Stop supporting petco/petsmart

[CamoChameleonsHuman]

I remember you telling us about the mailman incident. I am so sorry you had to give up your baby, you're so strong for being able to do that for him. Even thinking of losing either of my girls gets me immediately emotional.

I have no problem putting my wants and needs aside for my animals. If I was down to my last dime and I could buy a coffee to get me through the day or a single cricket so my chameleon wouldn't starve that day I'd buy the cricket. It rips me apart from the inside knowing I failed him for having to relinquish him but at the end of the day I know what's better for him. Land where he can roam free and be the cattle dog he wants to be or be cooped up in a pen all day just so I can say I still have my dog... The choice to me is obvious and a no brainer.

 

[Rlc1994]

I found my Beman at Petco... I know BOOOOOOO Bad BECCA!!! While I do not condone what they are doing or the lack of care. I NEVER would have thought about getting a reptile before he picked me. LIKE EVER! I hated bugs and never thought of a reptile as something I could love much less bring me any joy.

So without Petco, Beman never would have gotten me and I never would have had the opportunity to fall in love with this hobby. I never would have gotten the opportunity to get one of Matt's Nosy Be's and I never would have met the people here that I call friends and chamily.

I really feel the issue is education. There is a lack of it. And unless we are able to show the CEO's of the company that they need an overhaul in their husbandry of these animals then this will continue to happen.

There is a female panther at my local Petco. She is a little doll and has been there 3 months. Kills me every single time I go in. But what makes it worse is that they do not know what locale and did not even know it was a female. They need to be educated.. But people that make minimum wage 5 out of 10 are not going to want to learn more and then there is the turn over rate in retail sales.

This is not an easy issue to fix... It just is what it is.

Good points! Im sure everyone on this forum has supported these stores one way or another by buying something from them me included.

I agree if you improve the education and husbandry for these stores it would definitely make a difference. This costs money though and Is probably the opposite of what these CEOS and company have in mind. Like you said it is what it is. Not much we can do about it.

 

[krikinit]

And I'd say about 95% of the people that have pitbulls, shouldn't have any animals at all. At least around here... constantly beating them for any little thing.

I have trained dogs for quite sometime. Pits are some of my favorites. They were America's dog. They were everywhere until the lab showed up. I think that was in the '50s. Great dogs but I do agree with you @jamest0o0. People are ignorant to the meaning of the word "behavior." My dog is good or my dog listens to me are some of my favorite things to hear. 90lb owner tells me they can control their 120lb dog. I chuckled when the dog began to drag them after a ranch cat!

 

[jamest0o0]

What a thread this has become! Lol. Cats are no joke! We have a 16lb Savannah and he is an absolute beast. I've always had shelter animals, but was fascinated by savannahs. Wife fell in love with a kitten and we had some money saved up so we went for it. At 16lbs I would bet my money on him over a dog 2-3x larger than him. Energy levels, strength, etc are through the roof. He's never mean, but doesn't realize his own strength sometimes, luckily he's gentle with everyone, but me because I allow it. Many scars I have from him lol

 

[Daesie11]

What a thread this has become! Lol. Cats are no joke! We have a 16lb Savannah and he is an absolute beast. I've always had shelter animals, but was fascinated by savannahs. Wife fell in love with a kitten and we had some money saved up so we went for it. At 16lbs I would bet my money on him over a dog 2-3x larger than him. Energy levels, strength, etc are through the roof. He's never mean, but doesn't realize his own strength sometimes, luckily he's gentle with everyone, but me because I allow it. Many scars I have from him lol

Omg that's huge. I would be surprised if my boy is even 10lbs and that's pushing it, but he has crazy energy and he is polydactyl so he has an extra claw on every foot, all the better to injure you with. Luckily he also has no teeth so there is much less pain than there otherwise would be

 

[jamest0o0]

I found my Beman at Petco... I know BOOOOOOO Bad BECCA!!! While I do not condone what they are doing or the lack of care. I NEVER would have thought about getting a reptile before he picked me. LIKE EVER! I hated bugs and never thought of a reptile as something I could love much less bring me any joy.

So without Petco, Beman never would have gotten me and I never would have had the opportunity to fall in love with this hobby. I never would have gotten the opportunity to get one of Matt's Nosy Be's and I never would have met the people here that I call friends and chamily.

I really feel the issue is education. There is a lack of it. And unless we are able to show the CEO's of the company that they need an overhaul in their husbandry of these animals then this will continue to happen.

There is a female panther at my local Petco. She is a little doll and has been there 3 months. Kills me every single time I go in. But what makes it worse is that they do not know what locale and did not even know it was a female. They need to be educated.. But people that make minimum wage 5 out of 10 are not going to want to learn more and then there is the turn over rate in retail sales.

