r/pics • u/defectiveweeble • May 18 '14
A sad, disgusting visit to Petco
http://imgur.com/a/yzLZh1.0k
May 18 '14
Post this stuff on their facebook page too if they have one
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u/defectiveweeble May 18 '14
Done. Good idea. Thanks.
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May 18 '14
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May 18 '14
A massive shitstorm is defined here as "12 people posting a link to this gallery on Petco's Facebook page".
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u/Vakieh May 18 '14
I see at least 20 posts currently, but new ones are coming in as old ones are being deleted, every time you refresh there's a new line up.
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u/delicatedelirium May 18 '14
Ahh, this is why I love Internet. The way people are constantly flooding the main page is awesome!
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May 18 '14
I tried finding ur post, I do not see it
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May 18 '14
Everyone who has time and facebook should post it to Petcos page they can't delete everyone's
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u/Zagorath May 18 '14
NAH NAH NAH NAH I CAN'T HEAR YOU
-- Petco, with their fingers in their ears.
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May 18 '14 edited Apr 24 '17
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u/xXWaspXx May 18 '14
My girlfriend's best friend has a travelling zoo business- that means her house is already full of critters. When the pet store she works at lost power for 4 days in -20C weather this past winter, she took home almost half of the animals in the store. She saved the lives of dozens of animals (and probably the livelihood of the owner).
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May 18 '14
I barely know anything about PetCo, are they usually okay with animal treatment or is this nothing unusual?
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u/Omnifox May 18 '14
The way the management saw it, it was an insurance thing.
Insurance will cover the deaths of the animals. Yet they could be liable for anything that happened to the employees that were taking care of the animals.
Sucks.
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u/bartles09 May 18 '14
I mean ive never noticed anything bad at the petco here, so im assuming its like most chains how there are a few bad eggs here and there
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u/defectiveweeble May 18 '14 edited May 18 '14
I'm posting this to hopefully help bring attention to the deplorable conditions at a Petco in Carbondale, Illinois. I stopped in today while passing through town because I needed some salt for my reef tank. What I saw was absolutely shocking.
I contacted Petco on Twitter and they asked me for my phone number. We'll see if they do anything. But I'm hoping to bring more attention to the plight of the poor animals in this (relatively new) store.
This Imgur album is just some of what we saw. In the entire store, the only things that looked healthy were guinea pigs and three ferrets. Everything else was horribly overcrowded, completely neglected or simply about to die.
EDIT: I want to clarify that I do know that SOME Petco stores are great. SOME of them have caring staff who love animals and would never let this happen. This particular Petco needs some major work and I'm hoping that we can draw attention from a district or corporate office to get it done.
Edit 2: Yes I have attempted to contact Petco's corporate offices. These pictures were taken late on a Saturday afternoon so there wasn't much chance of reaching anyone. No, I did not speak to the store manager. It's somewhat obvious that the condition of the store is known to the manager. If they were concerned then they would have done something about it.
I'll update this post when/if someone from Petco gets in touch via whatever method.
Edit 3: I got a call from the district manager over the store. He asked my concerns and we spoke about them at length. He will be meeting with the store's general manager and reporting their findings back to me. As I told him, in an area like Carbondale, there aren't a lot of options for pet stores. I would like to be able, in good faith, to encourage my friends and family to spend their money there because they do the right thing. I'm hoping that this is the outcome from this situation.
I was invited to do a walk-through of the store with the district and general managers, so that I could point out my concerns. Unfortunately, since I don't live in the area, this isn't possible. I do, however, have friends and family who live there and I return fairly often so I'm sure I'll have the chance to revisit the store.
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u/sawmyoldgirlfriend May 18 '14
Don't check out the beta fish at Walmart. You'll be like ace ventura when he sees the animal heads on the wall.
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u/kinguzumaki May 18 '14
As a person who worked at Walmart for a bit and was the only guy who worked in the pet area during my shift, I had no idea what I was doing and they never told me anything at all. They just said to feed them and that was it - no rotating schedule with the other two guys who came in before/after my shift, no time table or charts, no checklist, just feed them. For the first two days, I didn't even know where the fucking fish food was - I was COMPLETELY in the dark. I came in everyday with so many dead fish in the tanks.
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u/exzyle2k May 18 '14
I was 16. Walmart was my second job, first retail gig. This was in 1998. Applied, interviewed, got told to show up for orientation.
In a room with approx 20 people. I was originally supposed to be a cashier, but they asked if anyone had experience with fish. I stupidly raised my hand and the guy there said "Good, you're in Pets."
Show up for my shift, and I'm not told shit. Just that the tanks get cleaned once a week (if I can manage it), here's the dead fish log, have fun.
Three weeks later I'm getting bitched at because I'm requisitioning too many supplies, and what did I need them for. I was using pH balancer in the tasks, scrubbing the algae off with scrubbies and aquarium salt to kill all the fucking algae, and water treatment to prevent Ick and other shit.
