Totally Done with PetsMart

[chamlover98]

So after seeing workers being stupid in petsmart helping customers get a chameleon but leaving all the essentials like supplements, Food, Correct Lighting etc...I have emailed the business and wrote atleast 3 pages of a message to them about how they handle their reptiles expecting to get a reply. I will be posting pictures of responses as well on this thread if people are interested to see what this business has to say about how they do stuff wrong. I am probably not the only person who pointed out how much stuff they do wrong. But I am not going to stand for stupidity when it comes to a Chams life.

Many may think its just a reptile but it's still a life regardless of if it was human or not. I love all my chams with all my heart I hate to see tons and tons die due to incorrect information provided by a decently big pet store. People may agree or disagree but I will get my point across if I have to go at it for months. I'm not satisfied with the information provided for new cham owners from that store.

Hopefully people don't get mad about what I have said or have to say but I just want my point across as well as probably many others that saw all this horrible information being thrown around.

I highly doubt I will talk to a real person probably get a automated response in my message saying "we will do our best thanks for shopping at Petsmart"

 

[amanda509]

good luck. the big stores are ignorant, they say they help their customer's needs, but when we have complaints, they ignore us most times. i was in all out war with the local petco because they had a veiled for 2 months who slowly lost his ability to use his back legs..they NEVER took him to the vet until i said something and told the manager i was contacting corporate. they then sold it illegally (chain stores have a rule that they cannot sell unhealthy animals) and finally i know where the little guy is at. after their second one died, they stopped getting chams. it makes me sick. not to mention, corporate didnt do a thing. i kept contacting them about it, calling, emailing, they either sent me bs electronic emails, or blew me off completely.

 

[K9Luvn]

The best people can do is educate others that the practices of these stores is to sell sell sell and not really care bout the pets. Customers think that because they are getting pets from the stores and that the employees usually load them up with the products needed from a mostly inaccurate care sheet, that the employees know what they are talking about. As long as they customers are buying the stores will stay and business and probably make no changes at all. Educating the public is the best that we can really do. Encourage people to buy from individual or reputable places and just buy the products they need form the big house stores.

 

[pssh]

The care sheets for chameleons aren't that bad. They aren't perfect, but they aren't THAT bad for petsmart/petco.

I recommend not buying anything from the store/any of the chains, AND grabbing a care sheet and asking why they aren't keeping them the way they say on the sheets.

 

[chamlover98]

good luck. the big stores are ignorant, they say they help their customer's needs, but when we have complaints, they ignore us most times. i was in all out war with the local petco because they had a veiled for 2 months who slowly lost his ability to use his back legs..they NEVER took him to the vet until i said something and told the manager i was contacting corporate. they then sold it illegally (chain stores have a rule that they cannot sell unhealthy animals) and finally i know where the little guy is at. after their second one died, they stopped getting chams. it makes me sick. not to mention, corporate didnt do a thing. i kept contacting them about it, calling, emailing, they either sent me bs electronic emails, or blew me off completely.

Well you myself and many others are caring but then you got the people only after profit and taking peoples well earned money and not offering anything but a problem cham or other reptiles. It just makes me sick, But I also feel bad for the WC reptiles taken from their homes for profit.

 

[chamguy]

Is it just reptiles that we have noticed to be kept in inhumane conditions? or has anyone noticed others like birds, fish, mice, etc.???

The people in the fish section seem to know their stuff, which salt water fish can be just as difficult as chameleons. I'm not defending them, just pointing out that it is very weird they are able to take care of something like fish, but not an experinced level reptile. This more than likely shows their ignorance, and carelessness.

 

[pssh]

A lot of places I've been to didn't know how to take care of ANY of the animals. Chameleons just happen to be the ones that I would personally be most concerned about because (sometimes) the instructions they give can actually kill them. At least with a lot of the other animals, though the cages are small and the food is crappy, they can live off of it.

Not all are like this, but most are.

 

[amanda509]

Is it just reptiles that we have noticed to be kept in inhumane conditions? or has anyone noticed others like birds, fish, mice, etc.???

The people in the fish section seem to know their stuff, which salt water fish can be just as difficult as chameleons. I'm not defending them, just pointing out that it is very weird they are able to take care of something like fish, but not an experinced level reptile. This more than likely shows their ignorance, and carelessness.

i completely agree. other than the occasional filthy tanks, and maybe a fish or two with ick...they all seem pretty healthy and thriving. along with the small animals. but i think that reptiles are different completely because a lot of them have needs that would otherwise take up too much space or too much money. although some fish are difficult, their needs can be generalized, maybe a specific type of food, suitable tank mates, and ive never seen an issue with their sized tanks, because they never get in excessively large fish. reptiles on the other hand, some may need large tanks, constant supplementation, all sorts of insects, and some cage decorations which may make it hard for the customer to see the animal, to be cared for properly...which again, is space and money consuming, and they dont want that, so they try and get by with what they can to save money and space.

along with that is of course ignorance. a lot of the pet stores dont choose which animals they can or cant get in...thats corporates job, and corporate sometimes orders stores to take in animals they have no knowledge of and cant care for properly. its a trial run to see if the animals will sell or not..if they die off, more than likely they wont get them again.

although some individual stores are at fault, corporate needs a smackdown i wish it was possible to organize a boycott of all chainstore products, specially exotic animals, but they control soo much of the pet industry, thats near impossible...

 

[ChamomilleCame]

I totally agree not buying anything there. And yes, small mammals aren't kept well at all, along with the reptiles. I saw two guinea pigs mating once at PS there were like 7 guineas in there, no joke!! What a surprise if a little girls buys the pregnant guinea pig and suddenly gives birth the next day :/
Ugh. Those stores only care about their dog grooming thing and the dog hotel (I think thats what it is?)

 

[pssh]

There's another problem! They can't sex anything! Guinea pigs have a specific period where it is safe for them to breed and any later or sooner is bad(and sometimes deadly,) yet they have boys and girls together! Even when they say they separate by sex, they don't seem to sex them very well.