Pet Shop
After leaving it incredibly late before applying anywhere, I ended up doing my work experience in a pet shop, which was a complete doss & the people there were OK. On my second day we got a phone call from someone saying that a flat in a tower block had been abandoned and the animals had all been left alone (why they phoned a pet shop and not the RSPCA I still dont know)

The manager and I had a drive over there, expecting to find some new born kittens or something, but instead found a house looking like the archetypal serial killer hideout, shit on the walls, messy and dark and bizarrely full of reptiles and insects who were in a state of near stasis due to lack of heat, which were kept in anything from dirty fish tanks to plastic milk bottles and even bin bags.

we rescued them all back to the shop where they did have some tanks with heating/lights etc (and phoned the RSPCA) Despite the lack of cuteness it was still heartbreaking to see these creatures all suffering.

My job was to decant the reptiles from their various containers into better ones, making sure that I didnt inadvertantly put anything that would be food in with its natural predator.

After five minutes of picking up massive scorpions, a half dead python and three ice-cold geckos, I was a little bit creeped out to say the least, and the cat that lived in the pet shop chose that moment to brush against my arm, at which point I screamed like a girl and ran into the corner of the shop in a panic. I dont think I have ever been quite so freaked out
(clinteastwoodbradfield, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 9:31, Reply)