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]