Look at the betta I didn't get at Petco (warningn graphic photos)

[kuklachica]

That Petco is HORRIBLE to their bettas! I have complained to the assistant manager, another worker, AND emailed their corporate HQ. Nothing has changed. I spoke to the fish manager at the Petco that I will be starting to work at next week and she said to PLEASE email to their website. Here is the link. The animal care manager from the New England area will be coming in within the next two weeks to inspect the Maine stores. She gets copies of all of the complaints sent in to the website. The manager of my store said that this will come back to bite them in the butt, even if they don't do anything now. So PLEASE email them. I am going to email them again since I did not see any change from my original email.

There is also a number employees can call and anonymously report store problems regarding animal care. Once I start next week I will be calling regarding this store.

The fish care there is appalling and the lack of care by the managers is even more appalling.

[sjones]

DONE!

If you need copies of the photos let me know. I am thinking of doing a facebook page about it, I'm sure we could get a lot of members on here to sign up and put pressure on them.

Who wants to start the page?

[kuklachica]

Careful, I'm not sure about libel laws and such. I'd wait to see what happens over the next three weeks between your contacting them, me sending another email today, their head animal specialist going through, and me calling the hotline.

[metalbetta]

Sjones I'd join if you link me!

[kuklachica]

that's the cleanest I've ever seen their cups...

edit: the times i have gone in they have had brown or yellow water, with bloodworms caked on top and in the feeding tube, and all of the HM, SDTs and CTs have had either fin rot or been biting their tails because of the conditions. Others have had green and yellow algae/mold build up on the bottom of the cups. The associate last time told me that the water looked yellow or brown just because of the plastic used for the cups. Ummm yeah. I quickly told him how it was odd that a few of the bettas actually had clear water and that the other Petco 45 mins away NEVER has brown or yellow "plastic". Hmmm. Must not be the plastic's fault?

[cyndi]

you should by all means send emails and complain. There are foodchains to the whole coroprate amercia. Start with the DM (or GM) and go from there. if you jump ship above the DM and go straight to corporate, they seem to ignore your complaint or it seems to get lost. There might not be anything done, but there obviously should be. Personally if i had seen the betta in that shape, i would have put him down. There was no need for him to suffer like that.

kuklachica, you gotta be careful calling petcos version of Petsmarts Careline. Don't give out too much info about yourself. Depending upon the information given, it's not hard to pick out who did it because most of the stores have less than 40 employees.

[kuklachica]

cyndi,

thank you for the concern. I'm going to be very careful when I make the call, and will get pointers from the fish manager who I'll be working under. I don't want to "burn bridges" so to speak with the other store, but they really need to do something about it.

I'll also talk to the head manager of our store about what to do in this situation. She and I met because I saw bad conditions at my local Petco. I wasn't at all familiar with bettas or pet stores really at the time, so I emailed Petco HQ directly. She received the email and called me the next day to discuss my concerns. She was GREAT, and an employee who came across as crass and not following procedures was apparently fired. Come to find out, something happened in shipping since it was in the middle of the crazy snow storms in the NY area, and that's why many bettas died. I have never seen anything like that since. And she and I get along great and she was happy that I applied and very happy to hire me since I knew my stuff. She's the good type of manager - someone who can take constructive criticism and not be "offended" or defensive - and makes sure things change. So I will talk to her about the correct route (if any) that I as an employee should take regarding this other store.

Isn't it sad that employees have to be careful when reporting poor care, even at other stores? Why should WE, the "whistle blowers", fear for our jobs when they are clearly not doing theirs?

This is why I want to work at my local petco. I am so impressed with the way they care for their animals and the response to customer concerns. I would NOT be caught dead working at the Petco featured in this thread!

[FuulieQ]

It IS very weird, how the water is so clean and the fish is in obvious view. Systematic neglect is not typically like that.

Nonetheless, someone should be paying attention and taking the sick bettas off the shelves for treatment. We should hardly ever see a dead betta.

[sjones]

Wow, great responses from everyone!!!
Thank you for caring.

I think you can't be liable for slander if you speak the truth.
There are some anti-petco pages on facebook currently.
But I was hoping someone else on here might take up the torch or perhaps create a beta advocacy page on facebook..just an idea!
Isn't it funny how people are so afraid of activism,and don't know how they can legally protest things? I say this even including me!

Originally Posted by kuklachica

Isn't it sad that employees have to be careful when reporting poor care, even at other stores? Why should WE, the "whistle blowers", fear for our jobs when they are clearly not doing theirs?

And yes it is a symptom of "business" how things are run, like the head of BP saying he didn't know how oil wells are drilled, etc, which is actually true, these businesses are trying to make money and that is the bottom line, they don't care/ or want to know how it's done.

And at the end of the day we are just trying to pay our bills, right?!

So be careful, and be aware of their bottom line.

You know I spent $20 at the petco that day buying supplies, so I condoned there actions with my dollar :(

[sjones]

oh wait Peta has a bunch of links on their website on how to organize demonstrations and pamphleting legally here http://www.peta.org/actioncenter/act.asp