Another letter to PETCO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Aaron1100us]

A few months ago, I went into our local Petco to get some dry goods because thats all I go there for. But I allways check out their livestock. They have this so called reef tank that is a 30 long I think with a few NO bulbs on it. There are usually a few shrooms and star polyps and occassional anemones but thats about it. That day, they had small maxima clams in there and they didn't even know what to feed them. They also had bleached anemones. So I e-mailed Scott Young who is the customer service person for Petco and told him about it. He e-mailed me back and said that they have trained staff but would forward my message to the manager to make sure that their staff knew how to take care of the animals and to make sure they would do things like keep clams and anemones.
Well, I was in there today and guess what? There were 12 new maxima clams and about threee bleached anemones. So I sent another e-mail to Scott Young and told him they are doing it again. If several of us sent e-mails to Scott Young at Petco complaining about how they take care of their animals, maybe someday, something might get done if we all work together on this. I know its a long shot but it really makes me MAD :mad2:
to see all that. Plus their fish have ich all over, its disgusting. Please help me put an end to this. Thanks

[North Bay 101]

Aaron, the best thing to do is not to walk past the tanks. I know that it is hard, but they do not care. I will probably get "black listed" now but that is OK.

[Aaron1100us]

Hello, yeah, I agree with you there. I just feel that if we don't do anything, nothing will get done and they will keep this up. We, who are informed, can do things like not buy livestock from them. But what about the uninformed people who keep buying those animals and giving the LFS their sale? Its probably a never ending battle but it is so wrong.

[Thales]

If you buy anything from them you support their treatment of animals.

[Scuba Dog]

Aaron1100us
The bottom line is there making a profit...I do go into pet co and the fish lady there knows im some what knolegable about salt water and she askes questions and has learned that mandarins need pods to survive now and passes that along...
but the sad truth is there making money, So how much were the maximas and what size were they....baby maxes can get by with photoplankton for a whyle....say they were 30 dollars pet co likely paid 15 so its not much of a loss if they die, just a business standpoint....political pressure mioght force them to chage puit that would just put even more undue pressure on the lfs's like the total band of marine life for aquaria purposes....

[cfh_cfl]

hey guys now I am not saying that what there doing is right, but I used to work for petco and I brought alot a my spare stuff from home to work on there tanks because the corp ****s wouldnt pay for the right stuff, like it cost them crap anyways.

[Trumpet12]

It's really too bad that PETCO won't listen to anyone who wants to help them.

Originally posted by Lefty
If you buy anything from them you support their treatment of animals.

I agree. If enough people completely stopped buying from PETCO, they might have to change their business practices.

[spanker]

Originally posted by Trumpet12
I agree. If enough people completely stopped buying from PETCO, they might have to change their business practices.

Good point. By buying salt and other cheap drygoods from them, you're helping them buy more clams and corals to kill. Spend the extra few bucks and buy your drygoods at responsible fish stores.

[monkeyprof]

Today I saw two "large" sailfin tangs in a ten gallon tank with 14 percula clowns. There was also a 40 long sw tank that only had a blenny in it. I just don't understand it, but at least they don't have a chart on the wall telling you over time in your 55 gal tank to throw in numerous damselfish and that you can't have only one cleaner fish because it will die by loneliness.

[meister_ben]

I work at petco, i've posted all i'm going to say on this matter in the "Help Petco" forum. do research before you criticize, get your facts straight.

[Shoestring Reefer]

Good point, meister_ben. The fact that the Petco you work at has a well-run SW department (thanks to employees buying the supplies Petco won't pay for-and buying them at Petco) makes it OK for the Petco that Aaron1100us visited to have Ich-covered fish and bleached anemonies under NO lights.

We should all support Petco by purchasing ich-infested fish and dying inverts; that way, we can support a few good Petcos, like the one in Green Bay, WI.

Aaron1100us-Why should we try to change what Petco does? As long as there are a few good employees at a Petco about a day's drive from here who are running a good, store, it's ok to support the crappy ones.

If anything, maby we should ask Petco to give the employees the ability deduct the cost of their Petco's supplies directly from their pay check on a pre-tax basis.

[Racenrich]

FYI on Petco,
i sent a long winded email to them about the Petco near my house. It was in regards to the livesotck and how it is being taken care of.
Example:
They had two queen triggers in the same tank with one eating the other and no one cared at all. Ich all over the place.

