This past Thursday I made an "emergency treat run" to my local Petco
(Edgewood Plaza Atlanta, GA). My crew of 10 (some long term fosters
from our local FBog shelter some of them personally own and relocated
from Michigan with me a few years back) were out of their favorite
NBones treats and with ferret.com having them on back order I was off
to Petco.

Whenever I go into a pet store first thing I do is check to see if they
have ferrets, then check in on the ferrets to make sure they are being
taken care of. I was SHOCKED at how many Petco had in stock! 9 kits in
their standard sized glass cage!!!! One 16oz water bottle, (1/4 full)
1 large dry food bowl (with food) and 1 of their standard crocks for
wet food COMPLETELY EMPTY.

I went looking for whoever was in charge, some assistant manager, and
told her the ferrets were out of wet. And commented on how I've never
seen so many in stock at any Petco before. She said yeah, they've got a
lot in right now and they go through their wet food a lot, she's said
she's adding more on the hour. I doubt that. I also commented that one
water bottle, and one wet food bowl wasn't adequate for the amount of
ferrets, could she add more? She did add another water bottle. When
she realized I was going to stay their in front of the ferrets until
she did indeed add more wet food she promptly did.

7 of the 9 ferrets in this Petco were soooooo small. The biggest 2
seemed like the were the normal size I see shipped out from Marshalls.
The 7 seemed awfully small. They all appeared to be doing ok, no
prolapsed rectums, while really tiny they did have a little meat on
their bones. When I check their hydration level I felt they could all
use more water (I did this by pinching the scruff). I nicely explained
to the Petco employee that at this young age with out the proper wet
food and water they could go down hill extremely fast.

I was really surprised to see the sale price, only $79.99 each. I've
never seen it that low. Near the ferret treats their was a sign saying
"come by this saturday between 1-2 to meet a real live ferret and see
if they are the right pet for you". I do not know who was doing the
ferret meet and greet today. I highly doubt it was anyone from our
local ferret group (FBog ferret business of GA) or local shelter as I
try to be in the know with our group and if someone from our group was
doing the ferret education less than a mile from my home I think I
would have known. So I think it's safe to say that Petco was running
the meet and greet.

Yesterday I spoke with a fellow fmler Atlanta friend and shared this
with her. She told me that this ferret sale/even is national and has
been talked about on the fml. She shared with me a bit of little
Wookie's story (heart breaking!!! and unnecessary). Earlier this year
our local shelter was called about a young kit in a pet supply plus
store. Thankfully this little one who was nothing but fur and bones
survived (I had this little one in my home for several days hand
feeding and doing sub-q fluids). We weren't sure if he was going to
make it, looking at him now all chunky and in a loving forever home
it's amazing to think of how bad off he was.

I wanted to post this earlier to the fml and my local fbog group, but
a bad migraine came on and off to bed I went.

I will check in on these little one at my local petco tomorrow. Other
then checking in on them, does anyone have any suggestions on what we
can do to make a difference? I remember seeing ad's on Animal Plant
for expose's on Petland's puppy mills......

Wendy Hamitlon

[Posted in FML 6825]