Nothing like a verbal assault from Petsmart....

[SNIKTTIME]

Feeding frozen is NOT better for the health of your animal. It's a biological fact that nutrients are diminished when most food is frozen. Then you have to wonder if the rodent which was killed or euthanized was immediately flash frozen with dry ice, or was it left to freeze slowly in a freezer? Was it set to the side for a few minutes while the freezing tray was filled with more PK rodents to be frozen? Was there any chance of decomposition between killing and freezing?

Considering that decomposition begins at the moment of death, it's impossible to believe or prove that the frozen rodents supplied by petsmart and petco are flash frozen immediately after being killed.=QUOTE]


I don't care what their company policy is, they are simply wrong. It has nothing to do with how they feel about the animals or animal rights. Otherwise they would know what's healthiest for snakes. Otherwise they would not hold fish and insects lower than rodents.

Remember this fact... Petsmart knowingly contributes to the HSUS. Petco does not. Maybe knowing that will turn some Lightbulbs on upstairs for the reasons behind this "policy".

Also, being pushy or rude or insistent is NOT being a good or helpful sales employee at all.

Nuff said..

This is a great post, I can give a quick story on buying some bad frozen rats at a local show, which I won't mention the exact show because I am sure it happens more than we think. I purchase about 100 frozen small and medium rats at a very fair, but not a fire sale price on the first day of the show. They will all look perfect when frozen, until you thaw them out. Then not only did I notice fleas all over the rats fur, which are very easy to spot on white rats by the way, I also noticed that more than half of them were severely decomposed. I am talking about when you hold a thawed rat, you can feel the weight, well these had none, i felt every rib and shoulder blade, and the tail you could see the vertebrae clear as day. This isn't an overnight condition, so it just sheds some light on possible problems. Needless to say all rodents were tossed and I took a little loss on that situation, but learned a lesson. I have been in pest control 9 years now and would give a guess that they were sitting dead for 2-3 days before they were frozen. How many nutrients do you think I lost there

There are bonuses to feeding frozen though, no worries about bites, mites or worms if they are frozen for I think it was 30 days to kill anything inside off.
Not to mention, I've seen many complaints of said frozen rodents being dirty, having feces, bedding, fleas or mites on them etc..

[anatess]

Ok anatess, that is a silly comparison argument and most of the paragraph directed toward me made little sense.
You totally jumped track..

If I worked at mcdonalds I would not be endangering my 6 year old sons life and hobbies and pets.. Oh wait "man" you have young sons too.. Go figure..

So "whatever man" but this 33 year old MOM feeds her son healthy food and mcdonalds is a rare treat. This "man" of a mom also makes sure her son is being raised with many pets and a very moral and old-world upbringing on learning right from wrong etc.. Just like I was by a very uptight and proper old fashioned mom and dad.

Yes I'd work at a fast food place before I'd work at a petstore with such policy and crooked backstage practices.

Black and white? If that's what you want to call it, but I believe in supporting certain causes and condemning others depending on how it will affect my life and the life of my family. Just like everyone else. I just try to choose my battles a little more intelligently.

I'm not battling with you. I just don't understand your point. Please don't leave the conversation. I feel that this is important.

Political stance is great. That's how we get our voices heard. But, there is such a thing as "barking up the wrong tree".

Okay, let's take your "feeding your children healthy" bit. I do too. Therefore, McDonald's is not a good choice of food for children. But, I don't tell people who work at McDonald's they should avoid working at McDonald's because they support unhealthy practice that is detrimental to children. Because, McDonald's is a lot more than just the petrified chicken nuggets. I'd like to hear your opinion on why you would work at McDonald's when you know they are promoting unhealthy practices.

Juxtapose that with Petsmart. They donated $15K to HSUS, sure. If you are sensitive to the whole HSUS thing, don't buy/work at PetSmart. It is your prerogative as a capitalist consumer and there's completely nothing wrong with that. There's also nothing wrong with lobbying other people not to buy/work at PetSmart as a support to your cause.

But to tell people who work at PetSmart that they are contributing to the HSUS and, therefore, are harming their pets, is too narrow-minded.

For example, PetSmart stood side-by-side with the herp community in opposing HR 669. Another example is that Petsmart Charities is the largest funder of animal welfare in the US dedicated to saving homeless pets by promoting adoption in their own stores.

People who work for PetSmart, by your definition, also support these activities as much as HSUS.

Just for your information, Petsmart donated $15,000 to the HSUS to lend their support to the spay/neuter program. They didn't give them $15,000 so they can harm your ability to own a pet.

The only way I can resolve your statement is to think that you read an article about PetSmart and PetCo giving money to the HSUS and, without further research into the entirety of PetSmart Charities, you chose to react negatively. Hence, my statement... whatever, man. Okay, fine, woman.

[SNIKTTIME]

I'm not battling with you. I just don't understand your point. Please don't leave the conversation. I feel that this is important.

Political stance is great. That's how we get our voices heard. But, there is such a thing as "barking up the wrong tree".

Okay, let's take your "feeding your children healthy" bit. I do too. Therefore, McDonald's is not a good choice of food for children. But, I don't tell people who work at McDonald's they should avoid working at McDonald's because they support unhealthy practice that is detrimental to children. Because, McDonald's is a lot more than just the petrified chicken nuggets. I'd like to hear your opinion on why you would work at McDonald's when you know they are promoting unhealthy practices.

Juxtapose that with Petsmart. They donated $15K to HSUS, sure. If you are sensitive to the whole HSUS thing, don't buy/work at PetSmart. It is your prerogative as a capitalist consumer and there's completely nothing wrong with that. There's also nothing wrong with lobbying other people not to buy/work at PetSmart as a support to your cause.

