Hi, I know this is quite an old thread but thought I would still put my 2 cents in.....
I used to work at Animates and had baby Bearded Dragons..... the breeder that supplied them told us not to put a bowl of water in the tank as the dragon was too small and he had seen them drown. So instead we had a water bottle to spray them with a mist of water throughout the day and would make sure the driftwood had good little puddles of water for them to drink. Once they got older/bigger they would get water in a dish.
We had a staff members that had dragons personally and would regularly follow the advice given from them in regards to food and water etc
I had never been up that close to a bearded dragon before and was fascinated by them so was learning everything I could to make sure I was careing for them correctly.
I think its great that you all care so much about the welfare of animals in pet stores, but sometimes what you see with your eyes is not the whole story. I know that I always took great care when interacting with the animals and was first to admit when I was out of my depth and would always ask for advice or do my own research at home on ways I could improve things.... even for the rats and mice (which gave me the hebejebes).
I know I can only speak from the individual store I worked in and it has been a couple of years since I was there. I would be very disappointed if the standards had slipped so much.
