pig ears, etc! I personally bought two elk antlers, small pig ears, and some duck jerky (it was actually just dehydrated duck with nothing added) for my own crabs.