Death To Petco

reply to post by PassedKarma


I do apologize when i was speaking about dogs in my post i was thinking of petland...my bad. The link I provided in my post was about the treatment of small animals and birds that provide them to petco.

Do not forget the quality of each store in the chain varies according to the quality if the management within each store. I'm pleased with the overall care the animals seem to be receiving in my local PetsMarts. PetsMarts hosts dog adoption group events and provides an outlet for last chance animal rescue groups to showcase cats available for adoption. The cats are taken out every day to be allowed to play and have their cages cleaned. I adopted one of my cats there and was screened very carefully. They do not sell dogs or cats. The fish seem much healthier than those I've gotten from an independent dealer. I do not know much about Petco. I found the few times I've shopped at them that the merchandise seemed a bit filthy and they had sone very sick fish afflicted with anchor worms that I brought to their attention. If you do see sick animals in these places, speak up to the managers.

I can understand why you would be upset by this story but, I can't see blaming the whole Petco chain for the deaths of those animals. This was one store and extraordinary circumstances which are probably not covered in the standard Petco procedures manual.

The manager of that particular store is the one who shoulders the majority of the blame for this incident, not the entire store chain. The manager should have known about the flooding history (or taken the time to find out about it once the warnings were issued) of the area and should have taken the flooding warnings more seriously but, in the end, it was the manager's call to make whether to evacuate the store's pets, not Petco corporate offices who have a lot of stores to look after and must rely on the judgement of their management staff in situations like this.

I hope the manager loses their job over this and is the one held accountable if any criminal charges result form this incident. It will show other petstore managers to take the lives of the animals in their stores into account when a natural disaster looms.

My question to you OP is why? Why boycott the company for what 1 franchise did? It wasn't even the franchise as far as we know, it was the decision of the manager on duty. We do not know if the manager was in contact with the owner or not but at the same time it was this person who ultimately made the decision to leave them.

The cages these animals were in are individual drawers that could have been easily removed to evacuate save the fish tanks. They are designed this way for this specific reason(ease of transport) as well as for cleaning.

You think(like many others apparently) that the decisions of one manager should lead to the public destruction of a company that has actually done a lot to help out the pet world? Do you realize that PETCO actually sent semitrailers to New Orleans in order to help after Katrina and was majorly involved in animal rescue for months after the devastation occurred? On their own dime might I add.

I am not condoning the actions or lack there-of of the managers decision not to evacuate the animals but this is not the opinion in general of the company unless Human life is at stake. In fact I think the manager should be prosecuted by both the public and PETCO itself.

They had 2 days notice of possible Major flooding. This was not a "flash flood" situation. Employees at that store actually wanted to remove the animals from harms way yet were denied by said manager. Fortunately it was not as bad as it could have been. Removing the fresh water fish from the list of survivors as they can breath unsalted water, 100 animals died and 100 lived so 50% was the loss. As we do not have a list of the animal deaths you must look at the average "inventory" of the PETCO chain to make an assumption as to what they were.

The average PETCO does not sell anything bigger than a rabbit. Some stores have a section that is set aside for the local shelter to bring in cats and dogs but they are removed and returned to the shelter every night. Does this make it less important because they were small animals? NO, that is not what I am saying but lets look at these small animals for a moment. They were rodents(and family) and reptiles.

Being a Herpetologist, I am obviously a reptile lover, but that also gives me a unique perspective of the truth of the situation here. Yes, they sell frozen rodents for reptile consumption, but a lot of reptiles do not like previously deceased food and will starve rather than eat them. So, a good portion to the rodents were food, whether or not PETCO admits to it or not, that is why they carry such a large amount of rodents in stock. If they say different, the question becomes, Why do you sell live, non weaned rodents, that obviously can not survive without the mother/milk supplier? Not to mention none of these animals are endangered or are even close to being on the list.

Now lets look at what people do with rodents when they are tired of having them or can no longer keep them. They are not taken to a shelter and pet stores will not take adults so most of the time they are released. Might I remind you of the Plague?

What gets me is that, not only in this situation, people continue to build/live in flood planes and are surprised when flooding occurs. It just shows mankinds ignorance.

This brings us to the beloved PETA. PETA is responsible for countless animal deaths every year, regardless of how they are "put down"(not to mention animal shelters that put down cats and dogs on a daily basis without the disgruntlement of the public). If you notice PETA was not on the phone or present at this store or any other nor were they on the phone or present at the Zoo(in which two bison died, one from drowning and one shot) in order to help evacuate animals. They only seem to show up after the fact to point fingers.

reply to post by Attrei


Didn't say that. Its the attitudes of most people who go in there. Not to mention some of the ridiculously stupid things people pay up th nose for just for their pet. We also have their one of those pet spas in this city. Give me a break. I hate these people who also treat their pets better than their children. Most pet owners make me want to puke. I have a dog, I treat him like a dog, he eats moderately priced food , I cut his own hair because pet hair cutters annoy me, he gets milk bones sometimes as a treat and the only toys he has are sticks he finds in the bush. I don't have a stupid massive doghouse and I don't make him wear retarded sweaters and capes.

reply to post by Attrei




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reply to post by metaldemon2000


I always cringe when i see someone dress there poor dogs up. You can almost see the shame pouring out of them llol . I believe we should treat animals with respect weather there pets,food, or used for work. I agree people go to far when they try to put an animals life above a human. I remember when PETA went after a basketball player because a bat flew at him on the court and he swatted it away! Absolutely insane!

reply to post by SheeplFlavoredAgain

Petco. I found the few times I've shopped at them that the merchandise seemed a bit filthy and they had sone very sick fish afflicted with anchor worms that I brought to their attention. If you do see sick animals in these places, speak up to the managers.

