Petco Animal Cruelty

[ConcinusMan]

I don't see a damn thing wrong here other than it's a little dirty. Petco will be the first to admit that these aren't suitable for long term housing. They know that. And that's why they don't keep any one animal in the store for more than 30 days or so.

Not trying to defend Petco here but it seems like some people are going in there an nitpicking everything and looking for the slightest problem so they can blow it out of proportion. If you were familiar with their herps section 10 or so years ago you would see that they have improved 100 times over. Did they eliminate every possible problem? Are they perfect? No, but they aren't so bad these days.

[guidofatherof5]

I was surprised to see 5 adult male checkered for sale at my local Petco. All seemed to be in good health and were mite free. One male seemed to have some bug eyedness to him but all-in-all they looked good. $29.95 each. They were feeding night crawlers and he said they had been given goldfish at first to get them eating. I cautioned him about the goldfish issues and he said he won't feed anymore. I also saw a couple crickets in the cage. He said some other employee must have put those in. He knew garter don't eat bugs.
Those are the first garters I've seen for sale in my town.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

just an FYI.... It is largely believed by many that this iguana was planted by the person who took this video.... who apparently has had some issues. I'm not saying if they did, or they did not... there is no way to know.... but that was the general consensus I was able to gleam off a looooong thread about it.

I'm not at all for peto carrying iguanas though and it wouldn't surprise me if this happened...

[ConcinusMan]

They flat out don't carry them around here for several reasons. The main one being that they almost always end up running loose, released, neglected, and they fill up the rescue centers. Nobody can seem to follow through with the commitment when they buy a baby iguana so petco (and a lot of other pet stores) just quit selling them here and I thought that decision was nation wide and at the corporate level. Apparently not. Corn snakes have the same problem but they haven't stopped selling those.

[Greg'sGarters]

My former manager once told me a story about how she used to work at Petco. One day while she was leaving work, she saw some tanks that were in good condition, that were by the dumpster. They were going to be thrown out. She decided that she could use them and took them. One of the employees noticed this and reported her to corporate who almost fired her!

[ConcinusMan]

I don't know about any other company, but I think that it's in most company's policy. Those cardboard tubes I used for my snakes.. the one in the photo contest... they were in the garbage too but that's not the point. We must have permission from a manager to take even garbage. I had to ask permission to take a couple of them. Until it gets picked up, it's still company property. And sometimes they throw away promotional items such as T-shirts, pens, etc. when the promotion ends. By law, they are supposed to be destroyed or disposed of. They can't let you take them. Yes, I know, wasteful, but that's America for you.

The company can get into hot water over the tanks because they were probably credited for them if they were defective. Furthermore, the defect might be a safety issue. And lastly, it's stealing.

[Greg'sGarters]

But they were perfectly good tanks. And had no one ever told on her, no one would have ever even noticed. Why should they care if they were going to throw it out? Once I throw stuff in my trash, I don't really care who takes it.

[kimbosaur]

It's the same in retail. I work part-time at a big clothing chain and sometimes they'll deem an item "defective" and we're required to shred them up (even if it's not a safety concern) because they're afraid people will find them in the garbage.

[Greg'sGarters]

I still think that it's messed up that once someone throws a live animal away, that they get mad at the person who tries to save it from sizzling inside a mesh bag to death.

[ConcinusMan]

But they were perfectly good tanks. And had no one ever told on her, no one would have ever even noticed. Why should they care if they were going to throw it out?

I told you why. They may very well have been good tanks but they could still be part of a lot that was recalled or otherwise the store was credited for them for some reason. They can't sell or even give away items they've been credited for. They're required to destroy or throw them away. It's the law.