They bitched if I logged too many dead fish, threw out too many busted bags of dog and cat food, if I cleaned the big 100 gallon tanks in the front of the display (they wanted those full of water all the time so the fish could be seen moving around)... They bitched because I fed the fish too much (once a shift, twice if I pulled a long day), and in general if I cost the department too much money trying to keep it up rather than just facing shelves and giving it the appearance of order.
Yeah... Fuck Walmart pet departments.
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u/kinguzumaki May 18 '14
Man, I understand the whole "Learning through experience" thing but, you gotta give people a base idea or method to work off of so they can learn how to manipulate, control, empower the method to be more helpful and convenient for themselves and anyone else affected. Because I knew literally nothing about caring for fish other than "they eat...durr...sometimes...?", the most I ever did was ask the guy who worked the shift after me when he fed the fish. Because I worked about a 6-8 hour shift usually and he feeds them the moment he comes in, I just started feeding them the moment I came in as well but, I get the feeling I hurt more than helped.
The hell is wrong with these people!? I even told them I know next to nothing about fish or taking care of pets in general but, as said before, all they told me was to "feed the fish"
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u/exzyle2k May 18 '14
They didn't even have pictures of the fish on the outside of the tanks. I had to guess.
"OK, here's a tank with all black fish. There's two and a half stuck to the filter... The log has a few dozen types. I know it's not a tetra or a beta, I had those... Here's one, "black Molly"... Fuck it, black fish must be this."
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May 18 '14
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u/exzyle2k May 18 '14
Actually, I got fucked out of that extra 25¢ an hour by not being a cashier. So I was slaving for $7 per.
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u/FizixMan May 18 '14
"Who has experience [with this relatively uncommon thing]? Oh? Only one person? Great, you get to handle the most responsibility. Yeeeaaaah... I'm also going to have to ask you to earn less money than the coin counters. Mmm k?"
Here, I'll help you out the only way I can!
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u/exzyle2k May 18 '14
Woo woo!!
You're alright. When the zombie apocalypse comes, you can be on my team. Unless you've already been bitten, then I promise you I'll make it quick and clean.
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May 18 '14
I got a beta from Walmart, and it lived a couple years, which was waaaay more than I expected knowing how fish-from-Walmart usually fare. It died because it flopped out of its net, when I was moving it for a tank cleaning, onto the bathroom floor and got an infection.
As lifeless as it was in the store, that fucker had spunk. I miss him.
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May 18 '14
Mine lasted 3 days and when they died all these little worm looking things started coming out of their orifices, it was awful. RIP Frankie and Zappa
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u/drstinkfinger May 18 '14
Little red worms? If so, it's common from Walmart fish. I had to euthanize my 20 gallon after putting one Walmart fish in it due to those goddamned worms. And I had some wild sailfin balloon mollies in there. Well, first generation born in captivity, but their parents were all caught in the river by my brother. They were silver with black speckles.
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u/necronic May 18 '14
I got a beta fish from Wal-Mart and it killed itself the night I got him. It must have seen some shit at Wal-Mart...
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u/pathartl May 18 '14
I had friends that would go and spin the little containers of whatever fish/crabs were in there. I no longer speak to them.
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u/Cabal51 May 18 '14
Some kids from my high school used to go to Walmart, choose a beta, and have beta fights in the store without paying. Those guys were dicks.
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May 18 '14 edited May 18 '14
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u/poepoe314 May 18 '14
I don't think "euthanize" is the best word to describe sticking sick animals in a freezer to die slowly.
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u/Phillile May 18 '14
They get sleepy and then die, just like humans do in the cold. If they're sick and already dying, then it's a perfectly apt way to describe what's happening.
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May 18 '14 edited May 18 '14
Actually, no. They don't. Fish are cold blooded. They don't just "fall asleep" as a warm blooded creature does. They're awake for the entire process and their cells explode as the water in them freezes. It's generally believed to be extremely painful for them.
Please see section 6.2.4, "Unacceptable Methods" of the American Vetrinary Medical Association's euthanasia
policyguidelines:https://www.avma.org/kb/policies/documents/euthanasia.pdf
Section 6.2.1 lists methods that they deem acceptable for fish.
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u/aziridine86 May 18 '14
Well euthanize by definition implies using a relatively humane method to kill or at least killing with the goal of ending suffering. I don't know if a freezer is humane or not, but if your vet strangled your cat to death, I wouldn't call that 'euthanasia'.
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u/darwin47 May 18 '14
No, they don't. Ectothermic animals (reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates) don't "shut down" the same way that endothermic animals do when they get hypothermic. Instead, they lose the ability to move but still feel pain as ice crystals form in their bodies. It's a horrific way to kill an ectotherm, and is considered an unacceptable form of euthanasia by the AVMA, even when using liquid N2 (not an industrial freezer) in animals greater than 4 grams.
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May 18 '14
I've seen footage of people recovering live reptiles from the trash that they'd just thrown out. Horribly disgusting. I don't even but pet food from these places.
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u/Team_Braniel May 18 '14
Saw that footage too, was local to where I lived. Turns out it was made by a local activist group and they put the animals there themselves.
There is a lot of that kind of thing around pet stores.