Verrrrrry interesting. I see a pattern here.

Originally posted by Attrei
reply to post by sepermeru

 

Every store sells small items that can hurt or mutilate small animals. Does this mean we should ban all stores that sell anything harmful? The lessons that need to be taught is self-responsibility, not ban the thing that might hurt someone. If we go by that type of thought of banning all that will or can hurt someone or something then we would have to ban the car.

No, I mean they sell these items as if they should specifically be used by said small animals, not that they randomly have them lying around and people come up with the bright idea to stick 'em in a cage. If you go to the store, walk to the milk section, pick up something labelled as milk, bring it home, open it and find out it's full of white paint, have you failed to be personally responsible?

reply to post by fnpmitchreturns


Would rather not have to pay shipping costs to get the same products here in my local town. It is way easier to drive to Petco when I run out of food then to have to wait two to three days to get the food shipped to me.

reply to post by metaldemon2000


I don't believe in dressing an animal up either. I find it to be idiotic. My dog does have a nice dog house, but I was nearly ticketed here in my town for having him in just a pet cage with a tarp strapped to it when outside. My dog sleeps inside in bad weather so I didn't figure he needed more. Our town requires your animal to have a house if they are left outside for more than four hours at a time. As for buying the moderate priced food or milk bones, those are actually very bad for a dog. They have grains which the dog can't digest. They are carnivores not omnivores.

Originally posted by sepermeru
No, I mean they sell these items as if they should specifically be used by said small animals, not that they randomly have them lying around and people come up with the bright idea to stick 'em in a cage. If you go to the store, walk to the milk section, pick up something labelled as milk, bring it home, open it and find out it's full of white paint, have you failed to be personally responsible?

That is totally different than buying small items around say at Wal-mart or even one of the local mom and pop shops. It is the person who purchased the small item to make certain that the small item does not end up in the animal or child's mouth. Not the store you purchased it at. If you buy a bottle of milk that is the Milk companies fault not the grocery stores. You would sue the Manufacturer not the seller. Though in today's society you could sue both plus the owner of the Selling store, and the manufacturer and get rich. Personal responsibility comes into play when you the consumer buy something that is not truly fit for the animal or child that you have.

All I can say about this is I feel so sad. I don't like to give personal info on here, but I do live in the area and have shopped at that Petco for my guinea pig supplies. The flood waters came up at least half way up the doors, which would be maybe 4 feet I'm guessing. I'm not great at estimating stuff though. The cages (tanks) for the rodents and reptiles start at the floor and go up to about my face level, I am 5' 4". So in my estimation, MOST the animals would have died. The ferret and guinea pig display area was only about 2 feet off the floor. I hate even imagining this. The animals dying below the other ones would have made lots of noise I think and the other ones would have known something was going on and they would be afraid. Any animals that might have survived would be traumatized.

I would also like to add that there were flood warnings in effect since early Wednesday, that I know of. The streets around Petco, and the park adjacent to it were filling up fast, getting really bad definitely by 1 pm (that was the last time I was out of the house before we evacuated at midnight). They had to have known! Also, in a nearby town, the pet store there evacuated the animals in borrowed boats. The Petco was right near a Gander Mountain store where they could have easily borrowed the boats there to get the animals out. Here is a pic of the Pet Depot animal rescuing. You can see the pet carrier in front of the guy. www.mylot.com...

While this may not be corporate Petco's fault, I will never shop there if they decide to reopen there after they clean up. I know many people in my area who say the same.

Mayor Ray Nagan hand plenty of time to help his citizens before katrina, but failed to take any action.
people get more incensed over an animal before a human life. I love my pets...If you are willing to put Petco in this category, why not that mayor?

Originally posted by FortAnthem


I can understand why you would be upset by this story but, I can't see blaming the whole Petco chain for the deaths of those animals. This was one store and extraordinary circumstances which are probably not covered in the standard Petco procedures manual.

The manager of that particular store is the one who shoulders the majority of the blame for this incident, not the entire store chain.

People won't see it that way, though. They will literally hear about it, and all it takes is for the store's name to be included.

"What store was that?"
"Petco"
"Oh, that's horrible. I'm never shopping there again. Those animal killers!"

Remember what happened to Jack in the Box when they got passed tainted meat? It wasn't their fault. They just passed the meat along. Still, people associate JITB with e coli-tainted meat (or salmonella, whatever).

Same principle is in action if a CEO cheats on his wife. A scandal like that can affect a company brand. HP's CEO was let go while there was only suspicion. HP didn't want to let it happen, so they let him go before it had the chance to surface.