I have never purchased LS, but do shop there for my cats.
i think im going to have to go elsewhere.
i never did get a response to my email to corporate.
ooh well.....

[MorandiWine]

I agree with the point that has been made previously, IF YOU DONT LIKE THE STORE, DONT SHOP THERE. Find a store that cares and has a staff that knows what they are doing. For example, there is a pet store locally (here in the Bay Area) that has a PetCo right down the street. As it turns out a large percentage of the customers are sent down the street to the other store by the employees at PetCo because they dont know how to answer/solve questions. It pays in the long run to support your local family owned pet stores as they are in it because they like what they are doing and actually care about what they are doing.

End of Surmon,

Tyler

[KT & SJ]

Originally posted by Shoestring Reefer
Good point, meister_ben. The fact that the Petco you work at has a well-run SW department (thanks to employees buying the supplies Petco won't pay for-and buying them at Petco) makes it OK for the Petco that Aaron1100us visited to have Ich-covered fish and bleached anemonies under NO lights.

We should all support Petco by purchasing ich-infested fish and dying inverts; that way, we can support a few good Petcos, like the one in Green Bay, WI.

Aaron1100us-Why should we try to change what Petco does? As long as there are a few good employees at a Petco about a day's drive from here who are running a good, store, it's ok to support the crappy ones.

If anything, maby we should ask Petco to give the employees the ability deduct the cost of their Petco's supplies directly from their pay check on a pre-tax basis.

I wasn't sure if the above comment was a serious one or a sarcastic one.
Think of how many petco stores that are out there. Then think of how many bad ones are out there. Compair that with the number of "good ones" that have been found. It doesn't seem fair to the live stock to support the many "bad stores" in order to support a handfull (relatively speaking) of "good ones."I would rather have a few good LFS around instead of haveing a lot of "bad petcos" just to have a few good petcos. At least when I support good LFS I know I am not supporting as many bad LFS. By shopping at Petco I know I would be supporting too many bad ones. Remember, alot of these animals arn't aquacultured yet and it doesn't seem right to place a stressed wild animal in to a situation (bad petco or bad LFS) where it's existance is almost certainly doomed. The supply of most recources in never unlimited.

[Shoestring Reefer]

Yes, I was being sarcastic, and I agree with you totally. Sorry for the confusion.

[Scuba_Dave]

no confusion here...and no Petco shopping for me...for anything

[KT & SJ]

Originally posted by Shoestring Reefer
Yes, I was being sarcastic, and I agree with you totally. Sorry for the confusion.

Nooooo problem, :) thought it might be sarcasim. Sometimes it's hard to tell with some of these comments. I've read so many that are written the same way and thier writers mean every word of it. :)

[KT & SJ]

Shoestring, now that I have reread your obviously sarcastic post I can't believe I missed it, doh. Man, what a brain fart, hopefully it won't be as flatulent in the future:wildone: I think I had read toooo many of these posts and had to vent,:lol:

[HK1976]

Why not just organize a country wide picket against these stores maybe the media would show up to cover the event and then it would reach at least some of those newbie reefers and let them know what kind of place that is. Maybe that would force the company to rethink the way they keep there animals. If you are able to hurt them in the pocket they would be quick to fix the problem. JMO

[KT & SJ]

Almost nothing gets a companies attention quicker than hurting them in the pocket. But thier pockets are pretty deep. It would take prolonged combined efforts to eventually get at them.

[HK1976]

the more I think about this the more it ****es me off. If it were a dog or a cat or any other animal that is kept as a pet was mistreated or housed in a manner that was unfit or a danger to its health and or life people would be in kuffs as a result of it. I guess it is just harder to tell if a fish or a coral is not housed correctly so the majority of people that see them in these shops dont think nothing about it they see them swim or sway in the current and they think oh look at those happy fish and corals but in reality they are dying and they don't need to be I mean even the animals that are hardy and would easily thrive in the aquarium don't even have a fighting chance. It all comes down to educating people about this hobby and the animals we try to keep and learn about. That company makes enough money to train there people and to use the proper equipment on there tanks. If a small family owned LFS can get MH lighting on there clam and SPS tanks then why can't they?If a small family owned LFS can hire qualified staff to watch over the live stock then why can't they. If Petco was the last place to buy the things I needed for my tank I would have to walk away from this hobby.:mad2:

[jackson6745]

Just dont buy from Petco and spread the word...its that simple

[TheMandarinFish]

PetCo is growing - http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20040324-9999-news_1b24petco.html

Stores like this will hasten CITES and SW ornamental fish catching restrictions.

