I'm boycotting PETCO

[hbskeet]

So today on my way back from my friends I stopped by a PETCO to pick up some food for my bettas and I saw some young Veileds for sale. Yes, I know pet shops especially big chains aren't that great to their animals but what I saw was playing horrible. Most animals get water, food, heat, and a hide area. Well the chams had one small hanging plants in the corner. A "big dripper" above it and a small water bowl underneath the plant to catch the water. The dripper was dry. The water bowl was dirty as chams tend to use them as restrooms. The only other thing in the tank was a small rock formation. All this covered about 1/4 of the tank. The rest was open ground. The two smaller chams looked healthy, as they were probably new, and of course hanging on the top screen to get some heat from the lamp. The bigger cham wad laying in the middle of the enclosure on the ground. He was almost straight black. I told the staff that something might be wrong and they said "ohh ok" but left
him to be. Wow did it piss me off!!! I understand when pet shops give the bare minimum but this wasn't even close to that!! I am now anti PETCO.

 

[CBPanther]

Thats sad to hear, I suppose it just depends on the actual Petco/Petsmart location. The ones around me are no chameleons experts, but they do give plants, water, hiding spots, heat bulb and the bare essentials they need.... for the most part :/

 

[CalaMala]

I would go back and check on the guy (the veiled not the employee), ask to speak tot he manager express your feelings and then go on their website and email corporate. Sometimes it is just the jerk that works there or managers that don't know nor care....It is sad to see people so nonchalant. I think there should be requirements to work with the animals. An employees to stock the shelves and ring up customers is one thing but the animal care employees should be trained and certified.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Im glad the petcos around me dont stock chams. They only sell feeders and supplies. I think the only way you can get one from a petco around here is to have them order you one. They cant kep one alive longer than a week or so with their level of care unfortunately.....

 

[okiroo]

i got my honey pie from petsmart. she was sick but im doing my best to make her better.

 

[DavidBuchan]

I know everything is bigger in America...........and in big companies some fecal matter always hits some fans, but there are some stores it seems worth campaigning against......individual stores it seems, not whole corporations........I know some jerks in the UK don't look after their animals, but they just wouldn't get away with public displays of bad care like I've read about a few times on here - something should be done!
A campaign to train people if they look after exotic pets?
I'm not an American citizen, so I can't be president It's up to you guys, and I'll send e-mails or letters from here.....

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

There's got to be a law against that. There has to be.

 

[Texas Ranger]

One of my friends did boycot petco in our area. And suprisingly the stores around him no longer carry ANY reptiles. He won! Of course thats only a handful of stores. But its a start.

 

[okiroo]

I dont know. people just dont care. or they dont know. i looked at the anoles and they were brown in their water dish not moveing at all. they looked very unhealthy! there was like 10 of them in a hot tanks (way to hot.) and it was very small!!!

 

[hbskeet]

They should definetly make employees get certified to care for pets. I don't really have anything against petsmart. I have seen chams there before and they got the bare essentials. I already emailed PETCO's corporate about it. Do I think they are going to do anything about it. Probably not!

 

[Texas Ranger]

If you go about it right it could work. My freind had potisions signed. And blah, blah. But yes they dont care. I have a friend that works at petsmart. And she told me that there is absolutly nothing they can do about it. And it does no good for customers to come in and complain. It wont solve anything. The employees have no say in the matter.

 

[hbskeet]

I understand some small places do worse things but when your a big company that prides itself on animal care it really pisses me off. And they do a bunch of things like reaching out to the public and teaching kids good animal care. It's horrible!! And they were selling them for $99 on sale. HAHA!!

 

[carol5208]

I just never go in there.....period!!!!

 

[hbskeet]

I just never go in there.....period!!!!

Definitely!!!

 

[DavidBuchan]

If you go about it right it could work. My freind had potisions signed. And blah, blah. But yes they dont care. I have a friend that works at petsmart. And she told me that there is absolutly nothing they can do about it. And it does no good for customers to come in and complain. It wont solve anything. The employees have no say in the matter.

