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Petition for Petco - PLEASE SIGN!

Marleysbeard said:
Yeah I get that. I understand they are huge and it makes attention to detail very difficult. The problem I have with that is they would rather buy bad animals then no animals because they are in it for the money.

Mainly I just wish when obvious problems are noticed there was a way to complain that actually got results..
Click to expand...

Like Brandi stated earlier, it varies from store to store... Different stores have different suppliers. The one I worked at got their stock from some pretty big mainstream breeders. Can't necessarily say that they're getting bad stock... It goes back to how the employees are.

I worked at a Petco years ago, and it was immaculate. I have friends that work at that same Petco at a more recent time period, like now or a few months back... And it's garbage.
 
Exactly why there needs to be some sort of enforcement IMO. I don't know maybe there is something I'm not aware of but to me it seems there should be a government/state agency or whatever that monitors the pet stores in its state. Anyone should be able to call a number and report poor conditions and know that they will send someone to investigate and then take appropriate action. It seems to me that those pet stores that are mistreating there animals don't have to fear any repercussions and thats why it continues.

PS I don't believe they are all bad, I just haven't personally seen a good one yet.
 
Hmmmm...

I read the petition and while it was fairly polite I really don't feel comfortable signing it. I can't afford one of the beautiful colored beardies that are being sold by online stores. I wish I could but it's just not realistic. As a result I've bought my last three beardies from pet stores such as Petco. (over a 25 year period) In fact my newest baby was from Petco. He is as healthy as a horse and has a wonderful personality. He isn't red or orange or pastel, he's 'natural'. Many times the only place people who can't afford to spend $300 on a lizard can go is to one of the pet stores. I realize that it must be shocking but I imagine that a lot of breeders got their first beardies at pet stores. We all have to start somewhere.

The girl that I talked to at the store where I got my Dudley was polite and knowledgeable. I asked her if she knew where my beardie was breed and I was told that it was a local breeder, so he wasn't caught in the wild. I buy my Koi food at the same store and she asks me about Dud every time I see her. I have a much bigger bone to pick with Pet Smart than I do PetCo, so I think it's just a matter degrees. ;)
 
In my experience, pet stores sell their stock for way more than any breeder I've seen. You get what you pay for when you buy from a breeder (most of the time) and that $300 price tag is usually for an especially valuable animal with a traceable lineage. A normal dragon from a local breeder is often $20 or less and you can vouch for the fact that it hasn't been shipped around, exposed to disease and environmental stress, nor has it been housed in huge quantities in an "every man for himself" feeding situation.

Petco and Petsmart do have nice animals on occasion, but they are not high end morphs and thus do not cost $300. All of my dragons came from top notch breeders and I gladly paid several hundred dollars each for the quality (Angie Husk, Carolina Designer Dragons, Kevin Dunne, Georgia Bearded Dragons, etc). When I breed my extremely high end dragons, I sell my Red, Citrus and Leucistic hatchlings for less than half of what Petco/Petsmart/Petland charges for "Fancy Color" bearded dragons. Even with shipping, you pay less for my dragons than you do at Petco in most cases.

For your next dragon, look for hobby breeders with high end stock to get the best deals. I have no name in the industry and I cannot command high prices, yet my animals only came from the best in the business. :)

I am glad that you are happy with Dudley and the customer service of Petco, but I still enthusiastically signed that petition! :)

PS... I have worked at Petsmart and my friend and former roommate currently works at Petco... both stores purchase reptiles from USGE and Sun Pet. Neither will purchase animals from "local breeders" because they have large contracts for wholesale pricing on mass produced animals from these two large facilities. So yes, Dudley might have been captive bred, but he was certainly not hatched in a warm and loving environment.
 
:)

I totally agree with you, if I were going to breed dragons I would, of course, put out the money to buy a high end lizard! But since Dud is just a pet I can't justify the cost of a dragon that will die a virgin. :)

If I change my mind and want to raise the little critters then I would spend money to insure that my dragons were of the highest and healthiest quality. Thank goodness that Dudley is healthy and growing like a weed.

Kaya
 
Signed!

I used to work at Pet(not so)Smart. Same deal. No UVB, temps rarely made it above mid 80's, improper substrate, humidity levels off on all the animals, improper diets, etc. In the year I worked there I never once had a ball python eat for me and was even told to mark down on the charts that it was fed when it did not eat. I always refused. Even the corns and kings were hard to get to eat, something I've never had much of a problem with at home. A good portion of the beardies and leos we got in died before being sold and a lot more shortly after that. I often come in on my days off to see dead or dying animals only to come in to work a few days later to see them still dead in a water bowl. I'm glad I ditched that place. I will never shop at a PetCo or PetSmart. Horrible places that only care about the almighty dollar!
 
You all reazlize these petitions (i have seen many of them over the past few years) will accomplish nothing right?

Giant companies like petco and petsmart are not going to be affected by a few hundred reptile owners signing some petition saying they shouldn't sell them and if they do their care should be strictly watched. Please. A company that is valued in the multi billion range will need a lot more than a few hundred angry people from forums to affect their bottom line. Unfortunately it is nothing more than a futile waist of time. Not Signed.
 
I will gladly sign as many of these petitions that come up. It takes all of 5 seconds and you never know what might happen. :)
 
I'll sign anything that would help. The petco by my house, however, is very clean and has a nicely kept reptile and rodent section. The one thing they do need to work on is keeping people at the register because they are always running around doing something else, lol.
 
Sorry not signed, it's a waste of time. :( I have complained to every authority that I could find locally and reported my local Petco, Petsmart and a local small pet shop and honestly they could give a s**t less about reptiles. All of my local stores seem to kill more reptiles than they sell, everytime I go into petsmart or petco I see dead beardies and leos in over stocked tanks. Currently my petco and petsmart have around 10 balls each all housed in a tank no bigger than a 20 L and they all have stuck shed and are wrinkled as if they have never taken a meal and are withering away. One of the small local pet shops I compained about have a ball, boa, cornsnake and a plated lizard housed together in a 36" exo terra tank and all of them are sub adults and between 3' and 4' and the plated is a full sized adult. They also have crested geckos, flying geckos, garder snakes and anoles in a community tank which is a 18"x18" exo terra. aside from that they have a glass doored cabinet system around 10' long holding variuos kings, corns, milks, hognose, ect.... all kept in something like 4"x4"x2" glad containers stacked upon one another with no type of light or heat source and only a few have tiny little water cups in them, I see more animals dead in this store than I have ever seen in my life. I have made multiple complaints with prevail so I have just given up. I have even taken pictures with documented times and notes and no one had any interest in even checking out my pics and/or notes. :(
 
I've see that at a couple of the petco's I've been in, however, the one that is closest to me have people working at it who have their own beardies. I bought one of the babies from them, he was very tiny about a month old. But he is a riot, fiesty, healthy appetite and very sweet. But like I said several of them have beardies and other reptiles so they really care about them. The dealer that brings them in usually has them each in their own little container and I've only seen very healthy ones there. If they start to look unhealthy they are pulled and taken to their local vet they use.
But I have signed the petition as something has to be done for those places who don't take as good of care as they should.. Thanks for starting it .. :)
 
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