Mike (Shoestring Reefer) and I absolutely rumbled in the other thread about this. His opinion is that they need to be boycotted so they change their practices. I say they need to be boycotted and run out of business.

:lol:

I think we're about 95% on the same page.

I like the picket idea. Personally, I agree with hitting them in the pocket as hard, as much, as often as possible.

Check this out - http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/city_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2422_2674409,00.html
The lies PetCo responds with are hysterical. One SF store has countless dead birds, reptiles, moldy turtles, rodents cannibalizing each other, etc.

If they only sold drygoods, they'd be a much better company and Mike and I wouldn't get up in arms over how bad they need to hurt for their practices.

Keep up the anti-livestock Petco activities everyone. Please, please make a difference in any way you can.

If you have animals, please remember there are many, many places to get drygoods and livestock not named "PetCo."

:)

[JHReef]

I think we've all run across a lousy Petco. Unfortunately, there are way more cat/dog/bird owners who see nothing wrong due to lack of knowledge/interest about fish etc. and will continue to shop there if every aquarist in the USA stopped shopping there. I had a little luck with the manager of the aquatic dept. at a local Petco. He understood salinity, temperature and that's about all. The salinity that first day I went was off the scale of his swinger hydrometer. We talked for a while and I convinced him to keep better tabs on stuff. A couple months later I went back for dog treats and we chatted for a few, then he led me over and showed me some readings and the condition and how the fish were not overcrowded, or put with wrong species. The result for me? I went home with a nice Coral Beauty for $12. It's been with me for over a 1 1/2 yrs. and was healthy from the start.

My point you may ask....since I'm a dirty rotten occasional Petco shopper? You're never going to change to corporate mind set. The people who run big corporations rarely have any interest in what a company sells or how they sell it if it makes them rich. You have to go to the "grassroots" level if you want to make a difference. The suits up top could care less, but many individuals will listen to you if you put it in the perspective that healthy fish + more return customers = they get to keep their job.

Now back to our regularly scheduled bashing session...which I'm sure I will now become a victim of also.

[Shoestring Reefer]

JHReef: You helped, good for you.
Originally posted by TheMandarinFish
Mike (Shoestring Reefer) and I absolutely rumbled in the other thread about this. His opinion is that they need to be boycotted so they change their practices. I say they need to be boycotted and run out of business.

:lol:

I think we're about 95% on the same page. Yup. :thumbsup:

Ok, so how do we go about setting up a nationwide picket? I know how we can fail: organizing it in the "responsible reefkeeping" forum, which gets a pretty small amount of traffic. So, let's use this time to organize.

I see that Petco is NOT one of the sponsors in the "sponsor" forum. Are they a RC sponsor? If so, there will be a limit to what can be accomplished on RC. Also, we may end up violating something in the user agreement.

Here's what I think we need to do:
1) Pick Petcos to picket. A picket may make a local change even if there is no corporate change, so we should target the stores that need the most improvement.

There are a few Petco employees out there who are buying/using their own supplies to help with their fish departments; my local Petco doesn't really look that bad, a picket there won't improve much (if any) on the store level, because they only have 6-9 SW tanks with a hand full of fish.

Besides, three people at every Petco won't make much of an impression compared to 15 people at every 5th. I'd rather find out about one in a 1-2 hour drive that has crappy conditions, where the manager may be encouraged to change on a store level, even if there is no corporate change.

We should validate our choices as often as possible with photographs and video.

2) Set a date. I suspect Saturday's a busy day for Petco. The day of a nationwide sale would be great. I'm thinking 1-2 months in the future, to help with the next two items:

3) Spread the word. As I said before, getting 15 people from the "Responsible Reefkeeping" forum won't do squat. Ultimately, we are going to need a small organization to coordinate this thing, maby one person from each club. If we go that route, we should make it clear non-club members can participate in the picket without paying dues, because this is about the fish, not the clubs.

We should also get the help from other SW organizations besides RC, and from non-fish organizations. I suspect we can get much more support from animal lovers in general, than just fish lovers. For example, the link provided by TheMandarineFish does not mention the fish department or any protesters concerned with fish care.