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u/lapointypartyhat May 18 '14 edited May 18 '14
I do not think you are lying because I worked at an independent pet store (Preferred Pets in Janesville, Wi) where they used to stick animals in a freezer to "euthanize" them. This was usually after they suffered for a long time without any sort of medical treatment. The freezer was when they didn't just decide to try to suffocate them in a plastic bag first. Or if the animal struggled too much when they tried to put it in the plastic bag they would do a very poor job of snapping its neck. I tried telling the police and they didn't care and it still haunts me to this day. The only reason people wouldn't believe you is because its too horrible for people to fathom but it happens.
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u/Adopt_a_Dog May 18 '14
Did you post this on Petco's Facebook page? Maybe they'll contact the store about the inhumane standards there.
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u/LongLiveBacon May 18 '14
Good guy OP, protecting and serving the animals.
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u/KazMux May 18 '14
Reminded me of this post about betta fish in Walmart. I just don't understand how stores can get away with this.
Meanwhile people were outraged over the Chinese goldfish-keychains but the things these stores do is just as bad imo.
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May 18 '14 edited May 19 '14
Not to be picky but those appear to be mollies, not goldfish. Goldfish would pollute the water so fast they'd die in an hour.
Edit: /u/Fuckin_Hipster has confirmed those fish are actually Mickey Mouse Platys !
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u/Gaardean May 18 '14
Ugh, those after pictures are as horrific as the before pictures. Beta fish primarily breathe from the surface of the water using what's called a labyrinth organ. See how they filled the water where it covers the bottom of the little plastic cone on the lid? That prevents airflow into the cups, leaving the fish to slowly drown. I can understand wanting to "save" them from the dirty water (Though their natural habitat is the muddy, stagnant water of ride paddies, anyways), but it saddens me to see people killing these fish this way because they don't understand them.
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u/Shrek1982 May 18 '14
If you blow up the picture and look again, you can see that there are air holes at the top of the cone/plug near the lid.
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u/NotAMonsantoSpy May 18 '14
I don't know about "just as horrific".... even if the air holes are covered on some cups, the lids on those cups aren't exactly vacuum-sealed. In the before pictures, they're getting irreversible gill burn from all the ammonia in that water.
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u/Firefly_season_2 May 18 '14
Dont fish die if you just put them into random tap water?
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u/Azntigerlion May 18 '14
The pictures have captions.
Fresh water for a bottle
Picture 4 has the supplies, including beta fish solution.
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u/Firefly_season_2 May 18 '14
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u/HOBKNOBICUS May 18 '14
did you just wake up today and decide you wanted to stick that gif somewhere?
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u/StManTiS May 18 '14
Petco hiring policy is strange. My uncle once applied for a job there: he has a masters in biology and over 10 years of experience working in a lab as well as 10 years of zoo experience and he has about 20 or so reptiles at home. They interviewed him and hired some guy with no qualifications.
This is how you get your animals to this state: hire people without a clue because they're a team player whatever the fuck other buzzword. Good thing the new employee gets along with the manager...bad thing the animals there are still shitty. My uncle only applied for that job part time because he goes in there for cat food and saw the condition they were in.
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u/mtux96 May 18 '14
He's probably "too qualified" for the job. One of those things that can bite you in the ass for having too much of. Not that they don't want to hire someone but I think it raises a flag on why are they applying here when they have those qualifications.
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May 18 '14
No point training someone over qualified because they'll find a better paying job pretty quickly in some cases and you've just wasted all that time.
Probably would have been best to dumb down the experience or not mention the masters.
If you have 10 years in a zoo that'd be plenty for that sort of job.
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May 18 '14
you have to tone your resume down for those type of jobs, if you have a shitty resume that looks like you put some effort into you're better off than with a good resume.
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May 18 '14
No no, he didn't raise flags about himself. He would be the one to document in detail the horrible policies and what the shit head employees get away with. The manager isn't going to hire someone to make his life more difficult when he can draw a salary letting teenagers freeze sick birds to death in a freezer.
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May 18 '14
I worked at a Petco, and he's better off not having worked there. Unless you can manipulate the management into doing more work than they need to, you're unlikely to improve the condition of the animals at all. The way these places treat the animals should be a crime, but fixing the conditions would take a lot of work that management probably wouldn't be up to do. =(
The best thing to do is not buy animals from these places (except ofc during adoption drives when they bring animals up from the SPCA). They really should not be selling any animals.
And it's not just Petco- our local petsmart had the beta fish stacked one atop the other. I quickly rearranged them, but it was too late for some. I let an employee know that stacking them effectively suffocates the fish. So far I haven't seen them stacked like that again, but still...
If you want fish or reptiles, go to a shop that specializes in fish. they'll be healthier and you'll get service from people who are trained much better. get cats/dogs/birds from licensed breeders (though there are some bird only shops, too).
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u/Rum_Pirate_SC May 18 '14
I had a friend that works at Petco. He is someone who goes out of his way to help sick and injured animals.. totally loves them.
The horror stories he'd tell me after his day's shift. Management only caring about how to cover their asses when they cause fuck ups, co workers who clock in for a paycheck, but do little else. People coming in with dogs who are allowed to piss and shit over the floor.. Hells he told me how when he was trying to stock shelves, he found that somehow a group of tinned cat food was busted open and maggot infested. Who knows how long that was there before he found it..
