I agree with this whole heartedly! In my experience the employees at pet stores (even big box stores) are major animal lovers and care deeply. That doesn't mean they are always experts... but they do the very best they can.Originally Posted by Eric Alan
Many times the reality of retail necessitates things to be done differently than we would do in our own homes. That is why I will give pet retail stores the benefit of the doubt when I see things like this (when there are no aggregious lapses in care, which this is not).
There are 2800+ Petco and PetSmarts across the country and I'm sure several thousand smaller pet shops. They're easy targets and everyone gets up in arms when posts like these show up (justified or not). In truth, a lapse in care is the exception and not the rule otherwise they would not be in the business that they are... or at least not nearly as successful. Unfortunately, not everyone working there can possibly be an expert in everything. It's an unreal expectation to think they should be. That's why they hire people with different skill sets and work on educating all of their employees to fill in the gaps.
The one thing that couldn't be further from the truth, though, is the idea that pet store employees don't care about what they do. The number one reason people choose to work in a pet store instead of anywhere else (where they could certainly collect an easier, likely larger, paycheck) is because at their core they care about animals. I've personally witnessed many of these stores, large and small, spend many times the retail value of an animal on proper veterinary care because it is the right thing to do for the animal. I'll say it again just so I'm clear - almost without exception, they care about the animals in their care.
Just my 2 cents...
Also I try to give the benefit of the doubt with housing/enclousures as long as the animals are healthy, as often none of the animals stay in those enclosures long term. For example, our local Petsmart puts all their snakes on a 48 hour quarantine on arrival at the store, and they are often all spoken for before they are cleared. It isn't all that different than a snake being shipped or moved in a small container... it is only very short term in the majority of cases.
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