This is not an easy issue to fix... It just is what it is.

While you're right... I think *most* humans, in almost every situation across the world have shown they do not want to be educated. It hits people's ego when they are told things that they didn't previously know. On paper it sounds great, if everyone knew better things would work out for these animals. Unfortunately it's not too realistic, the main motivator is money, whether we like it or not. The only thing that would protect these animals and put them into good homes would be the price going way up. If Petco started selling veileds for $500, you could bet they would be taking better care of them and so would the buyer's. In these hobbies, from herps to fish, there are 2 types of people. The ones that seem them as fancy furniture/property/toys and the people that see them as living things that should be treated well. Most are not going to be part of the latter.

 

[CamoChameleonsHuman]

While you're right... I think *most* humans, in almost every situation across the world have shown they do not want to be educated. It hits people's ego when they are told things that they didn't previously know. On paper it sounds great, if everyone knew better things would work out for these animals. Unfortunately it's not too realistic, the main motivator is money, whether we like it or not. The only thing that would protect these animals and put them into good homes would be the price going way up. If Petco started selling veileds for $500, you could bet they would be taking better care of them and so would the buyer's. In these hobbies, from herps to fish, there are 2 types of people. The ones that seem them as fancy furniture/property/toys and the people that see them as living things that should be treated well. Most are not going to be part of the latter.

And we all know Becca aka @Beman aint most people's. She's somewhat crazy somewhat sane. Always willing to learn and always ready to educate a mother f***** if they need it lol

 

[Beman]

And we all know Becca aka @Beman aint most people's. She's somewhat crazy somewhat sane. Always willing to learn and always ready to educate a mother f***** if they need it lol

Yeah I think I definitely lie on the border of crazy/sane when it comes to my boys and really any animal in my care. I don't hesitate to spend money for their health or happiness. It does not matter to me if it is a 5 dollar rat or a 80 dollar Veiled. I really want the best for them. I put them and my child before my needs always. As it should be I feel if one is going to care for anything that is defenseless and unable to provide for itself then it is our job to give them the very best.... From my child to my animals this has always been my line of thinking.

 

[Lennoncham]

Only thing I go to big box stores is UVB lights through online store. There 24" T5HO online are like $15 and I can't beat that anywhere. I also get forest floor substrate from them as well (geckos).

Why buy the branded forest floor substrate when you can get a 45l bag of mulch for like $2 or $3.

 

[Graves923]

What a thread this has become! Lol. Cats are no joke! We have a 16lb Savannah and he is an absolute beast.

I had a 28lb russian blue cat my mom and I found as a new born kitten under our car in our driveway. He was not a beast, just fat.

Vet said he had a thyroid issue so meds kept him from gaining weight but no matter what we did he wouldn't lose any.

He was my shadow though. I would call for him and he was waddle as fast as he could to me. Sometimes he would have to stop and take a break, but he would eventually get to me. And forget about going up stairs... He could only manage 2 steps at a time then take a 5 minute break.

 

[KobaOregonherper]

What a thread this has become! Lol. Cats are no joke! We have a 16lb Savannah and he is an absolute beast. I've always had shelter animals, but was fascinated by savannahs. Wife fell in love with a kitten and we had some money saved up so we went for it. At 16lbs I would bet my money on him over a dog 2-3x larger than him. Energy levels, strength, etc are through the roof. He's never mean, but doesn't realize his own strength sometimes, luckily he's gentle with everyone, but me because I allow it. Many scars I have from him lol

Lol thread jacked

 

[KobaOregonherper]

My Chihuahua Rufus ripped my lip open just because he didn’t want me near my mom. 15 years later he’s still around bitting with his last 4 teeth lol. Ran up my leg and bite my hand just because I was next to him a month ago


Forgot to mention how much I hate that dog but he was nice to me when I was pregnant

I'd be feeding that chew toy to my python... I hate little dogs lol. Haven't met any that didny have short dog syndrome.

 

[RyanBRZ]

Going to check out my local Petsmart this weekend. I rarely go there, typically only if I'm desperate for feeders. I'll end up coming home with another chameleon if I see one hating life.

 

[Tony_S]

I'm glad I found this forum before I bought a panther. This past weekend the wife and I went to the Pittsburgh waterfront for a little anniversary getaway. She wanted to go into bed bath and beyond to look for a comforter for our bed. So I noticed a Petco next door and decided to go in to look around and waste time until she was done. They had 2 panther and 1 Jackson in one of those small, display enclosures. The one panther had both eyes closed and the other two looked both to be healthy. There was another family with a young boy I would say around 10-12 years old. He was begging his parents to get one. The salesperson told them that they just got them in and they are super easy to care for and all they needed was the chameleon kit that they also had about 10 of. A couple minutes later I see the family walking past me carrying the kit and one of the panthers. I just thought to myself. Boy they don't know what they just got themselves into and that is going to be one expensive lesson. The panther was 299 and the kit was 149.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

So sad!