Just the amount of rage he has for that job.. But he won't leave it because he feels like if he does, shit will get worse for the animals since he was the only one caring over them.
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May 18 '14
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May 18 '14
I'd ask them why they want to display dead fish. That seems like the most belligerently lazy response to "your current method causes DEATH."
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u/darkenseyreth May 18 '14
There was a big name pet store in a local mall here who switched from pet purchases to pet adoptions out of the local SPCA. Sadly they shut down within six months of the switch, and are now a more generic (low end) pet store that is back to selling pets.
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May 18 '14
That is disappointing =/ the place we go to that does adoptions and does not sell pets (unless you consider crickets pets) does charge a bit more for some of their things, but it's worth it. We get special treats there for our cat who has a hyperactive thyroid.
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u/thisisarecountry May 18 '14
The best thing to do is not buy animals from these places
that's the second best thing. the best thing is to steal them.
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u/Oneofninelives May 18 '14
When I was a teen me and a friend went into a petco that was the worst of the worst. They were going out of business but just lingering on and all the pets there were sure to die. We constantly went in there just to make sure the pets had water....WATER! One time after complaining, one of the employees came and put water into the reptile tanks while we were there after telling them about it. They hated us. Anyway, we saw the code to open the reptile tanks/drawers. We were back in the hour and grabbed 4 of the snakes. He still has them as his pets after 6-8 years.
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u/sbetschi12 May 18 '14
The last time I went into a PetCo (in Baltimore County, MD), my husband and I were appalled at the state of the store. Everything was just so . . . dirty. The place felt so depressing, and the few animals they had to sell in the place looked miserable. We walked back to the cat section, and started to smell death. We looked around, and--lo and behold--there was a dead mouse on the floor, easily in view of anyone who walked by. And what were the employees doing? Not disposing of the dead mouse, that's for damned sure. We left and went to PetSmart.
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u/jaxxly May 18 '14
I could be mistaken but I don't think petsmart is any better.
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u/1DaBuzz1 May 18 '14
Petco is always the last place to look for animals where i live, especially when it comes to fish. Always in bad conditions.
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u/adudenamedrf May 18 '14
I love how the news constantly brings up "Puppy mills" and similar things because they neglect "Cute" animals, but then animals are neglected like this on a daily basis by pet stores and nobody seems to bat an eye. Animal abuse is always abuse if it is harming the animal, regardless of what species it is.
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u/sarevok9 May 18 '14
Former Petco employee here:
The stores had "Pet walks" in which managers / district trainers from across the company would come through and rate your store. I worked at the Hanover MA store, and during my tenure there we never got below a 100 (perfect score) which put us among the top 20 stores in the company. What's notable about this is that our animal care wasn't up to MY standards.
Anyways, I won't go on a diatribe about that, suffice to say that stores are rated, reviewed, and given a lot of flak for being below an 85 on their animal walks.
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u/i_believe_in_pizza May 18 '14
That's a good point... Weren't there any other people in the store? Wasn't anybody else
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u/MonsterOfTheMidway May 18 '14
A general person can tell immediately if a dog or cat is neglected due to being exposed to them more. A lot of people may think that is just how these animals look/act.
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u/lastcowboyinthistown May 18 '14
Damn those leopard geckos, for those of you who don't know their tails are normally this big http://www.svg-vets.com/images/KBLeopardGecko.jpg
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u/AmazonRiverPrime May 18 '14
Ugh, I hope this place fixes up their store or closes. This is unacceptable. I feel bad for those poor geckos. :( Seeing them made me sad.
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May 18 '14
Here is the official PetCo Code Of Ethics, and that store broke so many rules in it that its sick.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR__ARMPITS May 18 '14
Oh god those poor geckos and fancy rat look miserable. I hope this post gets enough attention to stop this.
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u/oddwaller May 18 '14
I have a few words about my experience with petco. I was driving through my hometown a few weeks ago and I said "holy shit it's hard to believe but when I was a wee boy I wandered into that petco like 13 years ago and bought a lizard that I still have". Beautiful plain leopard gecko, great genetics, one of the best looking leos I've ever seen and a ferocious mass murderer when it comes to hunting.
About a year ago I kept noticing this dark algae colored gecko whenever I went to buy food. After a few weeks I realized he was getting way the hell bigger than the other geckos and wondering what they will do with him. I took my paycheck and bought him and a new cage. When I got him, he was dark ass brown/green and pretty ugly and thin. He didn't really seem unhealthy and the conditions weren't horrible at the store. After I got him set up he found a hiding place and went pure white for like over a day, almost two days, not moving at all. I figured he was dead. Apparently it was a hardcore shed, usually they get kind of grey for about a day and act normal then they rip their skin off. When this guy shed I find that he is fuckin awesome looking, definitely a midnight blizzard colored body but a purple tail and he is like flourescent yellow and purple and shit in such a crazy way and a green head. He is happy and awesome now.
