Help! Dying Red Tail at Petco- Not Sure What I Should Do?

Why is it ok for stores like Petco and Petsmart to sell under-nurished, sick, overpriced, and (often times) dying animals?
I have numerous horror stories about those stores......
One personally offends me.. but that's a long story.

I know when I worked at petco if a snake would not take frozen I would give it a live one. I know every store is different and some will not do it but it should be for the best if the animal. Also if we had problem animals that where to aggressive and would bite we always seem to adopt the animal out for a donation. You may want to see if you can go that route if you decide to get it.

As hard as it is to do, you just have to walk away from situations like this and not purchase the animals. I personally also do not deal with folks that I know wholesale to petco/petsmart or pet stores in general. Wholesalers are the reason why these places are able to treat their animals as expendable because their mark ups are so high with very little invested to start. They can afford to let 9/10 of their animals die if they can sell just one because wholesalers throw animals at them for so cheap.

That does not mean that you walk out of these places silently though and I am glad you contacted higher ups. I personally have NEVER been satisfied with ANY pet store i have ever visited. All of the petsmarts/petcos and mom and pop places are terrible in the DC/MD/VA area. I only use pet stores for feeders. I was so pissed off with how these folks operate that I just became self sufficient with my feeders. I do not step into a petstore unless it is an absolute emergency to purchase a item which more or less never happens. I will still leave my mind open to the idea that a mom and pop store could operate correctly but personally I have never seen it.