petco story...

well i have posted about me helping out my local petco a couple of times before. i talked with a manager and helped her fix the horrid husbandry they had going on. i checked back many times and she had kept things up, even giving her employees copies of the NERD care sheet (hope Kara and Kevin don't mind) that i had printed out for her. well fast forward to today i went in to get some stuff for my new crestie. i took a stroll past the reptiles as always...

first off i glance in on the little corns. i see a pink amel cruising around, and to the left of him/her a CRICKET?!?! i was a little confused. so i asked, and i was assured that crickets are eaten by all kinds of snakes. yea right.

then i look at the very over priced red tail boas. one was right up against the glass, so i was able to easily see the mite crawling all over him/her. the other boa was in the water bowl soaking, most likely to kill the mites on him/her. i ask for a manager and i get a 17 year old kid... who looks down and says he doesn't see anything. he says he will tell the "reptile specialist" when he comes in. i asked when he would be in only to get 3 people to tell me they don't know.

luckily there were no ball pythons because they just dropped the price to $30. i really shouldn't be saying luckily because they more then likely they went to someone that bought one as a spur of the moment thing with no research done.

i asked about debbie, the manager that i had helped learn about the reptiles they sold there, and they told me she was fired, get this... for not adhering to company policy?!?!? i was shocked when they told me. because i helped her tune the living conditions, to keep the animals healthier and happier, she gets fired. because they didn't follow the cost cutting, money saving shortcuts the company deemed allowable. i dropped the CGD and flexvine i was about to purchase and walked out of the store.

i know not all petco's are like this, but seriously this is ridiculous...

sorry about the book of a post but i needed to vent a little.
end rant.

Yeah, I know that story well. Petsmart does similar things, which is why I left. They 'warned' me lots of times about not sticking to 'company policy' when I tried to improve life for the reptiles and small mammals. Just makes me sick that companies would keep policies like that when there's plenty of great husbandry info out there for them to follow.

Yeah, the way PetCo conducts their business is horrible. :( I don't know what it would take to get them to listen to experienced herp keepers who know how to take care of the animals. It's criminal. :mad:

i have never bought a dog or anything but sometimes i get curious and look through adoption websites, and i constantly see "must have..." statements. like a fenced in yard... ect. if you don't show them you have all this stuff then you can't adopt the dog. i wish big chain stores would something like that. not just a checklist of things (they sell) that really don't help a snake. i realize this is an impossible feat since they would loose so much money and business. but i can dream can't i...

imo, since herps is kind of a "minority" if you will pet. the big stores don't really care about them. i bet the dogs,cats and birds do way more business and $$. this doesn't make it right, but it is what it is.


i don't support breeders or stores that i don't agree with, i'll pay more somewhere else. i'd much rather support a small mom/pop type reptile store that takes good care of their reptiles.


vaughn

Kevin you should definitely write to PetCo Corporate and express your displeasure at this manager's firing and the backsliding of the care in this particular store. It may not do a whit of good but I firmly believe that telling corporate they lost your business and the business of anyone you know will remind them that they need paying customers more than stupid decisions. Remind them that you are speaking with your wallet and that generally gets someone's attention.

Opps. guess whose daughter just bought her brother a Baby Ball Python from guess where. I started searching for infomation about baby BP's because she said they told her that since it was a baby it needed to eat crickets. I knew that was way off but was unsure of exact feeding requirements for a baby so started searching. The Petco in my town is usually adaquate with care sheets that are basic. Yes you should write the main store. Also might try reporting them to the Humane society as they can go in and demand adaquate care.

that is horrible. I hope debbie finds a job soon.

i HATE it when people think boas and pythons eat crickets...CRICKETS?!!

at least when i bought my babies from petco they told me to feed them pinkies... that's the only thing they told me right..... seriously... crickets??? have they noticed the crickets don't seem to disappear like they should?

sorry for this bad language tht is about to happen *censorded version* 'F**king complete and utter idoits. and i hope everyone of them gets fired' ok my ranting is done.....

i think all the people on this site *and world* need to STOP using petco-petmart-ect so they loose all there business becasue it's just bloody wrong to keep animals in conditions that i heard about.

and comon. i know people that havent a clue about pythons but i bloody sure they could use this item called commen sense to deduct that pythons DO NOT eat crickets.

ps, havent u lot in america got some sort of pet police *like englands RSPCA* that you can contact and get shops shutdown if they are kept in good conditions.

all we have is a organization called 'feline freinds' that my mum runs *i seem to be a helper though* whitch has no govement backing and is completly self funded.

:colbert: :colbert: :colbert: :colbert: TO ALL SHOPS THAT WOULD RATHER SAVE A BIT OF CASH THEN HOUSE THE ANIMALS CORRECTLY.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by liam

i think all the people on this site *and world* need to STOP using petco-petmart-ect so they loose all there business becasue it's just bloody wrong to keep animals in conditions that i heard about.