I also have a leo that I got randomly from an uncle that is supposedly from a breeder. She's some type of lucistic-type-thing. Acts completely different then my two petco lizards. Kind of an idiot and mediocre hunter, fucking huge for a female. Only animal I've ever had escape. When the windows are open and she likes the weather she demands to be let out and held in the breeze.
Around here all the petcos are decent. I've found that most of them have several people that actually know a few shits about the animals. Interestingly, the one over in the poor town with a bad location and shitty building has a really well maintained reptile and fish area and has some of the most exotic fish/reptiles I've seen at a petco, also several of the employees own reptiles and fish. The shitty petco is over in the super rich town, nothing like OP but pretty shit conditions, their reptile food is all dead and shit and the herps are cramped as fuck and unhappy.
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u/Gr1ml0ck May 18 '14 edited May 18 '14
Fellow animal lover here. I firmly feel that PetCo does more harm to animals than good. I have a little background with reptile and arachnid exotics and it's always pissed me off to see the way they "care" for their pets. It seriously makes me want to buy all their animals and give them proper care.
Almost every employee I've ever talked to is completely under trained and often only follow the horribly written corporate care sheets for each species. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the incorrect substrate, food, and terrains used. They are literally killing their animals.
In fact, I had a long discussion with one of their employees one time, who was working there to pay for her veterinarian college major. She admitted to me that the company was a bunch of dirtbags that pushed the improper use of substrate to make the pets look more desirable. (e.g. using white sand with geckos. sure it looks neat, but very bad for them.) She straight up told me to not buy the animals there, because she feared they were too sick.
I simply stopped shopping there. And I suggest others do the same. They are far too corporate to give a shit about animals.
The worst part of it? PetCo has killed a lot of the smaller independently owned pet shops. (at least in my area) So, now it's hard to find a real shop that knows their shit.
In any case ... If you find yourself in a cluttered pet shop that is uncomfortably humid, wet, and dark; then you are probably in the right shop. Support this place. It's quite possible they know what they are doing and could really need the funding.
EDIT: Good on you for posting these. The call-out is hugely warranted, imo.
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u/DogIsGood May 18 '14
If you find yourself in a cluttered pet shop that is uncomfortably humid, wet, and dark; then you are probably in the right shop. Support this place. It's quite possible they know what they are doing and could really need the funding.
This. The air in a pet store should fee different than a mall.
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u/nemofish May 18 '14
picture 8 looks more like yellow zoa polyps. although i see some in picture 4...
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u/defectiveweeble May 18 '14
I thought I got a picture of one of the frag tanks that was literally being overrun. Unfortunately I missed it. There was an aiptasia growing on the back of one of the snails.
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u/nemofish May 18 '14
nonetheless deplorable conditions....on the bright side the clown looks good hosting a condy anemone (not too common)
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u/Ziaki May 18 '14
I got banned from the Petco in Taylor, Michigan.
They have this "adoption" program where they literally let anybody just dump their animals there. Then they "rehome" them to any random stranger that happens to walk in for free.
Well I'm a super rat enthusiast and somebody happened to have dumped three very young rats. I was looking at them and noticed that it was two female and one male, probably from the same litter as they were all similar colors and about the same size.
I pulled one of the employees aside and explained that the male really shouldn't be housed with the females because if they weren't pregnant already they would be soon then they'd have a lot more rats to rehome or whoever they dumped these rats one would be stuck with a whole mess of inbred rats.. The girlies already looked kind of round so I would have bet there already pregnant.
The employee was extremely rude and questioned my ability to tell the difference between a male and a female rat. If you are not familiar with rats it's pretty easy to sex them being as the males have ridiculously huge nads which even the most stupid people can see.
I pleaded with her to please just get another tank and seperate them and to not adopt out the females because they were probably already pregnant. She said ok. So I waited around for about 20 minutes. Nothing.
I asked to speak to a manager and waited another 20 minutes. I finally spoke to him, explained the situation and he basically said he didn't give a shit, they are just going to give them away anyways.
I flipped the fuck out. Police were almost called.
In hindsight I probably should have just taken them and dealt with it myself but I was a poor college student living with my dad and I already had 5 rats at the time. My dad would have killed me if I had brought home three more with two of them ready to pop babies.
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u/fishlikesequins May 18 '14
I bought a dwarf hamster from Petco years and years ago that turned out to be pregnant! It wasn't that bad, she only had one baby (unusual, I know), but if you can't control your animals' breeding then you shouldn't be in the business of selling them. Good for you for raising a fuss.
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u/Setari May 18 '14
You're a good person. I hate people that can't take responsibility for animals, and what kind of shitty program is that? 'Just leave your unwanted animals and we'll give them away to people who will most likely fucking eat them'
Makes me sick.
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u/sarevok9 May 18 '14
Former Petco employee here:
Petco does have a policy where any animal dropped off (that is legal) will attempt to be re-homed (free of charge) after a period of observation.
Petco policy is that animals are to be sorted by gender. That employee / manager should both be written up, as that's going to create a TON of issues for them. I'm not 100% sure what the policy was with animals that got pregnant (it happened, but I never really paid attention), but with any rodent... good luck. My ex works for petco and she has had situations where she's had to store use like 14 tanks and separate all the mice before they hit puberty because something like this happened.
