Nothing like a verbal assault from Petsmart....

[Jay_Bunny]

With over 1000 stores it is near impossible for them to hire or have the time to train people to know their stuff. In the end Petsmart is a retail store not a rescue. People don't apply to work there because they have a passion for animals. Not all of them anyway. There will always be bad stores. But that doesn't make the whole company bad. Saying individual stores are bad is fine. But when someone comes on this forum and insults me by saying everyone that works for Petsmart are idiots that really rubs me the wrong way. I did help this store turn around. Maybe instead of condemning all Petsmarts how about we help them improve.

[packer43064]

With over 1000 stores it is near impossible for them to hire or have the time to train people to know their stuff. In the end Petsmart is a retail store not a rescue. People don't apply to work there because they have a passion for animals. Not all of them anyway. There will always be bad stores. But that doesn't make the whole company bad. Saying individual stores are bad is fine. But when someone comes on this forum and insults me by saying everyone that works for Petsmart are idiots that really rubs me the wrong way. I did help this store turn around. Maybe instead of condemning all Petsmarts how about we help them improve.

Agreed.

People need to understand with the amount of stores we have and the fact that this is a business that the company isn't going to spend a month training on each animal. There's a reason why alot(not all) independent stores are usually kept better. People want to work at the local reptile/fish store because they want to be around animals like those. For Petsmart it's a job, not exactly "Oh I want to be around animals". Also understand that Petsmart isn't all selling fish and reptiles by any means. That's a small fraction of what the company aims to sell. Their out there to make money, if you own a business you will understand. Petsmart tries, it's alot more than I can say for other places with hamsters and rats that look like their on their death bed.

[sarahlovesmiike]

Would it really be that hard to give their employees the care sheets of the animals they will caring for? I mean, all they have to do is print it up and ask them to go by the guidelines while they are working. They don't have to extensively train every worker. "The ball pythons humidity drops below 50% spray the tank, the snake is in shed spray it a little more." When you get a job you have to read a handbook and whatnot, why can't they just have them study the husbandry a little and give them something to refer to? "The ball pythons humidity drops below 50% spray the tank, the snake is in shed spray it a little more." Once they get into the grove of things, even if they don't care for animals, it will be easy and they will know what to do.


The bottom line is, yes they are a chain store who probably has better things to do, but if you are not going to properly care for an animal then you should not have it, therefore they shouldn't be selling animals that they aren't going to properly care for while they are in their possession.

[Jay_Bunny]

The store should not only have caresheets for every animal (ours are very informative) but associates should have access to the Fetch program which is loaded with info. But managers can't hold every associates hand and make sure they read every care guide.

[sarahlovesmiike]

Supervisors are there to supervise. If someone is not doing their job correctly then they should reprimanded, if they continue to slack then they should be fired.

[Jay_Bunny]

Supervisors are there to supervise. If someone is not doing their job correctly then they should reprimanded, if they continue to slack then they should be fired.

I agree. But just because some employees are not doing their job doesn't mean all of us are bad.

[packer43064]

The petcare training book goes over some basic animal info. It's better than nothing. Something as simple as you have gave would not suffice for a firing. It takes time to hire and get people in the groove. People can't be fired left and right. If repeated offences happen they they certainly should be written up and so on depending on the severity of the "screw up". What exactly do you have against Petsmart, just wondering. Some things stores can change, others are set in policy and disobeying them (even if it might be the right thing)can lead to being fired.

[sarahlovesmiike]

The petcare training book goes over some basic animal info. It's better than nothing. Something as simple as you have gave would not suffice for a firing. It takes time to hire and get people in the groove. People can't be fired left and right. If repeated offences happen they they certainly should be written up and so on depending on the severity of the "screw up". What exactly do you have against Petsmart, just wondering. Some things stores can change, others are set in policy and disobeying them (even if it might be the right thing)can lead to being fired.

This is why I don't think they should sell reptiles. Sure, basic animal information is okay if you're selling cute little fuzzy animals. But even with rats and mice they overcrowd the cages. It's not "cruel" per se, but it's not right either.


When it comes to caring for animals, which is a pretty big responsibility, I think they NEED to have people who are willing to do their jobs correctly. If they repeatedly leave the balls with 20% humidity every time they have a shift then they should be fired or at least given different responsibilities.

I guess that is why some stores are better than others. They get lucky and hire someone who truly knows what they're doing, and that one person can totally change the whole store... or better the welfare of the animals anyway.

[Jay_Bunny]

Our reptiles are kept correctly. Yes, I am aware they were not always kept in the correct manner, but all it takes is some education and some effort and you have well taken care of animals. Our snakes have complete sheds, do not have mites, RIs, stuck eye caps, scale rot, or ANY of the common issues (or any of the non-common issues as well). Our lizards eat the correct amount of food. Their cages are cleaned weekly and the animals such as bearded dragons and chinese water dragons have theirs spot cleaned every day.

So we can provide proper care to all of our herps AND give the correct information to potential pet parents. And we should have reptiles taken from our store because other stores can't bother to educate themselves. I see having reptiles in our store as a GREAT opportunity to educate people. You have no idea how many people come in our store and see me with a ball python out and ask "Oh arn't those the snakes that get 20ft long?" Just yesterday I got to show this one boy a ball python. He had never touched a snake before and was fascinated with how they felt and moved. There was one time a lady was terrified of snakes but after talking to her for a few minutes about them, she reached over and touched the ball python. That is a big step for people who are afraid of snakes! There are so many people who don't get any exposure to reptiles and would gladly support laws against them because they are not educated about them.

I can use this job to better the lives of animals and be able to educate people at the same time. I think Petsmart has good intentions, and working there gives me a great opportunity to do something I love.

[sarahlovesmiike]

That's what I'm saying. YOU did that for your store. Not upper management. They were very lucky to hire someone like you, who is dedicated to the animals and wants to give them the best home possible. If they would give me a job, I'd do the same thing. The problem is they don't look at my application and say "hey this girl has a lot of experience with reptiles, we should hire her because it would benefit our animals." They look at and say "oh she doesn't have enough work experience to be beneficial to our store." Do you see were the problem lies? Sure, YOUR store cares about its animals, but it took you to come in and do that FOR them. Most stores are not so lucky.