Is petco just as bad as petsmart with animal cruelty?

Question

ive seen how bad petsmart is: they sell animals that are injured and sick, some even having diseases that people can catch. they forcemate animals. they kill animals that get loose, and throw them away without even checking to see if theyre dead. they signed a contract in 1997 saying they wouldnt use gluetraps to kill animals, but still do. and theres more terrible things, too. ;(

is petco just as bad?

Answer 1

Um.. .I work in a petsmart and have WATCHED the store manager take animals to the vet.. (h**l, they just paid to amputate a bearded dragons toe due to a fight with another beardie)..   We've never knowingly sold a sick animal (if someone noticed something wrong we took it back AND to the vet),  we don't kill animals that get loose..  when there was even a POSSIBILITY of a sickness that a human can catch we stopped selling (recently there was a suspiscion about the birds.. they were quarantened for 6 months, but nothing was found)

The "video" that is circulating is from one of the companies that MOST petstores buy from.. it is not owned or managed by petsmart..     we don't breed ANY animals...  (well, the livebearing fish occaisionally reproduce, but the babies are given away)  

Before posting false information, you should probably find out the truth..

OH, and to answer the question, the main video that is out from PETA was taken at Rainbow exotics  it is not a petstore, it is a "distributor"..  (I don't like the way they are run, but the video still seems faked...  if they were truly undercover why are they there cradling animals, and obviously focusing shots with WORKERS all around..  they'd have been kicked out after the FIRST animal they picked up.. the shots are far too obvious)

I am another one that really isn't a fan of selling animals.. it would be better to have rescues like they do with the cats and dogs..  but the fact is there aren't that many private home breeders of exotics..

Answer 2

Yes, all pet stores that sell animals are "bad". Try looking up Puppy Mills, they are even worse, and those are where pet stores get their puppies from.

Answer 3

all of that is c**p! petsmart takes great care of their animals and that is PETA saying that!  I saw videos like that and pictures but seriously that wasn't petsmart at all and personally I like Petsmart better then Petco! They both adopt animals out and support rescues and I have nothing bad to say about the both of them!

Angie-petsmart and petco do not get pets from mills they adopt out animals from rescue agencies

yes i saw those pictures and I saw a video of "the back room in petsmart"  but that was peta. And yes some store get dogs and cats from puppy mills but those stores are not petsmart and petco those are the local stores and more mall stores which YES I hate and don't even give the store the satisfaction of looking at the puppies and kittens no matter how cute they are

Answer 4

Please, do not swallow information whole when it comes from PETA.

I work at Petsmart, and we do ZERO of the things you listed. We have a quiet room where we take sick animals, to TREAT THEM. We have to fill out meticulous forms regarding the condition of the animals who are currently sick, and we do not sell them ill. I actually just checked the traps yesterday, and we have metal humane traps that catch the mice alive. We don't mate our animals, we ONLY SELL ONE GENDER. And we absolutely don't just kill animals that get loose, that's just ridiculous.

What you're hearing is propaganda. I am all FOR pet stores no longer selling animals, and Petsmart is not the best place to buy an animal. I would prefer NO stores selling live animals. However, I am just really weary of people insinuating that everyone who works at Petsmart is an animal abuser. Most people work there because they want to help care for the animals that are there. Myself and a co-worker recently drove a chinchilla to a vet, because the one in the store was closed, on our own time.

WHEW. ANYWAY. In my experience, it depends on the individual store. In most places I've been to, Petco has been worse. They sell mice and rats for feeders, sell ferrets and keep them in enclosures much too small, as well as conures. Now there are certainly places that are better than that, what you need to understand is that ALL of the stores are not the same. Each place is run by different managers, some of whom care more about animals than others.

PETA, however, is not without their own skeletons.

www.petakillsanimals.com