 

[OldChamKeeper]

I've been just ghosting the forums for sometime.

What the hell happened to this thread? The OP made a decent attempt at once again for the thousandth time telling everybody to stop patronizing these big box stores (other than buying dog food, go ahead and buy that from petco, there's no profit in it for them. They need it to lure folks in for the stuff they really do make money....like light bulbs.)

Yet this whole thread got hijacked for pitbulls... No wonder I don't contribute like I used to.

Here's how you go after that petco. Now I hate PETA. Plain and simple. Too many extremist dumbasses in it. However you use them in this case. Send those pictures with a simple detailed letter in bulletpoints about the info you shared. They'll be all over that store like ants on meat. Only if you are detailed enough to where they feel like they know what they are talking about when they go in there. Enemy of my enemy is ..... convenient.

 

[OldChamKeeper]

Going to check out my local Petsmart this weekend. I rarely go there, typically only if I'm desperate for feeders. I'll end up coming home with another chameleon if I see one hating life.

And this just results in them buying another one. If you let the first one die (as hard as that is), and they lose money because of that, it might save a few dozen more from being bought in the months to come. Now if you can get it for free. I'm all for it.

 

[jamest0o0]

I've been just ghosting the forums for sometime.

What the hell happened to this thread? The OP made a decent attempt at once again for the thousandth time telling everybody to stop patronizing these big box stores (other than buying dog food, go ahead and buy that from petco, there's no profit in it for them. They need it to lure folks in for the stuff they really do make money....like light bulbs.)

Yet this whole thread got hijacked for pitbulls... No wonder I don't contribute like I used to.

Here's how you go after that petco. Now I hate PETA. Plain and simple. Too many extremist dumbasses in it. However you use them in this case. Send those pictures with a simple detailed letter in bulletpoints about the info you shared. They'll be all over that store like ants on meat. Only if you are detailed enough to where they feel like they know what they are talking about when they go in there. Enemy of my enemy is ..... convenient.

I think it was just our attention branching off. It still pertained to petco/petsmart policies. Got a little off topic, what's more to be said though?

 

[OldChamKeeper]

I think it was just our attention branching off. It still pertained to petco/petsmart policies. Got a little off topic, what's more to be said though?

Well, the only to be said is what we've been saying for a very long time. If you buy anything from petco (except dog or cat food) then you are supporting their business model. That model looks at animals (reptiles) dying as just an expense. Instead of buying a light bulb from them online for example. Pay the extra few dollars and buy from any of our sponsors here that do sell lighting. I'm very lucky in that I found a decent mom and pop type store that still sells dog food, I don't even have to buy that from petco. it took a little work on my part to find it, but that's what it takes if you don't want to do business with a big box store like petco.

Look at the one post in this thread, where the petco employee sold a Panther and a kit to a family. They made their profit. That Panther most likely will still die, the parents are out cash money, the kid's gonna lose a pet, and the chameleons in general get a bum rap for being too delicate (instead of Petco getting the black mark).......and the cycle repeats with that retailer.

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[JoXie411]

Well, the only to be said is what we've been saying for a very long time. If you buy anything from petco (except dog or cat food) then you are supporting their business model. That model looks at animals (reptiles) dying as just an expense. Instead of buying a light bulb from them online for example. Pay the extra few dollars and buy from any of our sponsors here that do sell lighting. I'm very lucky in that I found a decent mom and pop type store that still sells dog food, I don't even have to buy that from petco. it took a little work on my part to find it, but that's what it takes if you don't want to do business with a big box store like petco.

Look at the one post in this thread, where the petco employee sold a Panther and a kit to a family. They made their profit. That Panther most likely will still die, the parents are out cash money, the kid's gonna lose a pet, and the chameleons in general get a bum rap for being too delicate (instead of Petco getting the black mark).......and the cycle repeats with that retailer.

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Some ppl don’t have another places to shop from, some ppl don’t want to see an animal in pain suffering and would rather save it then let it be thrown in the trash as if it’s life meant nothing, and some ppl rather try to open the eyes of others to stop the suffering of these innocent creatures rather then ignore the problem like it doesn’t exist. Your way is doing nothing to help these animals that are suffering and dying do to the stupidity of human kind. There are few of us out there that know how to care for these animals, rather then shutting off and acting like it is happening maybe we should be raising our voices for the voiceless. That’s the lest we could do for these animals.

Also not a lot of veiled breeders out there witch happens to be my favorite breed of chameleon.