Petition for petsmart and pet co!!!

[Backlash]

I just started a job at petsmart, dunno if im going to stay but thats not the point. They made me read all these "care guide" crap about the animals they have in the store. for the beardies they recommended 1 cricket per inch of there body, NOT INCLUDING THE TAIL.......these little guys are maybe 3-4 inches long WITH THE TAIL....i was like WTF! They only feed them 2 crickets a day?!?! No wonder the lizards stay so small and never grow, they are hardly feeding them anything! and the crickets they put in the cage are nearly the size of their heads. The main reason i wanted to work there is because i knew how poorly they kept the animals and i thought i could help. But with the way they seem to limit the workers, i dont think i can do it anymore.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

Lance, thats awesome that you've gotten in touch with the ASPCA. I knew they had branches all over, but just wasn't sure how well connected they were. Remeber all, the chain stores only carry the very basic reptiles (beardies,anoles, geckos, corn snakes, slider turtles, water dragons, blue tongue skinks, basic frogs, newts and salamanders, and occasionally a chameleon or baby iguanas). They will only buy the cheapest reptiles and don't carry the more exotic ones because of the cost. We can easily find others who have good knowledge of all of the basic species they carry. We need the ASPCA, humane societies and the businesses themselves to understand that we don't want to stop these businesses form selling these animals (as long as the do so in the appropriate manner), we want to educate them and get them to improve the care of the animals-correct substrate (a local petco here uses that walnut crap for ALL their vivs no matter the species and I can't think of any species that should be on that stuff), correct foods, correct heating/lighting with bulbs changed on a regular basis to ensure they are working, correct housing (example: This same petco has a 3 foot enclosure on the end of the enclosure sets, and they had BABY beardies in there. A tall log in there too that the babies had to climb way up on to get to a warm enough spot, this puts the babies at risk of falling and being injured), Not putting too many animals in one viv, and NOT MIXING SPECIES!!!! (like the juvenile beardie I saw housed with a uromastxy several months ago, this always ticks me off!!!!) Also, CLEANLINESS of the vivs, I too often see vivs with LOTS of poo, too much for them to be able to say "we cleaned it this morning" and dried up, yucky veggies. The whole idea is to re-educate these companies and there employees so that they provide better care and are giving better info to their potetial customers.

There are a couple other forums out there that are geared toward all herp keepers and species: Kingsnake.com is one, reptilerooms.com is another (not a member so I don't know anyone there), We should be able to find others to help with caresheets/basic needs list of different species.

Lance, I think we should hit up Janie and Gina-they both breed geckos and Gina keeps a few species of snakes. I think Tom also keeps some species of snakes (I know he got one or two at the MARS show), We know they can give us solid info. I can easily provide you with a care sheet for MHD's, I've got a lot of info and experience with this species. Francis may be able to help with info on skinks and Tim has also kept a variety of species as well. Oh, and the breeder I got Assassin from, Rich Beasley, just started breeding corn snakes, I could hit him up for a care sheet for these.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

Sean, I hate to tell you, even though your working there, your not going to bring about changes on your own from the inside. These two companies are heavily micro-managed and every move they make comes from their corp offices. Your heart is in the right place, so, what you can do is try to jot some notes to add to the complaint list (the crickets for example), try to get some extra ones in the beardie cages of the appropriate size if you can(don't get in trouble though), or suggest that they really should have more. They also limit the food in the stores for a reason. They don't want the animal to grow too fast and outgrow a viv before they can sell it. They're basically just keeping it alive (barely). Also, They make huge profit off crickets at 10 to 12 cents each (which they get for approx 5 crickets for a penny) and they keep a pretty strict count on them too. I know this because I worked for them about 3 years ago for about 6 months (I left Walgreens after 7 years, I needed something different. Needless to say, they don't treat their employees any better than they do their animals- So, I quit, and a few months later, went back to Walgreens, not much has changed with petsmart since then.)