4) Identify Petcos with Good vs Bad Fish Departments. This is different from "1)" because "1)" may be decided partially based on how many people are available in some regions. My reason for doing this is that change will be easiest if some stores are already acceptable. This will do three things: a) It will demonstrate that we are looking for attainable conditions, not some pie-in-the-skie dream that can never happen. This will give credability to our picket. b) It will acknowledge the Petcos that strive to provide acceptable conditions for their fish. c) It will allow Petco to get internal advice from knowledgable employees.

I'm sure I'll draw some disagreement, because some people believe every Petco is bad. There are Petcos whose fish department would be acceptable to many anti-Petco people if it was in a store with a different name. If they don't have overcrouded tanks full of dead and diseased fish, then there may be someone there working hard to keep it that way. We will do little to improve those stores.

5) Communicate with Petco, both prior to and After the Picket.We should communicate our concerns prior to the picket; I feel it is professional to do so. We should validate our picket in any way possible, including pictures and video tape, especially when it contradicts the email responses we get from Petco corp.

Immediately before the picket, we should email corporate Petco, as well as the managers of each Petco we are picketing, and each Petco we chose to not picket. We should tell them the reasons that certain store are picketed, and why others are not.

After the picket, we should again contact Petco and inform them that further pickets will occure until policies have been put in place to prevent further mistreatment, and those policies are made available to the public.

Comments?

[HK1976]

I think we are on the right track. so Lets organize, We need to get groups together in as many towns as possible, when we get our groups together we start scouting the Petco near our homes and like you said take pics or vid of the conditions when we have done that we just compare and pick the worst ones and move forward on those locations. I say for a start everybody that is interested in this picket to post up and start spreading the word to other forums and chat rooms.

[JHReef]

If it really gets that serious, and pickets start popping up, maybe, just maybe, I may know some people who could get this thing some TV press coverage locally. If it draws enough attention, it might get more regional spread as well. I'm not making ANY promises, and that doesn't mean others with similar contacts, or a small enough market station in their area which may be more approachable will have any better success than me. Sometimes you have to try a company in the "Court of Public Opinion" to get them to change or at least lie and say they will.

[JHReef]

P.S. Anyone seen this on other sites like reefs.org? It's a big community like this. I bet there are those that will take up the cause as I have seen similar, though not as passionate threads re: Petco over there. Just 2 more cents worth.

[Shoestring Reefer]

Originally posted by JHReef
P.S. Anyone seen this on other sites like reefs.org? It's a big community like this. I bet there are those that will take up the cause as I have seen similar, though not as passionate threads re: Petco over there. Just 2 more cents worth. Yeah, I was thinking that, plus orgs like PETA.

[Shoestring Reefer]

Where can we find a list of all Petco stores? This site is a good place to start, and I'll use it to make a list if it'e the best we've got, but I'd like a typed (and editable) list one way or the other.

http://petco.know-where.com/petco/

We could throw the list up on a site somewhere, and put feedback for each store under it's name.

[Thales]

Don't get PETA involved. The are an extreme group, and often make events they are involved with look silly.

[Shoestring Reefer]

Good to know, Lefty.

[TheMandarinFish]

PETA is deliberately inflammatory - they get press by doing outrageous stuff.

They do effect change, though. Believe it or not.

Maybe Humane Society?

[Shoestring Reefer]

I think the Humane Society is well respected from what I've seen, but I've never heard of them being involved in any protests.

[TheMandarinFish]

Maybe Sierra Club... I bet they'd consider it. What are some other animal rights organizations not quite as outrageous as PETA?

[Reef This]

We basically do not support any retail store selling animals," she said.

Honestly there's no difference between slave trading and pet owning," he said

http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/city_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2422_2674409,00.html

Those are direct quotes from that article. The link posted by someone in this thread.

That article is truly disturbing, I can't believe it's even posted here. Why don't we just post a "Save the Whales" convention thread. :rolleye1:

Boycotting PetCo for mis-treating animals is one thing, Edited by Wizardgus Crap like this enrages me.

[Shoestring Reefer]

That's fair, Reef This.

I'm glad retail stores are selling animals, and I'm not sure why anyone would be categorically against that. When I went to the humane society to get a cat, I had to pay it. From a consumer standpoint, the big difference between shelters, kennels, and stores is that the store is often (not always) located in a strip mall. Sometimes there's a difference in care but that's not always the case.

