Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I went to Petco today for some crickets and a survey coupon was printed on the receipt. Filling out the survey gets you a $2.00 coupon. I'm not sure if it's just this Petco location, but I thought I'd let you guys know.
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Lovin' would be easy if your colors were like my dreams...

you don't really have to fill out anything but 4 digit number. But, you do have to call and listen to a bunch of mechanical questions. If you don't have any serious issues with the store at that time, it is faster to just say you saw no one and no animals, otherwise the questions go on and on.
Yes, you save $2, but the coupons are now dated, so make sure you use them by the date on the bottom.
Also, you can save them up and use a couple of them together.
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I work at one and have to print those surveys out all the time. Not many people bring them back.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage whoever reads this to join the PETCO boycot. This movement was started by PETA, and even though that orginization is known for its extreme libralism, the PETCO boycot is a worthwhile effort. The best thing you can do is DON'T BUY THEIR ANIMALS, even if they are being mistreated or are sick. It is hard when you want to help an animal, but all it does is send a "sale" message to the corporate office and they ship out another animal to take its place.

If you'd like to know anything else about this subject, please check out the web pages below or email me.

http://think.100acrewood.net/boycott/

http://www.petcocruelty.com/

http://www.petno.homestead.com/

Well I would never buy an animal from petco but I need a nearby place to get last minute supplies. I think pet stores are fine for dry goods (even if they are expensive). Also, I am strongly opposed to PETA and they don't need anymore supporters. One of there predents actually said "Even if testing on rats leads to a cure for aids I am opposed to it." If that sound like an organization you want to support I guess I'm just missing the point. On another note I do enjoy watching greenpeace infomercials it gets funny when a member of greenpeace calls a japanese waler something racist and the japanese boat drops a barrel of oil on the greenpeace zodiac boat sending them all into the water. Um... Well that's enough of that I hope I didn't offend anybody.

PETA people are nuts for the most part, and normally I laugh at their antics too, but they are the only group shining a light on the problems with PETCO. So many people have posted about the neglected animals they've seen in these stores, and people need to understand that they aren't isolated cases. PETCO sells sick and injured animals in ALL of its stores, and they don't provide employees with the equipment or training to take care of the critters. If a vet bill costs more than the price of the animal, then the animal gets to stay sick. If euthanisia costs more than the price of the animal, then the animals gets to spend a few days dying of its illness. That's how the company operates, and I think fewer people would spend their money there if they knew that.

Please do consider too that many times these stores are sent animals infested with mites, with only three legs, and a mirage of illnesses, but the receivers on the store's end do not know the difference and are "taken in" by these big dealers. In ignorance, they pass the problem onto you the customer. So, the problem does not just lie with PetCo (the middle man) but the big importers and dealers that ship the animals to these types of stores.
Just a thought to ponder..
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That's true, a lot of the animals arrive in the stores sick, but irresponsible breeders and importers aren't the only people to buy animals from. . . . . they just happen to be the cheapest and that is part of the problem.

just explaining that their inexperience doesn't allow them to tell a sick animal from a healthy one alot of times, especially since an animal can hide it's illness until it is a severe problem. Due to the nature of pet stores, they cannot perform a 1-6 month quarentine on each of their animals. So, if they do receive a sick one, it is placed right away in with the others of its kind. They do not have the room to individually house each animal to insure a stress free environment as possible. but I don't think they purposely mistreat animals because that would be painful to their wallet as well. Death still eats into the store's "shrinkage". I think ignorance (and outdated care sheets)play a large role. Just as some of the fault goes to the corporate rules & regs and not the individual store. Corporate tells the store what animals belong on what substrate, and even if the store and people working their disagree, their hands are tied. If an animals doesn't look severely injured or dying, then corporate will tell them to get those animals out of the back room and back into the wall. They don't want excuses. So, again the store's hands are tied. If healthy animals were Coprperate's main concern, then they would welcome sick animals to the back room, in fact insist on it.
PetCo buys most of their reptiles through Amazon Connection. I'm not too familiar with that company other than to say I think they send their unsellable animals to the pet stores, who don't get to view the animals until they have been signed for. The shipping company won't wait around for the store to check out each animal that arrived, because they are in too much of a hurry. So, it becomes a done deal and the store is stuck with the animals.
All I'm saying is the buck doesn't stop with the store, whether a company is selling cheap animals or not, they should not be selling sick ones without expressing it to the buyer regardless if they are a chain or an individual. If you received a sick or three legged (injured) animal from any company you (public in general)would let world know how crummy the company is. So, don't excuues a company just because they deal in mass quantity and can sell for cheaper prices. They must be held responsible for what they sell. I purchased animals from top breeders in the industry and had those animals bring death down upon my whole collection. So buying from a big name breeder doesn't mean a store will get animals that are any better. The company sending the animals should be dealt with too as well as corporate. Corporate needs to revise their care sheets and improve the care shown to sick animals.
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np
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My posts and replies are my experiences only
1.2.6 Tokays
1.4.4 Leos(7 albino)
0.2.0 AFT's
0.2.0 Stenodactylus Petrii(Dune Geckos)

