I worked at Petco for over 1 year. I have since left there. I
absolutely loved my job there, and I have always owned animals (all
types), and am a vet assistant. I took the job at Petco because I wanted
a fun job, one where I dealt with the public and gave them all the
information they needed to have their animals live long and healthy
lives. From what I saw, my feelings are that no pet store, private or
otherwise should carry any animals. Now that is my feeling, but was not
at one time. Here is my reasoning: Petco (and other chains) is limited
by what they can pay people to work there. Due to the large, and I mean
large volume of animals coming through these stores, you are going to
have sick/and or dying animals. Fact of life, no way around it. It is
only due to the number of animals they work with. But my problem lies
with the untrained people who have to take care of them or make decisions
on their care, whether they need vet care etc. When you are paying a kid
$6.00/hour, those kids are generally not responsible (due to age and that
is it) and are there simply to collect a paycheck so they can go out on
the weekend with their buddies. The jobs are too low paid for anyone
with any experience to want to work there and stay there. I know at our
Petco, they were much more into cleaning, facing and fronting and making
the store look good. Our infirmary at one point had about 100 animals
in it (due to different reasons-colds, beat up, mites, lice or just
observation). To clean them, feed them, water them, and give meds is
like an 8 hour shift itself. But the store does not budget for that.
The animal middle men also are not that good, at least in our area. They
have since got rid of him, which has helped greatly, however, it was over
1 1/2 years of bitching before that was done.
As much as I love to hold and cuddle the pet store animals......I don't
think they should be in pet stores. I think petstores should carry
supplies only. The workers are generally not educated enough to sell
animals (meaning they do not hand out the right information on the
animals..........simply because they do not know.) I have heard (and
not just from Petco, but other chains) some really false information
regarding every animal. I think the animals should be sold by breeders
only. But that is my thoughts.
Thanks for listening.
Marguerite (former Reptile Specialist at Petco of Reading, Pa.)
TinyPrints Shih Tzu and Rescue
TinyPrints Ferret Rescue
http://www.tinyprintsferrets.com
http://www.tinyprints-shihtzu.com
TinyPrints Ferret Rescue Ebay Store
http://www.stores.ebay.com/tinyprintsferretrescuestore
[Posted in FML issue 4393]
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