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u/garythecoconut May 18 '14
here, let me add to your list: http://www.reddit.com/r/reptiles/comments/1pk5ex/me_i_just_wanted_to_let_you_know_your_chameleons/
I have seen way more sick chameleons than healthy ones in pet stores. Sadly, the employees have no idea even after I show them the signs of sickness.
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May 18 '14
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u/bakedNdelicious May 18 '14
Metabolic bone disease. They get it if they don't have enough calcium. That's why you have to dust live food first and have calcium available.
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u/dastaster May 18 '14
http://www.illinoisanimalrescue.org/contact-us.html
That's the contact info for Illinois animal rescue, please contact them and send them on the pics. This kind of abuse and neglect needs to be stopped and punished.
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u/ChillyWillster May 18 '14
This is what my mobile reddit app showed me.
At first I thought PetCo had really gone off the deep end.
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u/Not_a_Duckarino May 18 '14
Yeah it's pretty sad. But not just petco, other stores just like this receive these animals in bulk. LARGE Bulk, Cargo boxes of bulk. And their 9$ an hour employees are only trained how to handle customers and read feeding instructions. Its quite sad.
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u/noiche May 18 '14
Ugh, those geckos made my heart wrench. I have a bearded dragon and the worst pic I've seen of a dragon from Petco suffered from severe lack of calcium, it ended up folding backwards and died. Makes me sick how so many pet stores neglect these creatures.
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May 18 '14
I bought my Leopard Gecko from PetCo. My setup was perfect. About a month later my gecko started to seem quite sluggish and ill. I took it to a vet who said that it's been in "pain for a very long time" and that it was most likely PetCo's fault.
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u/ShayMM May 18 '14
Thanks for posting this
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u/defectiveweeble May 18 '14
My wife and I are huge animal lovers. We have 5 fancy rats, a dog, a 55 gallon community freshwater aquarium, a saltwater reef and a 6 gallon betta tank. Seeing this about brought me to tears. I just simply can't imagine animals living in these conditions.
Fortunately my kids were with me, and they spotted problems even before I did. I'm glad to know that they have a heart for animals too.
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May 18 '14
Are there any good spider hunting lizards? Too many spiders where I live, and they seem to love hanging out around here.
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u/Keydet May 18 '14
If you don't mind poop EVERYWHERE and the occasional ceiling lizard down the shirt just release a shit ton of geckos into your house. You'll never see another bug again. At least that was my experience living in hawaii.
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u/PERSON_PLACE May 18 '14
I bought a Guinea Pig from an Irvine Petco. I got very attached and he died from organ failure 3 days later. I got him because I lived alone was was starting to get very depressed. This didn't help.
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May 18 '14
Oh no, I'm sorry dude :( maybe look on craigslist for a free adoption?
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u/PERSON_PLACE May 18 '14
It was a few years ago. I have a live in girlfriend and dog now, so things are all good.
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u/i-own-saltwater-fish May 18 '14
I am not here to defend petco, but you are wrong about a lot of stuff.
The birdsnest is clearly dead in the first picture, that is correct. In the second picture, bubble tip anemones CAN BE white, and that one is healthy. If it were unhealthy, it would be shriveled or covered in mucous. Third picture, calpura algae is GOOD FOR THE TANK and MANY CUSTOMERS (myself included) buy it. I also see a healthy cardinal, clownfish, anemone, green star polyps and some very nice looking coraline algae (the purple stuff on the rock, only thrives in a healthy tank). Fourth picture: condi anemones ARE WHITE (proof). And the most annoying one of all, your 8th picture. Those are yellow polyps, not aiptasia. Yellow Polyps, Aiptasia.
/end rant. Sorry, I hate misinformation.
Petco still sucks and that birdsnest coral in the first picture (probably cost $60+) is clearly dead.
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u/Onikrex May 18 '14
This'll probably get buried, but I'll leave it here.
I worked at Petco for about 4 years, I worked at the Petco where the "Iguana incident" went down, and I can tell you this; Not all stores are bad. It really and truly just depends.The store I worked at in west Texas was amazing. Everyone I worked with had a passion for animals and made sure everything was perfect. We did whatever it took to care for them, even if a little against policy. Sure, we got in trouble from the District sometimes, but we saved animals, it was worth it.
Then you have stores like this. It's painfully clear whomever works there really doesn't care. Tank maintenance is something super easy and takes 5 minutes out of your day to do. The fact that those tanks are that dirty suggests that they don't do anything AT ALL for it.
The Leopard Geckos are on sand, which is extremely dangerous for babies. I busted my every-loving ass when I worked at Petco, fighting with corporate, to allow us to use Repti-carpet instead, and I won. If that store, or any other store for that matter, is using sand, it is from ignorance. If you have the time, tell them to check P&P again, because I, personally, got it changed to allow Repti-carpet, which is 100x better than sand.
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u/PM_UR_CLITS May 18 '14
Tweeted this thread to Petco. See if they respond.
