Most disturbing pet store visit to date

[purplemuffin]

Honestly, one of the worst places I've ever been to. Not just regular abuse, but weird, scary issues. I'm in the process of contacting several people to report these guys, but man this was just messed up. I would have gotten pictures, but they had a very clear no picture policy, and since they caught me trying they wouldn't stop watching me. Maybe I can try again next time.

First, the dogs. They smelled..wrong. Something just smelled awful and they were all sleepy and sick looking. One of them had pink eye in both eyes.

Birds.. Each finch was housed alone and you could see them going crazy, one had almost no feathers left, another was so desperate for contact he was right up against the glass desperately chirping with anyone who passed by. All alone in a filthy cage. The cockatiels had bloodstained feathers near their vent, I have no idea what caused that. One of them also clearly had fatty liver disease with neon green feces caked on his feathers.

The ball python we saw was the skinniest I had ever seen--Bone thin, you could see the ribs. His face had so much shed skin stuck to him that his face had started to change SHAPE, it was just squeezed so tight from who knows how long. He was clearly blind in one eye, and we thought he was dead. Only when nathan leaned down and put his hand against the glass that the ball python moved--in hunting mode, desperate for anything to eat. Broke my heart.

Their tank of hermit crabs was like a massacre, almost all corpses with one or two actually moving ones. The rest of the reptiles were in improper enclosures, including a green iguana on bark it had clearly already ingested and gotten impacted on. The leopard gecko had clearly vomited several times and it had not been cleaned. Their FROG cages..Well, the water was green and brown. I didn't even realize there was a frog in there until we startled it. And then the water moved..and we saw there were more frogs, not living. You just couldn't see through the water to see them.

Good lord. And it doesn't even stop there. They had fish. Not just regular fish, but weird and exotic ones as well, they had sea urchins and eels and such. There was a discus fish...I... I can't even tell you what was wrong with it. I don't know what happened, it's like they broke it's back. It was no longer a disk shape, but had a crushed spine and could hardly swim. It looked freaky. Some of their fish looked okay--oscars looked fine. But other fish were covered in fungus or just sitting there with their rotting dead tank mates.

Of course they had bettas too--only solid reds and solid blue veiltails. All of them had clamped fins beyond anything I had seen before, it was like they had strings for fins, awful. Watched one person refill a cup--with chlorinated water.

The rats were cramped. Each cage was about a five gallon amount of floor space--with 6-9 adult rats in each one. Filthy, poop outnumbered substrate. They were climbing on the water bottles and furniture to get away from the ground.


Of course the people working there didn't care about the complaints. Believe it or not, this store has been shut down three times before, but keeps reopening..somehow. They clearly aren't learning there lesson. It's disgusting.


I'm trying to get the people who own the mall itself involved so that that store will no longer be welcomed there. It was just messed up what I saw.

I'm totally furious. I can't believe after being shut down that these people could manage to somehow get a license to run a petstore again. Who all should I contact to get these guys shut down for good?

[Homegrownscales]

Here's a link to Petstore laws. You'll have to look up your state and find out what they are.
http://www.bornfreeusa.org/b4a1_pets...rrentstate.php
But that sounds raunchy and awful. I beleive the board of agriculture can do something about it.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

[purplemuffin]

Think they can get these guys to be banned from petstore ownership for good? I can't believe they are even still around. Last time they got shut down it's because their store was traced as being the cause of a big parvo outbreak, not to mention the regular mall petstore type abuse. I don't think it's ever been this bad though.

If I can get pictures of how bad it is, I hope it'll be enough evidence to get these guys away from animals forever.


Edit: looks like Texas has like, no regulation other than to warn people of salmanella. It'll have to all be based on the regular law of animal cruelty I guess?

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

Hope they get shut down for good. Sounds awful!

[AK907]

Sounds exactly like a place near us. We have been fighting to get them shut down for a year and half, but Ohio has no laws against it and no one gives a crap.

Let me guess, that ball looked a lot like this one, which is a picture we took at the pet place near us.

[SlitherinSisters]

Omg that's terrible... And that picture of the ball...what the hell. I don't understand how those places don't get shut down. If people see animals in that state in a store, why would they think they need to take care of their personal animals any better.

[youbeyouibei]

Let me guess, that ball looked a lot like this one, which is a picture we took at the pet place near us.

That makes me sick, both the picture and the OP's description of things. Some people never cease to amaze me with their stupidity and utter lack of regard for anything but themselves on occasion. Obviously that's not everyone that's like that but the ones that are...

It's a long-shot, especially depending on the size of town you live/work in, but sometimes local law enforcement can bring more resources to bear than an individual citizen can. I have the luxury/bane of working for a small town department and our prosecutor is incredible about handling animal abuse/neglect cases, whether individual owners or corporations like that. Sometimes the larger cities have greater resources to bring to bear in situations like that but also a larger case load, thus a catch 22. Sucks all the way around, much like when kids are being abused: sometimes it seems like no one cares except the person trying to right the wrong.

Just a thought but you might try contacting the mall owners as I think you already said you had and notifying them. A blog or otherwise a mass-audience venue might make an impact, as could a petition to bring the situation to light. Also, could you get a part-time job there to get photos? The impact of a picture is incredible as far as making your points. Good luck and my hat's off to you for trying to correct the situation.

[AK907]

Omg that's terrible... And that picture of the ball...what the hell. I don't understand how those places don't get shut down. If people see animals in that state in a store, why would they think they need to take care of their personal animals any better.

Makes ya sick, doesn't it? While our state is trying to take animals away from responsible owners, they will do nothing to protect animals from abuse and neglect from people like this.

Purplemuffin, I hope you got kicked out of that store. My wife and I have had a battle of wits with the owner of our local store on several occasions.

[zeion97]

Omg that's terrible... And that picture of the ball...what the hell. I don't understand how those places don't get shut down. If people see animals in that state in a store, why would they think they need to take care of their personal animals any better.

It's sad to say.. but it happens ALL the time.. we have a pet store near me that has been closed down at least 5 times. I will say there snakes are in slightly better condition due to workers going behind the owners back and actually taking care of them. But.. the birds and other small animals are horrible.. I'd wlsay easily 40 birds between 4 medium cages and 2 small 1 bird cages. It's sad What becomes of a lot of animals....


And to the OP. If you can't get them shut down through laws you could always call animal cruelty. (I forget which agency handles it..)

[fluffpuffgerbil]

Dang... that soudns terrible... it'd break my heart to see something like that...
I thought the worst petstore I had seen was the one at my mall.. but that one there at least isn't that awful compared to what you wrote...
At least I'd buy a reptile(relucantally) from that store.(And I have, actually)


And the description of your store makes petco seem like heaven...
I can't even believe that there's a place like that in existance...

I'm sorta speechless now....