New Mexico Pet Smart - This made me sick!

I am not trying to bash pet smart but....

Over the Summer of 2008 I went on vacation to Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you are familiar w/ the area this specific store is located near to Cottonwood Mall (right next to Keva Juice). My fiance and I stopped in the Pet Smart one day just to check it out while we were in the area.
When we first walked in I went strait to the area where the pets are located (as usual) and when I saw the baby beardies I was shocked at their living condition. They had a very, very small enclosure (maybe 1 foot by one foot, maybe) and it was FILLED with babies. there wasn't even enough room for each to have its own personal floor space. There was poo everywhere. They had absolutely no food and the water was brown and thick. It was absolutely awful. I contacted an employee and let my voice be heard, I couldn't belive they had animals, someones future pet living in those conditions. I don't see how any one of those hatchlings could be healthy. I've heard Pet Smart isn't the best store, but I'd never really had any problems w/ it untill I saw this... It made me sick. Even now, 4 months later I cannot get it outta my head.

over the weekend we went to a P.S. here in Kalamazoo, MI and I was much more pleased with the habitat for the beardies there. It was clean, not too crouded and had plenty of food and clean water for the hatchlings...

Finally, someone who sees it the right way! Not every Petsmart is disgusting. I've witnessed something like this at only ONE Petsmart so far, but out of all the others, the conditions were satisfactory. Kudos for letting them know about it. If I were to see something like that, I'd ask to speak with the manager (Pet Care manager) and let him/her know about it. I feel like some, not all, of the employees will just brush it and ignore the complaint.

What street was it on? I live in Albuquerque, but Im in college now. Ill be back next saturday, and I could yell at the store, if the conditions are still the same.

Off of Coors Blvd. This was in August, so hopefully they cleaned it up a little bit.

Yeah, this is why I will no longer shop at Petsmart/Petco or any other chain store for that matter. I actually have a few very good Petsmarts in my area, but as long as I continue to hear stories about bad ones, I will continue to boycott. I don't think "some of them are good" is good enough. They ALL need to be good before they will get any of my business and I have 7 animals at home, so they are definately loosing out.

The only way to bring change is to take your business away from them, regardless of whether one store is good while another is bad. They are still all owned by the same corporation, so your money profits the corporation that runs both the good and the bad stores. They are still reaping the reward when you leave a bad Petsmart and then decide to shop at a good one, you mise well have just purchased what you needed at the bad one. They all need to be held to a high standard, not just some of them.

It is important to let them know how many animals you have and why you will not be shopping in their store for ANYTHING. That's what I did. I wrote them an e-mail explaining that in some of their stores, their care of the living animals that they sell is far under par. I let them know that for that exact reason I would not be purchasing supplies for any of my animals from their store until improvements are made. I am still waiting. :roll:

I would imagine that if enough people took that stance with them, then they would have no other choice but to either provide better care or stop selling animals all together. I would be please with either of those two outcomes. You just have to hit them where it hurts, their pocket book. I encourage EVERYONE to check out your local mom & pop pet shops and you can really find some nice ones. Their prices are not much higher and sometimes are lower than the chain stores. Something has to be done and these large corporations are just not going to listen until we hit them where it hurts!

No disrespect meant to any of the people on this site that work at Petsmart/Petco, etc. It's not the employee's fault or responsibility, it is up to corporate to ensure their future success by implementing proper care standards and training. There is absolutly NO EXCUSE whatsoever for the conditions under which some of these animals are kept.