Dear Lynn,
Boy did your post sound familiar.  The pet store I frequent, and am an
ex-employee, of was once a chamber of horrors.  The House of Pets was my
first job when I moved to Maryland and if I did not come in on my day off
the animals did not get medicated.  There were maggots in the birds cages
and one day a shipment of ferrets came in with one very small one that
appeared to have a broken back.  A co-worker, also an animal lover, and
wanted to call the vet but the manager said "why?  It's gonna die anyway." I
didn't have much back bone then or I would have called the vet anyway or
taken it right out of that hell hole but instead we made it as comfortable
as we could and just sat and cried until it passed away (God forgive me for
not doing more).  I went to the owner regarding the ferret, birds and other
things but he did not seemed concerned and I finally quit.  If I couldn't
change things then I wasn't going to stay around and watch.  Now I think I
probably should have stayed and at least tried to make things a little
better.  Since then all the management has been replaced and the owners wife
(very caring woman) has her hands in the mix.  I don't see as much of the
problems as I did before but I still find a fish tank with ick or something
once in a while when I cruise the isles and always bring it to the stores
attention.  I know they probably HATE to see me coming but some one has to
let them know that we have ours eyes on them!!!  Keep up the good work!
 
Love to all,
        Irena...Lucy's mom
[Posted in FML issue 1487]