Petco = pathetic

[Tikall]

I hope someday this lady gets kidnapped and forced to live without water for 48 hours so she can feel what its like.

Wow... She didn't know (for all you know, that snake was a return from earlier that day), and she corrected the situation immediately. Yeah, she definitely deserves to be kidnapped and deprived of water.

[PurplePython]

Wow... She didn't know (for all you know, that snake was a return from earlier that day), and she corrected the situation immediately. Yeah, she definitely deserves to be kidnapped and deprived of water.

yeah i was totally being serious too

and even if it was a return, do returned animals not drink water anymore?

[Tikall]

Even as a joke, you were still faulting her for the situation. If it was a return from earlier that day, it is possible she was not even over at the reptiles yet to notice meaning it is in no way her fault. It could be someone else's mistake for being distracted (with enough customers, being distracted can be easy for young kids being paid minimum wage), but it is still a mistake. I doubt they flat out don't care about the snake; it was just temporarily forgotten by the employee who received it in indeed it was a return. There are a million scenarios that could have happened, but what is known is that it was a mistake and it was promptly corrected. Therefore I think you're being too harsh.

[PurplePython]

Even as a joke, you were still faulting her for the situation. If it was a return from earlier that day, it is possible she was not even over at the reptiles yet to notice meaning it is in no way her fault. It could be someone else's mistake for being distracted (with enough customers, being distracted can be easy for young kids being paid minimum wage), but it is still a mistake. I doubt they flat out don't care about the snake; it was just temporarily forgotten by the employee who received it in indeed it was a return. There are a million scenarios that could have happened, but what is known is that it was a mistake and it was promptly corrected. Therefore I think you're being too harsh.

I wasn't putting her solely at fault for the situation. Honestly I was putting the entire company at fault. It doesnt matter what the reason was that the snake didnt have water, the FACT IS the snake didnt have water.

If the company dosn't pay enough, then why is she working there? If she has no options of other places to work then she should sitll do her job correctly (or whatever employee it was that took the water away from the snake).

And lets say the day it was forgotten was a very busy day, THERES LIKE 8 PEOPLE WORKING. No one noticed a corn snake in a 10 gallon tank slithering aorund without a water dish? How stupid is that?

I don't care what the reason was for the snake not having water, the bottom line is they are a petshop and they are supposed to be professional and know how to care for animals more than your average joe, and one of their animals for sale didnt even have water.

And thats not the only reason why I say dont go to these big stores like petco and petsmart. Want to know what their ball python setup is like?

Their ball python tank is about a 20 gallon L tank, with 10 ball pythons crammed into it. There are NO HIDES, and 1 small water dish.... REAL SMART people they have working there. REAL HAPPY animals are being sold also. I am sure some kid is going to buy a ball python and go home and throw it in a 10 gallon with a tiny water dish and no hide and think thats all it needs because of this pathetic place.

I once went in there and they had a redtail boa in a tank and the thermometer was reading 71 degrees.....

Its just a whole list of reasons why I absolutely hate that place. This last event with the corn snake not having water was the straw that broke the camels back. I am never going there again and I have already contacted the people that I needed to bring all of this garbage to their attention.

I always loved supporting small business more than big places like this anyways. Its too bad the only good breeder around me has a shop 30 minutes away. I guess I will be forced to drive that far just to get people that know more than DINK.

[Tikall]

I agree with not supporting them~. Those are terrible conditions for those poor animals, and I was really only defending the one girl. It is also unlikely all 8 people were working in pet care, though. Those not in pet care likely can't even open the reptile enclosures, and they're probably too busy with their own departments to be baby sitting pet care. There was likely only 1-3 people working pet care, dealing with the animals and customers. You posted this on a Saturday, and if it happened that same day the weekends can be pretty insane.

[4theSNAKElady]

I'm not in Petco's favor, but I have been to many small independent stores, who took just as terrible care of (or even worse ) care of their reptiles than any Petco or PetSmart than I've ever been in. I think it depends on the individual store. I've been in big chain stores (like Petsmart) where the employee(s) in charge of the reptiles took excellent care of the animals, and knew exactly what they were doing, and I've been in small independent shops whose animal care was absolutely atrocious; the reptiles looked sickly, the small pets looked dirty and thin, and they didn't care when I mentioned it. So, not ALL chain stores are bad IMO.....it's not completley fair to the good emlployees who actually do care for and about the animals....even if they do got crappy pay.

[jfreels]

I know I'm new here, and I may be biased, but my wife has worked for Petco for over 6 years. While she and I both will admit that buying from a reputable breeder is your best bet, Petco does try and give the animals what they need. Every Petco region has a specialized vet for reptiles. They do sometimes hire a dumb employee, but they are trained to know the information about the animals they carry, just sometimes the employee isn't enept enough to soak in that information. They do suffer from high prices, so I'm kind of baffled why you would go to Petco for fake plants where there is a much more abundant selection at most all hobby/art/craft stores as well as Wal-Mart.

Anyway, I unfortunately have experienced the same thing, at my wifes Petco. It was a Dumpy frog though. I walked up to the associate and asked him when they would get more in since they were out. He said "but we're not out" to which I replied, "but the hides are upside down and no water is in the cage." He opened the cage and we found one hiding in the corner. I did not even see it at first when looking in the enclosure. He appologised for the misshap and "re-opened" the enclosure.

Also, if you didn't know, most Petco's allow you to bring in your unwanted LARGE snakes in on weekends for adoption. It's an un-advertised thing, but the two Petco's in my area both do it. They had just recently stopped allowing people to bring in snakes over 6' to be dropped off for adoption. This is kind of their solution to that so people won't take them to the pound.