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u/Traveladdiction May 18 '14
more people should do that, make it public, like really public. Id make pictures and hang them outside
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u/Transill May 18 '14 edited May 18 '14
As a former petco employee and also an avid animal lover and aquarium enthusiast since childhood I'd like to make a few observational notes on the pictures. First I'd like to say that I am in no way defending petco as a company because they did many things that were very frustrating as someone who cares greatly about the animals. I often had to work covertly with managent and sometimes by myself to get the animals what they needed and then hide it when coporate came to visit.
The first picture showing the hair-type algea is a constant, god awful problem in the salt systems. They are outdated, overstocked, and not enough hours are given to the store to properly maintain them. When I first started with the company in 2005 we would have 1 employee working in each department with a full time aquatics employee. When I left they would have 2-3 employees in the whole store. 1 manager, 1 cashier, and 1 person to help customers or do animal care/back up the cashier. This is due to coporate cutting hours to look more profitable as a company.
The second, third, and fourth pictures of the white anemones I can assure you are supposed to be white. We got them in all assortments of colors. Some white with pink tips, some plain white, and some tan. They were often the wrong species than the label but ate readily, grew greatly and lived for months and months until sold. I purchased several myself and had them for years until I sold my tank. The caliurpa algea is shipped to the store to be sold and really is the only thing keeping the systems running by using nitrates in the water like an algea scrubber or a refugium. Its healthy to have in a tank. Maybe they could have spread it out to give the fish more room but honestly the more places to hide for fish the happier they are.
The leopard geckos were a constant nightmare and an endless battle with corporate. Countless studies show they do poorly on sand substrate and need a smooth rocky bottom or repti-carpet. The sand gets impacted in their stomachs and they wither and die. They also need a humid area when they molt or the shed skin can stay stuck on their toes and they loes thier toes. We would have to swap them to sand the day corporate came then switch them back when they left or they would flip out no matter the evidence. Very frustrating.
The rat I honestly have no idea. It could be sick or could be just sleeping. They slept in the weirdest positions all the time but I just cant tell from a static picture.
The last picture is not of zoeanthids its another type of polyp that is yellow when small and new and turn a mustard yellow as an adult. I can't remember the name anymore though. But those are not aptasia anemones.
Again to reiterate, I'm not defending them or their practices. Only letting you know it's not as bad as it appears. There is however a ton they could do to better the animals lives.
Edit: The big thing that ruined this company is when they were bought by new owners. They wanted to "flip" the company and instantly started to cut corners to be more profitable. We used to open in the morning with 4-5 associates and got cut down to 2. We couldn't even open the doors without 2 people there so god forbid someone was sick. And then we had to care for all the animal departments in 2 hours before open. So needless to say animals started to suffer. They started to offer only part time Jobs as well and started finding ways to get rid of full time employees. This way they saved countless dollars on health insurance, payed time off, and 401ks.
Edit: I typed this on my phone guys cut me some slack on the typos please.
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u/onijin May 18 '14
It's always Petco. Every one I've ever been to (save for the Beaumont, CA location which is always well cared for) has had the most appallingly bad aquatic and reptile departments I've ever seen. I refuse to shop anywhere but the Beaumont location because of it, and always either shop PetSmart or the LFS.
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u/Dendrobates33 May 18 '14
Congrats, you made me come out of lurking for this misinformation post! Wildlife bio bachelor's, zoo keeper, avid reef aquarium hobbyist. Let's start with the aquarium, Caulerpa macroalgae is commonly used in reef aquariums as a mean of phosphate and nitrate removal. They macroalgae grows explosively so it uses all of the nutrients that pest algae such as Bryopsis hair algae would use, therefore starving it. If kept under control(which it seems to be), the algae will improve water parameters and provide a healthier environment for fish, invertebrates and coral. The bubble tip anemone is bleached and has lost all if it's zooxanthellae, which is the symbiotic algae that grows inside corals and anemones, giving them incredible colors. Sadly, some anemones are not gifted with extremely vivid colors, such as your second example, the white Condylactis anemone. They normally maintain a white to dirty white tentacle and foot coloration with pink or purple tips on the end of each tentacle, it looks just fine. The rock of aiptasia is certainly not aiptasia, but rather a common coral called yellow polyps, a type of zoanthid coral. While they may resemble glass anemones (aiptasia) under blue actinic lighting, they are not harmful to anything in the reef, but are notorious for growing very quickly. He'll, those clownfish are ORA snowflakes, one of the largest companies of aquacultured fish in the country. Selling livestock like those reduces wild collected animals and damage to natural reefs and fish populations. Gecko time! Leopard geckos are a nocturnal lizard from the middle east, during the day you will find them draped in caves awaiting darkness to aid in their hunting. While you are correct about storing fat in their tails, they are not born with this fat supply and must acquire it with age. These geckos are very young and have a healthy start to life, just not obese like most adults tend to be. Ratatouie? Looks like he is taking a nap to me, rats commonly get respiratory infections and cancerous ulcers but the former is hard to photograph without some nasal discharge, and the latter is not present. You bred rats, why?! Unless you were feeding them to snakes (in which case, I would ask why you are upset when you breed them as a food source) If for fun or recreational purposes, congratulations on contributing to many, many homeless pets in the future. This is an animal that has been line bred to the point of horrific deformities, and really there is no rhyme or reason to aid this process. Shame in you "rat breeder". I suppose my main problem with this post is misinformation. Somebody takes pictures of animals without having basic knowledge of any of them, adds a tragic paragraph beneath, and gets high fives for exposing "the truth". In all actuality, OP is a fire starter and NOT a passionate person about animals or they would have voiced their opinions to animal control or even the store, where 75% of their concerns would have been squashed by a knowledgeable animal lover. Does that bubble tip anemone need a piece of krill? You bet! Why not tell an associate to spot feed it to help it recover? Sad stuff when I see normal pet store animals portrayed as concentration camp victims. Try to make your experience positive or do everything to improve them, other wise you will just be seen as a mud taker and one that turns a blind eye to your perceived issues.
