A quote from a PETCO supporter

there are some good petcos them there are some really bad ones..i notified one of their animal care and leopard gecko care..this is a quote from an email from one of the petco supporters

"Our care standard for our Leopard Geckos is world-class. We use UVB lighting (ReptiSun 5.0), we mandate that stores keep a steady supply of mealworms in the habitat, we allow timely photoperiods to reduce stress and we provide a hiding place that allows an environment where the animal can both hide and be viewed by our customers at the same time."


WORLD CLASS!??!?! you've got to be kidding me!!!!

HAHA!!!LMAO
They have the worst care for animals.
But, when you pay $5.15 an hour, what the hell do you expect?
Good post.

Tell me about it, the frealking animals know more than some of the employees....

we provide a hiding place that allows an environment where the animal can both hide and be viewed by our customers at the same time."

Is this even possible?
sounds like an oximoron to me!

What does using UVB lighting have to do with having healthy geckos? They don’t even need UVB lighting! Amazing………….

Overton LOL, i spent 10 minuts trying to find out what the hell that meant this morning

Cody, thats exactlly what i said in my last email to him

"I assure you that a veterinarian reviews every component and practice regarding the care and well-being of the animals in our stores. In fact, our Director of Veterinary Medicine specializes in the treatment of reptiles. "

Then why is there always sick and emacitaed geckos and other reptiles..i think if they really did have a certified vet this would never be an issue...

I am reluctant to post anything regarding Petco because the last time I did, I got called a "rabid PETA supporter" as well as many other things that cannot be posted without warning points, and I had to put up with hate mail for several weeks. (If you take a look at all of Seamus Haley's points, you will see that nearly half of them were from calling me names on that thread. LOL!)

I refer to the stores as 'PetCrap' and the upper management 'PetCorp', and I went nose-to-nose with PetCorp several years ago... all the way up to the National Companion Pet Director and got absolutely NOWHERE! I went as far as getting my foot in the door on a corporate level and actually conducted reptile husbandry training in the Bay Area's PetCrap stores. It didn't do any good, and I was thrown out of one store for taking photographs of a tank full of about 30 emaciated babies and juvies (on sand) swimming in green mucous-laden feces, where a cricket was eating the eye out of a dead baby. All of the sudden, a sand skink came up out of the sand and ate one of them! I went ballistic.

Anyway, I used to do a lot of Petco rescues... but I cannot even bring myself to go into any of those PetCrap stores anymore. It is just too heartbreaking for me. Obviously, humane treatment and care of reptiles has been an issue with the PetCorp in California for a long time. Nothing seems to get through to them because here are just a few 'news makers' in my area:

San Francisco Brings Charges Against Petco

San Francisco's DA Office Sues Petco

Petco to Pay $900,000 to Settle Suits

Those PETA people are loons...and im sorry you had to go through that maricia, people can be such D!cks

i dont support PETA in any way..but i do think PetCo should start shaping up, there are some really bad ones out there...even though i'd like to see it changed...im not going to go throw a hissy fit and firebomb every PetCo i see..

(If you take a look at all of Seamus Haley's points, you will see that nearly half of them were from calling me names on that thread. LOL!)

That thread was a bit more than you're representing it to be... you were outspoken in your support of legislative attempts to further restrict the sale of herptiles for ALL vendors, not just Petco.

The problem is that the chain has something like eight hundred plus stores, some of which are exceptional, some of which are utter garbage and the vast overwhelming majority of which are mediocrity personified. As a chain they aren't really any better or worse than Petsmart or the bulk of mom and pop or localized regional chains all across the country and really don't deserve the scrutiny that has been leveled against them. The Petno campaign is directly overseen by PETA (the logo is plastered over every page on the website) and supported by a good cross section of antipet activists. It's goals are NOT better petco stores, it's goals are to have us all wearing hemp clothing eating lettuce and dying at an early age due to lack of medical advances.

Beyond which people seem to be too quick to blame the immediate source. You who are complaining claim to see only crappy animals in a Petco store... If every animal there is in poor condition, then the store isn't the source of the problem, as each store sells and reccieves animals constantly and poor husbandry would take some duration of time to cause visible problems... Look to their suppliers to identify about 75% of the trouble in stores which are unable to cope. Yes, they hire a lot of highschool kids... every retail store does, it's just not practical or financially possible to hire a team of experienced biologists for every store and some of their employees are probably deserving of a good swift kick in the ass... But the remainder are dealing with animals from bulk suppliers that arrive with parasite loads, communicable diseases, injuries and stressed out beyond belief. If you ask the management in a local store, they'll probably happily inform you of the day their herp shipments arrive and allow you to look at the animals coming out of the boxes. I've done it a few times myself and will say right now that these stores are getting animals that arrive in questionable condition much of the time.

What's the solution?

The regional Companion Animal Coordinator is authorized to purchase animals, they act as a corporate buyer for their area and they will happily buy animals you produce... at the prices that the massive jobbers offer them. So when you have leopard geckos you want to unload for a dollar fifty each, by all means contact the regional petco management and offer them enough to actually fill a few stores on a regular basis. Until you've hit that level of production though and until you're willing to accept the financial reality which has been imposed on the industry and have some means of fixing THIS situation... Then I'd suggest you stop trying to fight the big corporations. They 1)have better lawyers than you can afford if you want to take them on as an individual and 2)are not distinguished from any other petstore, breeder, dealer or wholesaler in the eyes of legislators. You ask for laws to get Petco into shape and the end result is that their local competition (with a much thinner profit margin because they don't get price breaks from their suppliers) goes under, bueiness becomes harder for everyone else and the corporate giants with the deep pockets and huge profits can RIDE OUT such legislative efforts to curb the reptile trade and will be left as the only avaliable sources for animals.