Steve,
I just came back from my 3rd visit at this store within the past 5 days.
 
My first visit was on Friday, June 7th in the late afternoon/early
evening.  At that time I did my usual, checked on the ferrets.  I was
very disappointed to first see 2 young kits on the floor, in front of the
normal enclosure, in a complete cage.  (At that time they had no food.)
I asked to see the ferrets and a young man named Alejandro<sp> assisted
me.  I checked the 4 ferrets in the enclosure, all had earmites and their
nails really need clipped.  I will post you a picture shortly of the
damage they did.  I advised the Manager on Duty, Sylvester of the earmites
and the nails, and he told me the small animal specialist would be in the
next day and he would let her know.  I also asked him to please move the
2 kits off the floor, as they are in danger of:
 
1) being injured by a child/customer/other animal
2) the ferrets biting a customer/child
3) being exposed to distemper by one of the animals brought into the
   store
 
He shook his head and let me know it would all be taken care of.
 
I went back on Sunday and spoke with someone else, again a manager on
duty.  Same problems, but the kits were in the enclosure in a divided
area.  Still mites and long nails.  Again, I was told it would be taken
care of immediately.
 
I just came back from the store.  I asked to speak to the manager, again
Sylvester, and asked to see the ferrets.  He recognized me and went and
got his General Manager, Jim Grant.  Mr. Grant open the cage and 'allowed'
me to look at 2 of the ferrets.  When I told him this was my 3rd visit for
the same problems and brought his attention to the dangers of the kits on
the floor, he explained that he was in a meeting and would need to lock up
the cage.  I was not given an opportunity to check on the others.  I let
Mr. Grant know I would be contacting you and our local animal control.  A
future customer was right there and heard all that went on.  He asked to
speak with me about this.  Outside, the man said he had been interested
in maybe buying a ferret or two from Petco, but since the manager didn't
care about resolving these health issues he was going to look elsewhere.
 
Animal Control was contacted in regards to this a few minutes ago.  I
spoke with Officer Holmes who will be going to check out the situation.
He will contact me tomorrow and let me know what he found and what will
be done.
 
I had hoped that given the 5 days they would have at least tried to do
something to treat these problems.  But as usual, the management of this
store are only interested in sales not the health of the animals in their
care.  Please contact me in regards to this.
 
I'm sorry the pictures are so large.  I was not able to reduce the sizes.
 
Sincerely,
Lynn M. Love
 
=====
Lynn-
and The Fab 5
visit my pic album at
http://www.PictureTrail.com/daring_daisy_do
[Posted in FML issue 3814]