I agree with pretty much everything said in the previous couple posts but big name breeders aren't the only ones to blame Many small breeders sell unwanted animals to pets stores and I think it is the breeders responsibility to make sure there geckos go to a responsible home. Selling geckos to a pet store virtually ensures that the gecko will not live a happy healthy life unless it is lucky enough to be bought by someone willing to spend a lot of money and time on a gecko who might not make it anyway. That said I think it's great that many of you have been able to nurse Petco geckos back to health or been very lucky but how many of you would be willing to purchase from them again? If you are willing to you are simply part of the problem. Another part is that no breeder in his right mind would sell an A grade gecko to a pets store, what the pet store gets are the geckos that any experienced reptile consumer would steer clear from. (I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m copying your post Laura I’m trying to put it in the context of a small breeder and smaller pet store). There is another problem that is actually many of the people who buy geckos at pet stores, I am often in there looking around when I go to pick up dog food, and people will come up to me and ask me how to care for a reptile, Unfortunately it is almost always a parent and one or two young kids. I think these guys are a great introduction to herps for kids but these are almost impulse buys for a kid who sees a reptile as a novelty item and a parent who doesn’t want to spend half an hour driving to get to a show that we have every month. I live in Maryland and there is a small show every month, I was once told by Billie Zulich of Harford Reptile Breeding center that she once had someone come up to her and say “you sell leopard geckos? We used to have one we got from Petsmart but it died in the winter when we couldn’t catch crickets anymore.” The key to stopping pet store is to make available and advertise lots of inexpensive geckos but not too many that the breeder can’t care for. They don’t even have to be normals. Many people new to herps always seem to want something out of the ordinary, I guess they think it helps them fit in better, regular Jungles and regular albinos are something that everyone can afford and still not normal. Although I’ll be the first to admit my favorite gecko is my normal as she is my oldest and most active. I think herpetoculture is headed in the right direction and though it won’t be quick eventually the pet stores will be forced to stop dealing reptiles due to a smarter public. I’ll stop wasting your time now.

She got her geckos from a big breeder direct... not from PetCo.
She didn't mean big breeders selling to PetCo.

Sorry to confuse you the post was not directed towrds that part of her post but towards the previous mentioning of Amazon connection also I wasn't talking about Petco as they guy there geckos from big breeders. I was talking about the small neighborhood petstores who buy from local breeders.

It's okay =3

I just wasn't sure if there was confusion on one part. It cleared up a litte for me too =3

I don't know if you saw the beginning of my first post, but I work at a PETCO, and everything you described is exactly true. It's NOT the individual stores that are the problem, it's the corporate office who mandates everything. They provide zero training for their employees, and they don't provide the stores with the time or equipment needed to take care of all of their animals. Just this week, our operations manager was fired for taking a sick baby bird to the vet. She was told by a corporate representative that the incident was unprofessional and she didn't deserve to work with the birds, even though she has 18 years experience. The bird ended up dying.

Customer/employee complaints don't do anything. In 1994 Melissa Kaplan wrote a letter to PETCO's CEO about the conditions the green iguanas are kept in. Everything she cited is still in practice today, almost 10 years later. The only way PETCO's Corporate Office will change the way it operates is if their sales drop. That's why I want to encourage the boycot.

If you'd like to read Melissa Kaplan's letter, check out this link. It is about a third of the way down the page, and it is very long.
Melissa Kaplan's Letter to PETCO President, Brian Devine