Good and Bad News

[zantedeschia]

I suspect the police showing up to investigate an animal cruelty complaint might get their attention.

[Sariel]

I agree with the above posts, speak with the manager and if he decides to play ignorant go up the chain from there. Contact BBB, contact the police and file an abuse report. You can also find out who your local news consumer reports rep is and contact them with the story.

Unfortunately saving one animal from abuse by buying it is just enabling them to buy more to replace it. Best course of action is to smear the pet stores name as much as possible in the public eye and put them out of business >

[zantedeschia]

You can also find out who your local news consumer reports rep is and contact them with the story.

That works too. A couple days ago one of the Houston news stations did a report on how merchants here don't check IDs when doing credit card transactions and gave bogus information at a couple big chains to prove the point.

Now *everyone* is asking for ID when taking credit cards. I'm sure it'll die down after a few weeks, but it illustrates how stories in newpaper print and on tv will be really bad for business.

[zantedeschia]

Contact BBB,

Don't bother with the BBB, they're a pretty useless organization.

You might try contacting your State Attorney General.

[Sariel]

Don't bother with the BBB, they're a pretty useless organization.

You might try contacting your State Attorney General.

They arent totaly useless, though I do agree an 'in your face' organization they are not. It is due process though, and one more avenue to complain and be heard.

[jsmorphs2]

Sorry to here about your bad experience. Good for you standing up for whats right for the animal. But I agree, if it looked like abuse, call the local police and report it. You never know if there have been other reports made at the same store.


Unfortunately I had to deal with a similar situation but it was at the store I worked at. The kid kept spraying an aggressive small albino berm in the face with water to get it to strike. I was younger and my first reaction was to scream at the kid. I kinda felt bad afterward but he got the point. I ended up with him cause he was so "mean" no one would have bought him. Turned out to be my FAVORITE snake!

[zantedeschia]

I reread your message, saw you said it was a chain. Call the corporate or customer service number. Relay the incident, mention the people by name if you caught their names.

I've done this with both Petco and Petsmart. If a complaint goes to corporate, it reflects really badly on their store and they will correct it. Hopefully you can get the employee fired, especially if you filed an animal cruelty complaint as well (and be sure to mention this too if you call customer service, which I hope you do).

[Patricia]

Calling the local Animal Control might help too.

[Rockstar Reptiles]

I just wrote a big in depth reply, and it didn't go through

Short end because I'm too tired to write it again-

I am a small pet store owner and hope I have new insight.

The animal abuse reports are good, but don't get your hopes up. Unless your state is VERY diff. from mine, it is likely to go nowhere. Most of the people who enforce don't know, and don't care, and won't consider it abuse anyways.

You want to get back-here are my best tips:

1. Contact corporate, it works
2. Boycott, but it does no good without letting them know and know why
3. Educate the competition. Some may be receptive, and many may not, but it will tell you if they are a good owner or not that is willing to do what they need to do to run their business right; and it gives them (and their animals) a leg up on that store.
4. Write online reviews. Include animal education in the review. This tells people looking at it not only that they don't know what they are doing, but also tells them what to ask to know who does.

Hope this helped!

[zantedeschia]

The animal abuse reports are good, but don't get your hopes up. Unless your state is VERY diff. from mine, it is likely to go nowhere. Most of the people who enforce don't know, and don't care, and won't consider it abuse anyways.

But the police might either call or make a visit to investigate, even if they do close it or don't follow up. And it stays on file for a certain amount of time, a year is common.

Edit: But the big point in my mind is, making a complaint then calling corporate and telling them a complaint was made to the police. That right there should get the abusive person fired.