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It's a good thought, but PetCo stores are all across the country, with hundreds of people visiting each one each week... even if every one of us here on BP.net stopped going, they would continue to do just fine. :(

how many people are on thios site about 100ish, well if we all chain up infront of store. 5 a store we can stop 20 stores... ofcourse we all need hippie cloths and have to pretend we still in the 60's :)

i know its impossible but it drives me insane to know that the stores dont treat them right... a couple of months ago i saw a shop selling 35 mice in one tiny *and i mean very small* cage. i paid 250 dollers for them all.. and maneged to find 27 of them homes... unfortuanlty the rest died of some illness they had contracted in the shop... it was very lucky i have about 25 spare rat/mice/hamster/gerbal cages in my house :)

[QUOTE=liam]ps, havent u lot in america got some sort of pet police *like englands RSPCA* that you can contact and get shops shutdown if they are kept in good conditions.

all we have is a organization called 'feline freinds' that my mum runs *i seem to be a helper though* whitch has no govement backing and is completly self funded.

QUOTE]

most big cities do but in rural areas there's no funding.:(

Maybe if we got about 2000 reptile hobbyists to all send emails and phone calls about this situation at the same time then they might listen. It's worth a try. It seems like this is a wide spread situation because It happens here where I live as well.

python.princess: Not only do they have no funding, but PETCO most likely has lobbyists that pay money to do what they want. Not to mention the fact that most people don't care for reptiles.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kagez28

well i have posted about me helping out my local petco a couple of times before. i talked with a manager and helped her fix the horrid husbandry they had going on. i checked back many times and she had kept things up, even giving her employees copies of the NERD care sheet (hope Kara and Kevin don't mind) that i had printed out for her. well fast forward to today i went in to get some stuff for my new crestie. i took a stroll past the reptiles as always...

first off i glance in on the little corns. i see a pink amel cruising around, and to the left of him/her a CRICKET?!?! i was a little confused. so i asked, and i was assured that crickets are eaten by all kinds of snakes. yea right.

then i look at the very over priced red tail boas. one was right up against the glass, so i was able to easily see the mite crawling all over him/her. the other boa was in the water bowl soaking, most likely to kill the mites on him/her. i ask for a manager and i get a 17 year old kid... who looks down and says he doesn't see anything. he says he will tell the "reptile specialist" when he comes in. i asked when he would be in only to get 3 people to tell me they don't know.

luckily there were no ball pythons because they just dropped the price to $30. i really shouldn't be saying luckily because they more then likely they went to someone that bought one as a spur of the moment thing with no research done.

i asked about debbie, the manager that i had helped learn about the reptiles they sold there, and they told me she was fired, get this... for not adhering to company policy?!?!? i was shocked when they told me. because i helped her tune the living conditions, to keep the animals healthier and happier, she gets fired. because they didn't follow the cost cutting, money saving shortcuts the company deemed allowable. i dropped the CGD and flexvine i was about to purchase and walked out of the store.

i know not all petco's are like this, but seriously this is ridiculous...

sorry about the book of a post but i needed to vent a little.
end rant.

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we need to start getting the names of the vets that these stores use and start contacting the state!
also perhaps we need to start filing complaints with the health departments

Hmm, that might do something. But don't forget about the ASPCA. Maybe we who have worked at these places can fax the health dept and ASPCA pics of the bad situations and copies of the BADLY outdated care sheets these stores all insist on handing out, along with statements about the lack of training or interest in proper animal care.

Just my :2cent:

What sucks is if you fight these things with the ASPCA lets say some day you get all the petcos and petsmarts shut down.
What about the good ones? With the great employees? I for one like my job and am proud of how well we take care of the animals at my petco.
Sorry to hear that you're having unpleasant experiences will all of yours everyone else.

Just a tidbit in our defense though, a lot of the times our crickets escape and get into the snake enclousures, its no excuse for telling a customer they eat crickets, so I'm not saying that. But next time if you guys see crickets in the snake tank they probally escaped into there.

You of course have a point. There are some good ones out there, with actual knowledgeable employees. My hope would be that they would look into the stores and only get hard on the bad ones.
Anytime you have a situation like this, it's going to be tricky sorting the good from the bad and often, if the majority of the stores in a chain are bad, they all get slammed. I hate it when the innocent suffer for the things the ignorant do, but sadly, that's how things often work. The main thing here would be to TRY and fix the awful situations that exist at the bad stores and hope the good ones don't suffer too much.

I've heard a lot of stories about employees being warned or fired from Petcos for trying to change things in the reptile/amphibian/invert areas... However the manager at the Petco in my area actually made it his mission to get the set ups in their store as correct as possible... I was very impressed and couldn't find a single fault in any of the enclosures, down to the temps and humidity. He was the only one around to show me a few snakes I wanted a closer look at (since the enclosures were so good, the animals were mostly hidden)... I made sure to thank him for giving me hope that some people really do care...

I just hope he doesnt get fired!

Woh...Kudos to that guy! That sort of action is rare but loved since it sometimes seems as though these places WANT ignorant people who won't interfere working for them.