This is not intented to start any problems, or put anyone down in any
way.  If the moderators feel differently, than it is their decision
whether or not to post it.
 
I thought that it was very sweet that the girl who worked at PETCO
thought the people who worked there loved the animals in the store so
much, that after the explosion in Eatontown PETCO, they wanted to risk
their own lives to save the ferrets.  Perhaps there are some kind people
that work at PETCO and do truly care for the animals, but I believe they
are few and far between.
 
I live about 1/2 hour away from Eatontown PETCO, and was myself, an
assistant manager at the PETCO in Old Bridge.  I left my job there
because I couldn't help save the animals from being abused by the
employees, and PETCO's managers that were higher up in the food chain
would do nothing to put a stop to the cruelty.  On several occasions,
I saw shipped animals severely injured or dead on arrival due to the
extreme weather conditions PETCO suppliers shipped the animals in.
The boxes that they ship the parakeets in are not compatible with the
cages they have to be released into.  One day an inexperienced worker
inadvertently broke a parakeet's feet simply by trying to open up the
box the birds was held in, and awkwardly place it in the parakeet cage.
I held the poor bird while it passed.  It was such a sad way for an
otherwise young, healthy bird to die.  He was in so much pain.  On other
occasions, the actual manager of the store allowed nippy hampsters to be
fed to snakes.  The same manager allowed poison to be put down under the
shelves of the store in order to kill the mice running around.  The
rodent problem that we had, however, wasn't due to outside field mice.
The mice running around the store were feeder mice that got out because
employees didn't care enough to shut the cage doors all of the way.  I've
also found Dwarf hamsters in glue traps, (some of which I could save and
some I could not) and heard the manger tell the employees on a few
different occasions to place sick small animals in the freezer because he
would go over budget if he had to bring them all to the vet.  The biggest
thing that disgusted me, of course, was the conditions the ferrets lived
in.  All of the small animal cages were dirty, and I was not allowed to
personally clean them properly nor appoint someone to do a thorough job.
I was told that there were more important things to tend to, like
customer service and paperwork.  The ferrets' cages, however, were
especially grotesque.  They wouldn't be cleaned for days, there would
be flies and larvae on their feces, and on more than one occasion, the
ferrets had to be quarantined in the back room due to illness.
 
Furthermore, before they used Marshalls' farms, PETCO used a different
ferret breeder, and this one was even worse.  We were constantly getting
in babies that had to be bottle fed, and were way too young to be taken
away from their moms.  One particular batch of ferrets we got in were
very nippy.  We weren't allowed to pick them up and play with them
because, of course, that would take our time away from more pressing
matters, like PETCO's profits.  Nobody bought the ferrets and naturally,
as ferrets do, they grew.  Now they were big, nippy ferrets that nobody
wanted to buy.  One day, after coming back to work after having my 2 days
off in a row, I notice that the ferrets are gone.  After asking one of my
employees about them, I was told that the manager decided to send them
back since it was obvious that PETCO wouldn't sell them, ie. make a buck
off of them.  I found out later that at the farm, they were most likely
euthanized, either humanely or otherwise.
 
The bottom line is this: PETCO does not care about their animals.  The
employees aren't trained properly.  Therefore, the few employees that
did care weren't aware how to properly open boxes filled with animals,
clean animal cages, or be able to detect when an animal isn't feeling
well.
 
Secondly, there was nowhere you could go to for help when you felt
something was being done to the animals that was abusive.  Thirdly, they
do hire kids for practically minimum wage, and most of the kids they
hire couldn't care less about animals.  Some teenage boys working there
thought it was really cool when the hamster, fighting for his life,
scratched and scarred the snake who was trying to eat him.  Not only was
this obviously traumatizing to the hamster, it was very dangerous for the
snake as well.
 
I know this post is long, and I do apologize.  Besides rescuing my Loca
from there, I have otherwise banned PETCO.  I do belong to PETA, and I
try to keep them updated as to what I see when I go into the store when I
can.  I wanted to let everyone else know 1st hand what PETCO is truly
like, and let them make their own decision as to whether or not they will
continue to patronize the store.
 
Thank you.
Meghan, Munch and Loca
[Posted in FML issue 4812]