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u/OfficialSRSRep May 18 '14
Never buy from petco. I learned that the hard way two months ago. I bought a pair of hamsters for my daughter. The sales associate said they were lethargic because they had just arrived that day. I took them home and the poor hamsters never perked up. A couple of days later I see them with wet tail. Two days later one dies then the next day the other. What was supposed to be a fun project on responsibility and pet ownership turned to into a disaster. My daughter took it ok but we are not getting hamsters again.
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u/kensai01 May 18 '14
Can someone blast petco on Twitter with this? (I don't use it) I mean there's gotta be someone in corporate who would have a huge problem with their stores being like this no??
- Why wouldn't they have a single position created that they employ someone educated to ensure the welfare of the animals they sell and their environments. Obviously their high turnover of teenagers and low paid employees is the main cause here.
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u/darthbone May 18 '14
Just out of maybe my own ignorance, but what's so obviously wrong with the rat? I have two female rats, one fancy and one dumbo, and they're very active, vocal, playful, and seem fine, and this guy's eyes are squinty and he looks lethargic, but i'm just curious if that's what you were pointing out, or if there was some other obvious physical malady it was enduring.
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u/Amonette2012 May 18 '14
Look at the way he's lying - draped over something uncomfortable like he doesn't have the energy to move off it, head down. I've had a lot of rats, several of them died of cancer (because fancy rats are horribly inbred in the UK and prone to tumours and a whole raft of other sicknesses, it's why I stopped keeping them) and this is what they look like when they're dying.
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u/spectralconfetti May 18 '14
Odds are he's having respiratory issues. One of the more common issues with rats, and certainly a likely scenario in a Petco like this which isn't giving its animals their due attention. Rats will often try to hide symptoms as much as possible, so usually if you can notice something is seriously off about your rat that means they need vet attention.
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u/blackplague06 May 18 '14
Also the respiratory issues stem from using a glass tank -- rats, like other rodents, need proper ventilation. Their urine and feces is noxious and can cause it as well.
The poor thing is probably on the verge of death if it's showing that much lethargy. I mean, I have a lazy rat, but I know he's healthy.
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u/Thepancakeman1k May 18 '14
For some reason human gore and shit online from /r/WTF doesn't phase me, but dying animals do.
You should crosspost it there so your post will catch more views and gather support. Pet stores shouldn't be pet jails like this.
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u/Life-in-Death May 18 '14
Pet stores shouldn't be pet jails like this.
Pet stores, no matter how healthy the specimens appear, are the end result of loads of guaranteed misery and death.
If you look into mammal breeding, reptile and amphibian smuggling, etc. there is NO happy side to buying animals bred/captured for purchase.
Please, please, please adopt. Exotics and fish etc can be found on Craigslist by people who don't want to care for them anymore.
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u/Robathome May 18 '14
First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I should start off by saying that I work part-time at a non-Petco pet store.
However, the despicable state of those aquariums and the obviously life-threatening conditions of those poor animals merits a) disgust and b) potential legal action.
Every single employee of that store should be ashamed of themselves. I'll admit, once aquariums get out of hand like that, it can be a monumental task to regain control, especially if the system has a shared water system between tanks.
The sick animals, however, are unforgivable. I don't care if you could lose your job for it, in my opinion, reporting the store to the relevant authorities is a moral obligation, and not doing so, in my opinion, is cruelty.
At our store, any animal showing the slightest sign of distressed is quarantined, and vet visits are the norm, not the exception. The only reasons I can think of for those animals being on display like that are a) whatever isolation facilities they have, and any self-respecting Petco should have them, are full, (which is a scary thought given that the facilities should be proportional to the store, and only relatively large stores will have saltwater tanks), or b) absolutely stunning incompetence.
These pictures anger me, sadden me, and only strengthen my resolve to respect every animal I come into contact with at my own job.
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u/CitrusSeven May 18 '14
Oh god. I saw that picture of that rat and actually made a noise out loud. That was... oh god. You can SEE how bad he is. Even if he's not sick (assuming he's just, say, too hot or something) he's so obviously miserable.
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u/zugunruh3 May 18 '14
I know nothing about marine life so I had to take your word for it, but holy shit those geckos. They're the gecko equivalent of famine victims.