 

[Backlash]

Yea, i realize that i wont make a big change in the company itself. I just want to help out the poor animals in the store, as long as i can help those few i feel like i made a difference. I have noticed they keep a very strict count on the crickets, making you count ever cricket in a bag when you are selling, every day you have to pull all the dead crickets, count those and log them in, then you have to count the live crickets everyday and make note of that. I feel so sorry for the beardies there, they are so tiny and i dont think ive seen any change in size for the past month that ive been stopping in. I can say however that the petsmart i am at does keep the reptile cages very clean, they clean and soak all the dishes every morning and clean out all the droppings everyday, but its pretty much just this one store as the other ones close by are definetly not as good. And one thing i am VERY happy to see, is they are not housed on calci sand, they have reptile carpet in pretty much all the cages (thank you god). I can somewhat understand the reasoning behind them not wanting them to grow while in the store, although it is extremely maddening. But what upsets me is that in their so called "care" guides it says to feed the babies only once a day, and they still try and say only 1 cricket for each inch of the body! Its one thing to do it to the pets in the store for the so called "short visit" as they put it, but to ill inform the people buying the pet, so it has to suffer for the rest of its life is just horrible. I really dont think i can stay at the job, fortunatly i have an interview with Wegmans, a really nice food store. They were rated one of the best companies to work for, so i will most likely go and work for them. I dont think i can stand seeing those poor babies everyday i go to work, and know theres not much i can do about it without getting in trouble.

 

[Phoenix17June2009]

you can count me in as well... we have a pretty new store so everything (so far) is clean and all that, but the information they give to people is WAYYYYY OFF from what you need to know. From looking at the reptiles that they do carry even though they are a bit on the small side (my opinion) they appear healthy (for now) but the thing that worries me the most is the incorrect information they gave me and my hubby. one person actually told us that the BASKING AREA was supposed to be between 80-90 degrees... i was like i thought it needed to be between more like 100- 115 and she swore up and down that i was wrong and that my lizard would cook.... all the while my hubby looks at me and he was like well at those temps his food will never digest so we went with what all of you had taught us and bought a nicer bulb than the one she recommended which by the way was an infared light thing... that would be good if we couldnt keep the heat in but it wouldnt do anything for him really... so anyways just let me know when you have your PO and me and the hubby both will send letters.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

Sean, probably the best way you can help is to tell future owners correct info and point them in the direction of a forum like this. Tell them to feed more than the care sheets say (all the crickets they can eat in 15 min of the appropriate size) and veggies/greens. Give them the web address http://www.beautifuldragons.com so they can check out a really good list of proper foods as well. Other than that, there isn't much you can do from "inside" as they treat their employees suggestion as insubordination (going against the company standards).

Pheonix, ask her just how many beardies she has owned and how many of those have suffered from impaction or failure to thrive/eat/poop as well as infection! Yes, low temps also promote infection in these guys, as their food will sit in their gut and rot! When I worked there and got my first dragon, their info said 95 to 100 and I quickly found this wasn't working-so I talked to a breeder and made a lot of changes right off the bat. The store I worked at was brand new (I helped with setup before openning) and I watched several reptiles die in their care-they make very little effort to save them when they move them to the sick room-thats more to get them out of the public eye. They'll go out of their way to save an expensive bird like a conure or other small parrot breed, taking it to a vet if necessary, but with herps, they MIGHT give them some Repta-aid, and stick them in a tank in the quarantine area, but thats it. I remember pulling a baby beardie out of a viv that was limp and almost lifeless when I came in one morning and taking it to the Pet Care MGR and telling her look, this poor baby is dying, what do we do? She took it to the sick room, it was dead half an hour later. I also saw one of the petcare employees pull a mountain horned dragon out that was limp and laying on the bottom. She said, look (as she dangled it, turning it upside down and it hung from her hand like a limp rag doll-I was ticked by her behavior and told her it was inappropriate to dangle that poor animal like that) then she says "I think it's almost dead"- with no real concern in her voice, and yes within an hour it died. That was due to too high of temps, lack of humidity and feeding inappriate food. I now raise this species as well as beardies and It really ticks me off when I see MHD's in their care as they definately aren't receiving proper care either! I also saw a few herps chew on each other from lack of food-and again, they die from lack of treatment for the wounds. It's too expensive for them to take herps to a vet when the lizard cost them all of $5.

 

[smurfthebeardie]

I'm in.
and bump

 

[DragonMomSandy]

*bump*

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Thank you everybody! We need more recruits!!!

