I am a former employee with Petco and that company leaves alot to be desired. I have a great ferret story to show you what kind of company this is. I quit Petco and filed charges of Harrassment and was able to collect unemployeement due to the work place being one of a Hostile Environment. When I would raise issues about covering the department, or the care for the animals, my hours were cut. Here is the ferret story. A lady purchased a ferret from our store. She only had the ferret a short time and she brought the ferret back to Petco because it was dead. She did not know why it died, we assumed it was electrution because she said it was running her her house, and it went to another room and then all of a sudden, she hear the ferret cry and it was dead when she got there. She was so upset and was crying so much. Our manager came and said she would have an autopsy (nacrospy SP?) done on the ferret. They put the ferret into the breakroom refrigator to preserve the body until the manager could take the ferret to the vet in the morning. Well, we all assumed this was done. About 2 weeks later, I went to get vegatables out of the refrigator for the animals, and low and behold, there was the ferret.......rotting away. I was so appauled by this, and confronted the manager. Her answer was......."Well, I did not take the ferret to the vet because I thought if it was something WE could have prevented, I would have been upset." Now what kind of answer is that. If it is something you can prevent..... by all means.........PREVENT IT! I think overall the company is not a bad company, however, I don't believe any store should sell animals.......and this is just because I have worked in them. It is too hard to screen people on the front end. It is very easy to give someone a pet, who has not done any research on that pet. I also found with Petco, if you knew what you were doing, and you bucked what they wanted, you were not welcome there. At my Petco, they got rid of all the qualified people. I have a vet assistant degree. I chose to work at Petco, because I love animals, love dealing with the public and needed a bit of an income. I thought it was a good idea at the time. However, the upper management are managers, they have no pet expirence and do not know what goes on during the day. That is where the main problem lies. They have these great ideas to do, like with displays etc, however, they don't take in mind that it may not be the best for the animal. They are also so into cost cutting, that they don't again take the animals needs into consideration. We were the number 1 company in the district at one time, when the new management came in, they ran our store into the hole. It is ashame. Anayway, that is my little Petco story. Leaving the store and the animals was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do......I felt like I left those animals that were in my care to fend for themselves when I left. Had the managment not been so hostile, I would have stayed and tried to make a change there..... Marguerite [Posted in FML issue 4339]