The employees have no say? Do they not pay their taxes? democracy? freedom? Etc.?
I work in telesales - people expect us not to care, and to be honest I don't care how many sales I get each week. I get enough money for food, drink, rent, lizards, weed and proper drink without my commission. I work hard to help the customers, because nobody enjoys calling a callcentre....
Doctors and Nurses and Teachers are expected to care better....and they at least pretend to.
People whose job it is to look after animals would get shunned in the street if they were seen to do this in Britain. We have hidden camera shows on to show behind the scenes where stuff this bad happens.
Education is the answer, as so often is the case. Also, report it to people who make and enforce laws. Senate, Congress, Councillor, whatever you guys have over there......
How about a Sheriff?

 

[hbskeet]

The employees have no say? Do they not pay their taxes? democracy? freedom? Etc.?
I work in telesales - people expect us not to care, and to be honest I don't care how many sales I get each week. I get enough money for food, drink, rent, lizards, weed and proper drink without my commission. I work hard to help the customers, because nobody enjoys calling a callcentre....
Doctors and Nurses and Teachers are expected to care better....and they at least pretend to.
People whose job it is to look after animals would get shunned in the street if they were seen to do this in Britain. We have hidden camera shows on to show behind the scenes where stuff this bad happens.
Education is the answer, as so often is the case. Also, report it to people who make and enforce laws. Senate, Congress, Councillor, whatever you guys have over there......
How about a Sheriff?

The thing is there aren't many laws to stop this. And even if they were breaking some kind of law it would definetly be overlooked. It's such an insignificant thing to any law enforcement to do anything about it.

 

[DavidBuchan]

The thing is there aren't many laws to stop this. And even if they were breaking some kind of law it would definetly be overlooked. It's such an insignificant thing to any law enforcement to do anything about it.

It's not insignificant though, is it? Use your people power..... Why do Brits have a reputation for being reserved? ...In Glasgow people regularly get headbutted for much less.......not that I approve of vigilante justice of course.......
Write enough letters to someone who relies on votes - that'll get it done, but of course it takes time and effort.......

 

[Carlton]

I just never go in there.....period!!!!

THIS is how to affect change! It won't hurt the store much if you refuse to by an animal but still buy supplies there. If you are going to boycott them you need to refuse to buy ANYTHING! They make their profit from supplies, not animal sales. When I boycott a store or chain I do it entirely and send them a letter explaining why.

 

[KarmaChams]

I have seen many veileds for sale in various Petcos here in NJ. They are always sickly-looking, and always have the setup you describe! Not to mention their other reptiles are just as bad. And their birds! It made me sick to my stomach. I have personally boy-cotted them a long time ago, and it's sad that other locations are just as bad.

Texas Ranger does have a point in that the employees really do have very little say. Strict guidelines in large corps meant to curb merchandise loss make it impossible for any employee, even store management to change policy on store displays, etc etc.

**However, these large companies seem to go in the complete opposite direction when it comes to dogs and cats - to the point that Petsmart and Petco (in our areas, at least) do not even sell puppies or cats, and instead are crazy about adoption - in the attempt to assure their customer's they stand strong against puppy mills, selling sick dogs, abuse etc. Yet on the other side of the "adoption loving-eco warrior-super animal friendly" part of the store you have a big glass box of lizards, like some 1800's World Fair attraction.
That's because these companies have been BLASTED by animal rights groups, anti-abuse movements and everything else until they STOPPED selling sick dogs and cats. Otherwise, it would still be profitable and they would still be doing it.
It's just the "save the lizard" movement isn't as big as the "save the puppy" movement... yet. The more we converse about things like this, and the more we complain to anyone who will hear it, the better the chance is for change.

Those are my thoughts, anyway. lol!

 

[Carlton]

I understand some small places do worse things but when your a big company that prides itself on animal care it really pisses me off. And they do a bunch of things like reaching out to the public and teaching kids good animal care. It's horrible!! And they were selling them for $99 on sale. HAHA!!

This pride is an illusion...or their attempts to convince the gullible public they actually care about their stock. How often does the forum gain a new member with a sick cham who ends up being shocked at how ignorant the seller was? Happens all the time. Some may explain it away saying they simply don't know what is wrong with their care of animal stock, but my response would be this is also false.. It's not as if proper husbandry info is hard to find these days.

If I was a store that truly cared about the well being of my livestock, and a customer happened to complain about how I was keeping an animal I would be very glad to listen, discuss, debate what seemed to be wrong, then go verify it myself eager to improve the business. Just ignoring an obviously concerned person (whether they are right or not) shows I have no real interest in the animals I carry. Sure there may be complete crackpots yelling about care, but it costs nothing but time simply to listen.