 

[ez2bbad64]

i am in. i have seen our local petco sell sick beardies. take peoples pets they bought in and didint want anymore right in with the stock to sell without making sure its healthy. and thanks to those kind of practices i lost my beloved redtail. his name was vandetta i loved that snake. he would escape from time to time and come looking for me. i remember waking up with vandetta cuddled up on my belly. my beloved vandetta got sick new years eve after being fed feeders from petco for the last couple of weeks before his death. he had come down with IBD a contagious disease in pythons and boas. he was NEVER near other snakes the only possible way for him to have gotten it was on a contaminated petco feeder. he died jan 4th 2009

 

[Twobeardieguy]

i am in. i have seen our local petco sell sick beardies. take peoples pets they bought in and didint want anymore right in with the stock to sell without making sure its healthy. and thanks to those kind of practices i lost my beloved redtail. his name was vandetta i loved that snake. he would escape from time to time and come looking for me. i remember waking up with vandetta cuddled up on my belly. my beloved vandetta got sick new years eve after being fed feeders from petco for the last couple of weeks before his death. he had come down with IBD a contagious disease in pythons and boas. he was NEVER near other snakes the only possible way for him to have gotten it was on a contaminated petco feeder. he died jan 4th 2009

I am sorry to here about your loss!! Keep your head up!! And it takes people like you and everybody else on here to get the ball rolling!

 

[DragonMomSandy]

ez2bbad4: This is the kind of detail that is needed. Your poor Vendetta was the victim of their horrible practices. I can guarantee you that neither company quaratines any reptile that comes to them (from a previous owner or a wholesaler), they put the directly into the vivs! So if there were any healthy animals in the viv before, they take a huge chance of spreading disease and parasites when the add new animals right after receiving them.

 

[ez2bbad64]

it was horrible watching him die. i tried desperatly to find a vet to treat him i ended up driving him 120 miles to see the vet who treats the reptiles at the millwaukee zoo. they gave him a bunch of meds and a grim prognosis but we tried. he suffered he couldent tell up from down and would corkscrew when you held him. i have since taken notice of when someone brings in a pet they no longer want they put them with the stock ones for sale and the employees never wash hands between cages. i no longer will buy feeders of any kind from them not even crickets thats why i started my roach colony and my horses feed supplier special ordered ferret food and dog food for me so i dont have to buy it at petco anymore. i realy miss vandetta he was the best snake i ever met.if someone else was holding him he would slither away from them and come to me. i am sure i will never meet anoher as great as my vandetta was.the vet bill from trying to save him was huge i couldent even bring another snake into my home for 6months as IBD can live in the enviroment that long. after i lost vandetta i adopted peaches from a shelter i adopted her because of all her issues and no one else would want her like she is. i figured if i lost vandetta i could atleast help a poor animal that needed me. sorry for the long post its a real sore spot for me i still get teared up thinking about it.

 

[midwestreptiles]

Im on board Also i feel like letters should obviously include personal experiences if you have them as well as everyones opinions if you have not had a bad experience at one of these stores. Someone on here that just rescued a beardie said they had it at like 70 degrees with no basking light and right on the glass it said i like bright light or something dont forget to get me a bulb... People should snap pictures of how these stores are not meeting these guys and gals care requirements!!! Lets really show them that they are not educating people properly or at all in some cases. Its really sad. I wish there were a way to just get rid of all petco and petsmarts. No one needs them. They're fish are diseased, and all they're other animals are under cared for.

 

[ez2bbad64]

i have also had bad experience with petland. i have a 2yr old beagle mix i found him when he was just a little puppy on the highway. he has a heart condition and a seziure disorder and he needed eye surgery the tear ducts popped out and had to be put back. the vet scanned him and found a chip in his neck that came back to petland. i contacted petland who said it couldent be one of theirs and his number had been returned to the breeder and destroyed.i bought him in they verified him and offered to take him back i said heck no there was no way i was handing this poor dog over!. hes been expensive cost me $800 just to fix his eyes and its all genetic defects from poor breeding. sad thing is they sold him for $950 how could they charge so much for these poor puppy mill mixed breeds? between my experince with petco and petland i dont buy from those large chain type stores any longer