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Bad Petstores?

1K views 16 replies 7 participants last post by  thejapanesezombie 
#1 ·
I dont know how many of you have experienced this, but is it just me or are poor bettas just getting the brunt of abuse at the stores?

I went last week to my local big chain pet store and I've never been so shocked in my whole life at how badly they're treated. Here were about a dozen cups full of betta fish that were stacked on top of one another so that the poor things couldn't even breathe, I've never seen such colourless, lethargic, miserable and diseased looking fish in my life. And in the most disgusting water that looked like it hadn't been changed in weeks. I felt so upset seeing them like that, some of them even had ammonia burns on their bodies.

Is there ANYTHING I can do to stop this? I told the lady at the counter I was concerned about the health of those fish and she got rather defensive and refused to really talk about them because she didn't care. Poor little guys, if I had enough room I would have bought them all just to save them from where they were :( I've never seen a betta fish so hurt that it was on its last limb of life like that.
 
#4 ·
Take pictures of the abuse and write to the corporate office of the chain you went to. Angle it as a loss of profit for them. Talk about how unappealing it is to buy sick and neglected fish in dirty water and how you will take your business elsewhere.
 
#5 ·
Thank you. I will do just that and go in tomorrow. They've lost my business after this. Sad part was this was right near the front entrance. Very unappealing. Then again one employee tried to sell me a black moor goldfish and told me I could keep it in a one gallon tank... thats quite laughable too how unknowledgable their staff really is considering they need 15-20 gallons at least :/
 
#6 ·
The unfortunate thing is that they won't change because they view it as neglect, they only care about the money they can potentially make, or in this case, are losing. If they were treating puppies like they treat bettas, every humane society in the country would be there. :(
 
#7 ·
Thats the thing I don't understand, a betta fish, (or any fish for that matter) is a living creature. I don't see how they do not get the same protection and rights as a dog or cat. They all breathe air, they all have beating hearts, they all feel pain when they are sick and have individual personalities. Their livelihood depends on us, as responsible owners and caretakers. This sort of behaviour is disgusting and unacceptable whether a person WORKS for a pet store or owns one. It's our job to be educated on their needs :/
 
#8 ·
Not buying the fishes from to prevent the company earning profit is one way to approach it but how often do big corporate listen to just one member in the community? For me I still buy these bettas and bring them home, and give them a better life. i know in the long run these companies will view my purchases as a chance to expand their business and more fish will get hurt in the process but like a bunch of twigs, if we stand alone, we will be broken easily, together, we can make a bigger difference.
 
#9 ·
Thank you. I am determined to write them a strongly worded letter about this and send it off to their head office. I do on occasion buy these guys too when I have the room to, a lot of them that I did in the past did not make it past a night. Sadly a lot of these injuries/ illnesses could have been treated. Poor guys. :-(
 
#11 ·
What annoys me about pet stores is all the illnesses the fish have are prevented by keeping the water clean. It's not like chain pet stores need to get heavy duty chemicals or expensive water purifiers to keep bettas healthy. They only have to change the water daily and stack the cups in a way that doesn't cover the holes. I get ticked off by pet stores because the ways to prevent illness is not only free but simple.

1) change the cup water daily

2) Don't stack the cups in a way that covers the holes

3) Display the cups at adult eye level so they are too high for children to grab/shake/throw/ect.

If that was done at every pet store, there would be fewer dead bettas. Death would be inpossible to avoid for every single fish bescause fish are mortal. But the death that happens now is on a massive scale because of laziness. There is no way I'll believe my 3 suggests would lead to massive loss of profits. :(
 
#15 ·
Yeah the fact that they were stacked on top of each other like that bugged me greatly. Logically you'd think they would wonder if the poor things are getting air that way? I wonder if many of them know that bettas have labyrinth organs and they actually NEED the air :S

I also completely agree with the water changes and keeping them away from children. The only pet store I've seen actually follow these rules was individually owned (where I bought my dear little Aldo) they were put up high behind the register, water was clean, fish were vibrant, beautiful healthy.... all except they were stacked ontop one another. Other than that, they were out of the way and taken care of
 
#12 ·
It is sad, and I hate seeing them like that. I understand why they are in the small cups- but as mentioned above, there are ways to keep them healthy while they are awaiting new homes. Corporate side of things is: We still get paid for a dead fish, count it as a loss to the store, so why are we going to pay employees extra time to clean them a couple times a day when they have other things to do.. would take almost a new employee to cover the jobs that cleaning would take away from.
Sadly, it's about cost and efficiency rather then people caring about an animal.

Going shopping today with boyfriend.. possibility of bringing a new baby home *squee*! I figure, they will sell the fish anyways, whether I buy them or not.. so may as well give one a good home then let it suffer and possibly die.
 
#16 ·
:D I'm so excited for you to be able to bring another little fishy a good home!

Thats the thing, yes, it counts as a loss, but taking care of betta can be so easy... if you have a small stock which most stores here in Canada I've seen maybe 6-10 at the most it really wouldn't take that much time out of the day to change their waters, feed them properly and reorganize/ rotate the stacking. I mean, they charge 6$ a fish here and they look miserable at some stores. If they took good care of them I'm sure they could even raise the price.

When I got Aldo from the individually owned pet store I paid a little more but all the betta there were BEAUTIFUL. I mean absolutely vibrant and healthy, active even though they were in a small amount of space in those cups too. If they're looking at it at profit, they could INCREASE the profit if they spent a little more time and effort on them. Unless a person takes pity on one and wants to save one (which I have done in the past-- poor guy didn't last a day at home I was so sad he was in that bad of a shape he didn't have a dorsal fin) they would much rather buy a fish that would at least live through the night :(
 
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