Petco Boa Condition

So my roommate and I swung into a Petco on the way home because it was on the way and I needed supplies. I normally head to a reptile store and kind of wish I made the extra effort to drive out there. Like always I had to swing by the snakes and noticed a red tail that didn't look too hot. It kept trying to raise it's head but would just weakly put it back down. I had my roommate snap a pic. I thought maybe is was stuck in shed? Or maybe very dehydrated? I'm not used to seeing snakes in this condition so I'm unsure. I though it looked to be on the thin side (or maybe mine are just fat.) What do you guys think? I spoke to an employee about raising the temp which was at 70 and the humidity that was barely at 50 and pointed out that it needs some attention. It's been haunting me since I got home though... I just got paid so a part of me just wanted to scoop it up and take it home since I'm familiar with Boas. But the roommate stopped me and said that all I'd be doing is supporting their neglect for these animals, they would just fill it's spot with another and do it all over again. I know some people who have raised hell and convinced the store owners to adopt animals like this out but I am not sure I'm brave enough. I feel obligated to go back in and and check on it in a day or two to see if they did what I so politely asked. What would you guys do in this situation? Here is a photo hopefully you can see what I saw from it. http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08...2b4128a6fd.jpg thanks for taking the time to read my rant.

Your roommate was right, buying it would just help this Petco to continue to abuse and neglect more animals. I would suggest contacting your local humane society and see if they truly are concerned with all animal's welfare or only certain species. There probably are some Petco stores with knowledgable staff that keep their reptiles properly but I have never seen or heard of one. I would like to see stores like these prohibited from selling any type of live animals and be restricted to hosting adoption events from local rescues. I understand your sympathy for that little boa, it bothers me too. Too many animals suffer because of neglectful, rotten, or just plain ignorant humans.

What's even more upsetting is that because it's, "just a snake," it's condition is not viewed as serious or as problematic as it would be if say a puppy or kitten were heald in similar conditions... thank you for the advice I will call. There is also a local reptile rescue that I was thinking of calling to see what they would say on the situation and if they could do something about it.

Maybe call the local Animal Control?

You can also go to store mgr, and head up the chain of mgt. from there. Petco probably has district mgrs. and regional mgrs. At some point, you get to corporate. If you feel bad for this particular boa, I would suggest go ahead and buy it. You are making a big difference for that particular snake.

The store can be dealt with later.

Unfortunately your roommate is right, paying full retail for that snake just improves Petco's bottom line and encourages them to continue to keep snakes in bad conditions. That boa looks deplorable - I would be embarrassed to have a snake in that condition unless there was some underlying factor like an illness. I certainly would never offer it up for sale.

You can contact Petco corporate and complain here: http://www.petco.com/content/contact...tactstores#top

I think that contacting the store manager would be a waste of time. This manager is obviously not educated nor concerned about the welfare of his or her animals. Contacting corporate might yield results but if this Petco is profitable they will be more likely to give the manager a bonus for all of the electricity and rodents saved by not heating or feeding that little boa.

Thank you so much. I will contact them although my concern seemed to just bounce off the gentleman I spoke to earlier at the store, so I hope someone within the company will take action. I reached out to a few other people and organizations that may be able to do something for the poor thing. I'm aware that this sort of thing happens in stores such as this all the time but it shouldn't. It's the first time I've seen it in person and I got a little emotional. Now I'm hell bent on seeing it survive in a better condition. And it's not just from my passion for snakes and other scaled creatures, no animal deserves to suffer like that.

I complained to corporate about a petco's poor reptile conditions and next time we stopped in and since then it has improved quite a bit, still see skinny snakes in there but nothing like before.

