Petco is in for it.

my petco ( sopo, Maine) is fine. They have many herps properly cared for. Im not saying petco is good, just that mine isnt bad. The local private pet store is terrible. They had an adult male beardie in a ten gallon. It could barely fit. I complained to the manager a lot, then one day, it was gone.

See it really depends on the manager if the manager maintains the overall store well by keeping on top of their employee's etc. What's going to happen is the manager at the local "Petco" will be fired or demoted and a new one will come in hopefully I good one or it will just repeat itself. My local petco which I had bought my first leo from back in 1994 was from petco actually my first 2. They were very clean and new so it wasn't so bad. Over the years they started getting worse and worse. Honestly it depends on the manager and whoever is in charge of the reptile department. I've worked for Petland which is an eastern more tri state known pet store for about 3 years. Since I always had a knack for reptiles I made sure it was well maintained. I go there now and I see a bearded dragon, tokay gecko, and a leopard gecko all sharing the same cage. You say something to them they go yeah don't worry they been in there together for a while now. Then you explain to them why they can't co-exist they go ok we'll take care of it later then you go in next week nothing changed. With franchises' and chains you can never have a perfect store. Petco must have over 100's of stores nationwide.

Continue:There always going to have mistreated animals in their stores. That's why I prefer to shop at my local mom and pop pet shops but they never last. Only because they care for their animals more than they care for the buisness so they end up losing money. Think the CEO's of petco worry about the health of each and every animal there. the answer is NO! They care about the green flowing in that's why it's a buisness. I personally suggest not to shop at these franchise/chain stores maybe even boycott it. Stand in front of the store hand out flyers to each customer that is about to enter warning them about how they mistreat animals and don't care. Now back to the topic about the complaint and the news I think it's a great idea you are doing this hopefully you get the word out, as for putting them out of buisness highly unlikely, but closing a few stores down by cutting the profits you got a chance! Good luck

Ooh I want to post, I went to a pet supplies store and they had a ball python that would not shed. I worked the shed off and pointed out everything that was wrong with the set up. The best thing is in front of other customers was.

"We do not set these animals up to house, we try and sell them as fast as we can"

Originally Posted by DontShootMe

Continue:There always going to have mistreated animals in their stores. That's why I prefer to shop at my local mom and pop pet shops but they never last. Only because they care for their animals more than they care for the buisness so they end up losing money. Think the CEO's of petco worry about the health of each and every animal there. the answer is NO! They care about the green flowing in that's why it's a buisness. I personally suggest not to shop at these franchise/chain stores maybe even boycott it. Stand in front of the store hand out flyers to each customer that is about to enter warning them about how they mistreat animals and don't care. Now back to the topic about the complaint and the news I think it's a great idea you are doing this hopefully you get the word out, as for putting them out of buisness highly unlikely, but closing a few stores down by cutting the profits you got a chance! Good luck

couldnt have said it better. with the exception that mom and pop stores dont last. in my area all the mom and pop stores have been around longer than me. particularly one. maybe its cuz pet stores are spread out enough for it to work. take for example the reptile sepcialty shops. theres 2 in my county. 1 is absolutely terrible and doesnt even abide by state laws on reptiles. the other is awesome, a decent enough guy, and has high quality animals at fair prices. all depends on the owners

I agree about Petco. After all the misinformation they gave me it cost me my poor little friend. I wish I would not have trusted them totally and did more research on line. Maybe my little guy would still be here.

Personally I don't like Petsmart or Petco but if I had to choose between the two I'd choose Petco in my area but at least the Petco listens here when they have a problem and they correct it unlike Petsmart who told me that reptiles would rather eat dead insects than have to chase them. I have to say that I'm really lucky to have a wonderful family owned pet store near me that actually asks my opinion when they have a problem or if need a second opinion on something. I know everyone's not that lucky but if I didn't have this store around I would have never gotten my first leo or any of my other herps so I plan on supporting the little family owned places as long as they care about the animals.