Meet the Moms & Pops
Team Carefully Breeds Nationally Known Pet Shop
Larry Lipke and George Talmadge joined forces to launch Pet Safari, a longtime Main Street pet shop, into the national spotlight and featured on the Anderson Cooper Show and Animal Planet.
For Larry Lipke, educating children was not enough. The longtime owner of Pet Safari left his job as a Christian school teacher to follow his childhood dream of owning a pet store. He wanted to teach people to love and respect animals. And after nearly 30 years into it, he has carefully and steadily created a Main Street pet shop that is nationally-known, especially for its care for exotic sloths and other animals. Lipke met longtime store manager George Talmadge about 15 years into his business. Talmadge was a Dunedin Parks & Recreation employee tasked with coordinating the city's annual Hog Hustle 5K. Pet Safari was one of the sponsors. The two became friends and met for lunch every Friday. One afternoon Talmadge mentioned that he was…
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AL
4:48 pm on Sunday, September 23, 2012
I would never patronize a shop that does business in animals that should be left alone in the wild. I don't care if they meet certain standards or not. more ›