It's all about image, and this is a major public relations disaster for Petco.

Originally posted by Attrei

Originally posted by sepermeru
No, I mean they sell these items as if they should specifically be used by said small animals, not that they randomly have them lying around and people come up with the bright idea to stick 'em in a cage. If you go to the store, walk to the milk section, pick up something labelled as milk, bring it home, open it and find out it's full of white paint, have you failed to be personally responsible?

That is totally different than buying small items around say at Wal-mart or even one of the local mom and pop shops. It is the person who purchased the small item to make certain that the small item does not end up in the animal or child's mouth. Not the store you purchased it at. If you buy a bottle of milk that is the Milk companies fault not the grocery stores. You would sue the Manufacturer not the seller. Though in today's society you could sue both plus the owner of the Selling store, and the manufacturer and get rich. Personal responsibility comes into play when you the consumer buy something that is not truly fit for the animal or child that you have.

You continue to fail to understand. I'm not talking about items that accidentally end up being used in the wrong way. I'm talking about something that is sold to your child as a teddy bear but actually contains a knife. PEtco sells toys in a department marked 'for small animals' with lots of pictures of happy small animals on the package, in a section just for small animals, and these are toys that can mutiliate and kill small animals.

So again: where does 'personal responsibility' fit into a scenario where you buy something that looks like milk, is marked 'Milk' and is sold to you as being milk, but turns out to be something poisonous? And how do you deal with situations where, for example, it suddenly becomes much more profitable to sell white paint than milk no matter how many people drop dead, because by the time they do the fake milk has already been sold?

What I'm talking about goes far beyond Petco and explains exactly what is wrong with the idea that zero regulation somehow leads to a market that regulates its own safeness in an environment where in order to survive at all it must necessarily put profit above all else.

reply to post by sepermeru


And I understood you completely. If you can't take personal responsibility for making certain that the toy is actually safe, then perhaps you shouldn't have pets or children. It should not be up to a Corporation to make certain things are safe. People need to take more SELF responsibility.

reply to post by Attrei


Please answer the question I have asked. If you go to a store which says Milk for Sale, and buy a carton of something called Milk, and it turns out to be full of white paint, have you failed to be personally responsible, and how? In what way is it your fault that the thing sold to you as harmless milk is actually toxic paint...and how exactly would the market correct this in time to save lives, when after all, from the business perspective, the profit has already been made?

Also, since you claim to understand me well, please tell me what items I'm talking about, how they are marketed, how the real information about them can be found, what they do to small animals and why, in your world, people should assume every item inside a pet store might kill pets?

Or just buy whatever Petco says is fine for little Suzie's birthday and hope for the best. Or do you actually put in the time and effort to research every item you buy from every company? Do you visit the dairy that supplies your milk -- do you even know where it is?

Originally posted by sepermeru
reply to post by Attrei

 

Please answer the question I have asked. If you go to a store which says Milk for Sale, and buy a carton of something called Milk, and it turns out to be full of white paint, have you failed to be personally responsible, and how? In what way is it your fault that the thing sold to you as harmless milk is actually toxic paint...and how exactly would the market correct this in time to save lives, when after all, from the business perspective, the profit has already been made?

If you buy a carton of Milk that has paint, that is the Company that packaged the milk that is responsible not the store that sold it. That is completely different than going to a store picking up a toy with small pieces in it and buying it for your pet. Personal responsibility has been completely ignored in this country. People assume that it is not their fault for any little thing that goes wrong. Yes, I do know where my milk comes from. It comes from a farm about 39 miles from my home. I have toured the farm. My Eggs come from a local farm. Yes, I research pretty much every product that I am planning on purchasing. Yes, I check where things are made. I do my best to only buy things that come from places I trust, and companies that I trust. My soda is bottled here in my home town, my batteries are made here, my candy is made here, even snack cakes are made just up the road from me.

It is not that hard to take the personal responsibility to examine each thing you are about to purchase before giving it to an animal or your child. If more people would actually do their own part at choosing things with respect to the harm it can do to animals, children, or even themselves, this world would be much happier.

So you all hate Petco, feel horrible about how they house and care for cats and dogs, and won't go near the place because of it. Well, then who is going to rescue the cats and dogs stuck in a crappy situation in Petco?

Because the cats and dogs are kept in below average situations and Petco, and because you then decide to not give business to Petco, does not make you a good person. My cat, who I love dearly, I adopted from a Petco. I rescued her, spent a lot of money on dental problems she had, fixed her up,and now she's the happiest, cutest little cat I've ever laid eyes on.

If people reading this thread, takes everyones advice, no one will rescue the animals, and they'll be stuck in those cages for god knows how long. So the next time you drive by a Petco, and think you're making some sort of a powerful statement to the corporate offices by taking your business elsewhere, just remember, the pets are still suffering, and you are not helping that problem.

I would have been much more impressed if one of you posted contact info for Petco, where everyone who views this thread can voice their complaints. But that would be too much. Just go to your local mom and pop store next time, and ignore the suffering that those pets go through.