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Originally Posted by Tash

So my roommate and I swung into a Petco on the way home because it was on the way and I needed supplies. I normally head to a reptile store and kind of wish I made the extra effort to drive out there. Like always I had to swing by the snakes and noticed a red tail that didn't look too hot. It kept trying to raise it's head but would just weakly put it back down. I had my roommate snap a pic. I thought maybe is was stuck in shed? Or maybe very dehydrated? I'm not used to seeing snakes in this condition so I'm unsure. I though it looked to be on the thin side (or maybe mine are just fat.) What do you guys think? I spoke to an employee about raising the temp which was at 70 and the humidity that was barely at 50 and pointed out that it needs some attention. It's been haunting me since I got home though... I just got paid so a part of me just wanted to scoop it up and take it home since I'm familiar with Boas. But the roommate stopped me and said that all I'd be doing is supporting their neglect for these animals, they would just fill it's spot with another and do it all over again. I know some people who have raised hell and convinced the store owners to adopt animals like this out but I am not sure I'm brave enough. I feel obligated to go back in and and check on it in a day or two to see if they did what I so politely asked. What would you guys do in this situation? Here is a photo hopefully you can see what I saw from it. http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08...2b4128a6fd.jpg thanks for taking the time to read my rant.

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Hi Tash. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We take animal care very seriously. Can you email us at ptpsupport@petco.com with your contact info, including phone number and the store where you saw this so that we can follow up with you can look into this further? Thank you.

Any updates?

A lot of the Petco employees are actually animal lovers. Most are younger folks looking at some type of future in animal care or simply like animals. Some may not be up to snuff like we are, or most of us are, on reptiles, but I think they want to try to do the right thing.

I'm personally not a fan of huge corporations making profits off animals, but I think some constructive advice like this could yield good results.

You would have to be rather heartless to continually neglect something and if the approach is right, I think somebody would try to change the wrong.

More often than not, even the Petco snakes are a product of lack of education VS. deliberate neglect.

Nice job on pointing this out!

I got a response when I contacted them that they were taking care of the situation. It feels good to know, so I hope it was done.

Call me sceptical but the reply you received on August 2 on this post from Petco seems awfully fake. The only post they've had is to reply to your thread? They didn't bother to add a Petco logo on their profile? Have you gotten any feedback since you replied to them? I'm very interested in the outcome. Hope you don't leave us in suspects. Lol..

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Originally Posted by Tarzan152

Call me sceptical but the reply you received on August 2 on this post from Petco seems awfully fake. The only post they've had is to reply to your thread? They didn't bother to add a Petco logo on their profile? Have you gotten any feedback since you replied to them? I'm very interested in the outcome. Hope you don't leave us in suspects. Lol..

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You're sceptical. Did you read the update in the post just before yours? ;)

Edit: What you're calling fake is typical of a canned customer service response. Also, why would a large retail company hang out on a forum to have more than a post or two, much less make a profile picture. My guess? There's more than a few Petco employees that are members here that may have alerted someone in their office to this post. Good on them for follow-up.

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Originally Posted by Eric Alan

You're sceptical. Did you read the update in the post just before yours? ;)

Edit: What you're calling fake is typical of a canned customer service response. Also, why would a large retail company hang out on a forum to have more than a post or two, much less make a profile picture. My guess? There's more than a few Petco employees that are members here that may have alerted someone in their office to this post. Good on them for follow-up.

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Eric, I will humbly admit that I misread her last post. My brain read it as "waiting for a response". Don't ask how. I think I need more sleep. [emoji42] I'm glad her concerns were addressed. Hope there's a happy ending to this story.


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Unfortunately since I got the previous response I have heard nothing since. I've been out of town so I was unable to go check in. I'm hoping that they did what they said and gave it, its best chances. Who knows, there was a rather large group of people when I was in there checking it out. Maybe someone who was unaware of any health concerns bought it from them? Or maybe it died and they didn't want to say anything. I'll be in that area tomorrow so I was going to swing in. Not sure how quickly reptiles are purchased at a place like petco? I can only imagine fairly well by people who see a cool little snake and have no idea what they are getting into lol. In any case, if i don't see it tomorrow, wherever that little snake is now I hope he is faring better, or no longer in pain... I want Boa so bad right now. This incident just recharged my desire. I miss having Boas.