But to tell people who work at PetSmart that they are contributing to the HSUS and, therefore, are harming their pets, is too narrow-minded.

For example, PetSmart stood side-by-side with the herp community in opposing HR 669. Another example is that Petsmart Charities is the largest funder of animal welfare in the US dedicated to saving homeless pets by promoting adoption in their own stores.

People who work for PetSmart, by your definition, also support these activities as much as HSUS.

Just for your information, Petsmart donated $15,000 to the HSUS to lend their support to the spay/neuter program. They didn't give them $15,000 so they can harm your ability to own a pet.

The only way I can resolve your statement is to think that you read an article about PetSmart and PetCo giving money to the HSUS and, without further research into the entirety of PetSmart Charities, you chose to react negatively. Hence, my statement... whatever, man. Okay, fine, woman.

I agree, but be careful about giving Petsmart too much credit in backing HR 669. They were very late in backing it, and we all know that they had their own agenda. They would go bankrupt eventually from it especially if the ''everything non-native to this country is banned'' part went through. All of their sales for not only pets, but also cages and supplies and food would disappear. I think they had no choice in backing it, but still half-heartedly applaud them for doing so. They are a huge player in the business and their backing most likely went a long way in squashing the bill for now. I do understand how much pressure they get to take the stances they take and put the policies in place that they have. I used to service Whole Foods and even ones with severe mouse infestations begged me to not harm/kill the mice, and relocate them somewhere else. Yet another policy I didn't agree with. But we met in the middle on that one

[BAMReptiles]

Okay, you believe we shouldn't feed live because of the rare but distinct possibility of injury, yet you are okay with feeding frozen/thawed?

For your information, there is a rare but distinct possibility of your snake dying after eating a frozen rodent that was not properly thawed.

In both cases, you mitigate the possibility of injury by PROPER FEEDING PRACTICE.

If you're going to sit on your high horse, at least be consistent about it.

you might wunna open your eyes and read a little more, i feed mine prekilled. and that risk you stated is 100% within your control to prevent, a live animal injuring the snake is not 100% in your control, no matter how much you may want to claim it is. so its kinda like apples and oranges, thanks for TRYING to play. anyways, im done here now

[jasbus]

Don't hate on all Stores just because you had a bad expierience at ONE of them. Do you know how many thousands of stores we have??

Not thousands genius... how about 1100. 1100 bad stores.
Petsmart is the reason I opened my own pet store.
And you are the reason I don't hire idiots.

[jasbus]

Long story short, Petsmart has their policies. If you don't agree, don't shop there. I know I certainly won't.
As for policies on live feeding, that's up to the individual. I personally don't feed any frozen to any of my reptiles. And, like I said, that's one of the main reasons I don't shop at Petsmart or Petco, and opened my own pet store.
The Animal Welfare Act is the law regarding care and keep of live animals.
Most pet store employees have never even heard of it.

[packer43064]

Not thousands genius... how about 1100. 1100 bad stores.
Petsmart is the reason I opened my own pet store.
And you are the reason I don't hire idiots.

Wow, pointing out a simple mmistake. Maybe he meant over 1000 and just said thousands. To each his own.

[Jay_Bunny]

Yes, we have 1100 stores but not each and every one of those stores are bad. I will admit, I have heard horror stories and even seen videos of people working undercover at Petsmarts and it is disgusting and a few times, it made me think about why I was even working for this company. Then I remembered. Ever since I was young, I've wanted to work with animals. On this forum, I see post after post after post of people having bad experiences with Petsmart and I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be great if I could work for Petsmart and be able to give people the right information? I could help the animals, and educate people."

So that is what I did. I got a job at Petsmart and my store has completely turned around. Where another store in our area has a full to bursting sick room, we have only 2 birds (one has made a full recovery. We just can't put her on the floor yet), a mouse, and a hamster. We also have a corn snake that I've been working with. We no longer have dying bearded dragons. And if it wasn't for the people who send us fish sending us sick Mollies and albino corys then our fish keeping would be awesome! Our tanks are always so clean!

So when people on here talk about how horrible Petsmart is and how idiotic the employees are, I take a look at the changes my coworkers and I have helped make in our store and I am proud of what I do. Even if I could make a difference in the life of just that one corn snake we have in the back, then I am proud of what I do for a living. Petsmart isn't a bad company. It just hires uneducated people. But when you have a group of people like I work with, who love the animals and are willing to learn about the animals we sell, you have a good store.

I'd love to start my own exotics pet store one day, but I would by no means do it because I hate Petsmart. If anything, the small pet stores around the area are worse than ANY Petsmart in my area. (except Off the Ark, but I don't shop there mainly due to distance)

[rabernet]

(except Off the Ark, but I don't shop there mainly due to distance)

Off the Ark doesn't exactly have a great reputation. In fact, they have a horrible reputation if the BOI threads are any indication.

[sarahlovesmiike]

Petsmart isn't a bad company. It just hires uneducated people. But when you have a group of people like I work with, who love the animals and are willing to learn about the animals we sell, you have a good store.

IMO, it takes a pretty bad company to hire people who know nothing about the animals that they will be caring for. It takes an even worse company to not take the time and effort to educate those people that they hired. I applaud you for getting involved at your place of work and bringing the store around, but don't you find it sort of sad that you had to come in and educate your co-workers before anything got done about the sick and improperly housed animals? Don't you think that the people responsible for choosing the animals they are going to sell should have looked into the husbandry needs of the animals before buying them and putting them out on the floor?