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Originally Posted by Kayak Steve

Your roommate was right, buying it would just help this Petco to continue to abuse and neglect more animals. I would suggest contacting your local humane society and see if they truly are concerned with all animal's welfare or only certain species. There probably are some Petco stores with knowledgable staff that keep their reptiles properly but I have never seen or heard of one. I would like to see stores like these prohibited from selling any type of live animals and be restricted to hosting adoption events from local rescues. I understand your sympathy for that little boa, it bothers me too. Too many animals suffer because of neglectful, rotten, or just plain ignorant humans.

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My local Petco used to take great care of their herps back when a woman I knew worked there. She has dozens of herps of her own and really knew what she was doing. I feel like now that she is gone, the reptiles see less attention. Today I saw BP's with what appeared to be swollen eyes, and a Beardie with an eye half shut that was covered in crusty yellow shed skin. It really just depends on who works there imo

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Originally Posted by Tash

Unfortunately since I got the previous response I have heard nothing since. I've been out of town so I was unable to go check in. I'm hoping that they did what they said and gave it, its best chances. Who knows, there was a rather large group of people when I was in there checking it out. Maybe someone who was unaware of any health concerns bought it from them? Or maybe it died and they didn't want to say anything. I'll be in that area tomorrow so I was going to swing in. Not sure how quickly reptiles are purchased at a place like petco? I can only imagine fairly well by people who see a cool little snake and have no idea what they are getting into lol. In any case, if i don't see it tomorrow, wherever that little snake is now I hope he is faring better, or no longer in pain... I want Boa so bad right now. This incident just recharged my desire. I miss having Boas.

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I'd be interested in hearing if conditions have improved or not.

I've actually emailed them again inquiring. Hoping to hear back.

The biggest problem with petco vs a local shop is that petco only hires part time employees. You cannot make any money working with them unless you are a manager and get full time. Do the people at walmart care, no. They get paid crap, work too hard and have no benefits at petco. They really dont give a crap about there employees.
They could have hired me but no full time... they want kids to work for them.

-Ben Smith

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Originally Posted by Ben.Smith.512

The biggest problem with petco vs a local shop is that petco only hires part time employees. You cannot make any money working with them unless you are a manager and get full time. Do the people at walmart care, no. They get paid crap, work too hard and have no benefits at petco. They really dont give a crap about there employees.
They could have hired me but no full time... they want kids to work for them.

-Ben Smith

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There's a lot of reasons to dislike Petco... Amazon is able to ship a dog crate to my door for almost 3x cheaper than Petco sells them in stores... but hiring part time employees to clean cages should not be one of them. I've visited a lot of local pet shops in a lot of different areas and I've never met a single non-managerial employee that was full-time with benefits. And most of the managers were blood family to the owner. Employees at local shops are often part-time kids too. Some of these were exponentially better than Petco and others made chain stores look like animal heaven.

It costs a lot of money to pay full time wages with benefits for a job. If a position only brings the company in X dollars and full-time wages plus benefits cost X +Y, either the company eliminates that position or goes bankrupt and the position is lost anyway... or they raise prices and lose their customer base. Pet shops go out of business all of the time... it's a tough business to run. I can't imagine the average Petco makes much profit off of their live reptile sales... probably enough to cover some overhead and juice the sale of more profitable equipment.

This had been a very solid debate to read. Really hope Petco has open ears.

Praying that boa is taken care of well now.

I didn't want to comment further until I had a final answer but I guess my final answer WAS silence. Never got a response. Person I spoke to at the store denied that this was ever an issue, and decided they didn't want to speak on it further because they care about their animals and if it WAS an issue they surely have addressed it. They kind of made me feel like I was trying to make waves for no reason. I felt like I was very nice and level headed about it all considering. Needless to say I'm not trying to make this a hate post against chain pet stores but I've decided I will no longer shop in one, even for feeders. I'll just make the drive and buy bigger quantities of bulk rats from my regular source.