As far as "animal slavery" goes, maby they were talking about seeing eye dogs and helper monkeys? :rollface:

[wizardgus®]

Let's try to make sure our posts don't sound like an insult against another poster. I assume Reefthis meant that the article was what he considered idiotic, etc. But it kind of read as though he meant that about the person who posted the link.

Did I mention I hate Petco threads?

[williams-crist]

Wanted to let you know that I agree with most of what you have posted about Petco and "don't shop there if you don't approve of the conditions."

However, wanted to let you know that I've seen some change at my local PETCO.

It wasn't too long ago that they would have major sale signs on fish tanks filled with fish on their last fin. We're talking major ich, bacterial infections, etc etc...

Yes, I did bring it up to the salesperson that I didn't think this fish or that fish was in particular condition to be sold and do they intend to treat the fish or what?

Not to mention they have several sohal tangs in 15 gallon tanks and an Asfur angel. These are expensive fish that would need very large tanks so why in the heck would they have so many?

Well, recently I went in there to try to find some new test kits and low and behold I actually heard the salesperson advising a customer she should not buy this raccoon butterfly because her tank was too small and was not properly cycled. Well, that's a first and then secondly they had a few tanks filled with sick clowns that they were not selling do to illness.

So, it's a start. I would say if you see a problem, please write a letter to complain about and if the store manager does nothing about then find out who the district manager is and so on up and not to mention it might be okay to mention that you will be sending a letter to a local news station if they don't respond appropriately to the situation. Of course, all the way mention that at petco animals should come first.

I think there major problems is that they do lack knowledgeable employees in many of the stores.

I've seen some questionable reptiles myself that appear to have some respiratory infection (white bubbling at the mouth) and even a few iguanas with some bacterial mouth rot going on.
Believe me I'm not what you would call "into reptiles" but years ago I worked at a pet store and if I can find these problems I'd hate to see what a trained vet would find.

It just stinks. But still, I think you have to stand up for what you believe is right and if you see a person or an animal being treated unfairly you have an ethical responsibility to act on it!

[Reef This]

Originally posted by wizardgus
Let's try to make sure our posts don't sound like an insult against another poster. I assume Reefthis meant that the article was what he considered idiotic, etc. But it kind of read as though he meant that about the person who posted the link.

Did I mention I hate Petco threads?

You are absolutley correct, if it was taken out of context, I apologize. It wasen't meant to offend anyone.

Shoestring, it doesn't matter what the location is.

Boycotting PetCo may not be such a bad thing. Quality care and facilities for animals being sold is somthing they are entitled to. Posting links to leftie influenced, ignorant, calling pet owners "Slave traders" doesn't help your cause. I own many pets, from reef tanks to two bird huntng dogs.

The article generalizes each and every one of us because we own pets. People come in here, they read that article, which is quite apparent that article is not just targetted at PetCo, and think this is a bunch of lefties organizing a leftie-fest to boycott pet stores. It's not. You don't want that image.

It's a good cause, and maybe, just maybe somthing like this could make a difference.

I support anything like this, because it's right. But that article, ****es me off.

[TheMandarinFish]

Compassion is not a political issue.

If someone who also happens to be outraged says something more general about animal husbandry than you care for, that does not make the need to boycott and picket PetCo any less.

There are many shades of grey... Mike (aka Shoestring) and I may disagree on what theoretically should be the end result of boycotting / picketing PetCo (ending animal sales VS going out of business entirely)....

but that doesn't stop us from agreeing to boycott.

Reef This - You may not agree with what that one kid said, but that doesn't mean boycotting is a bad idea.

Who cares if you think he's a solicialist? Perceived political philosophy of one particular person who boycotted should have no bearing on your decision to, at the very least, not give PetCo your money for supplies for *either* your tank(s) or your dogs.

Just because PETA thinks animal husbandry is a bad idea doesn't mean you don't agree with them that PetCo has to stop with the massive neglect / massacre of animals.

If they did to hunting dogs what they do to all the birds, fish, small animals, and reptiles, I bet you'd be out front with the PETA people and probably your guns too.

:fun2:

[Thales]

I will never align with PETA. They do too many things I don't agree with.

[TheMandarinFish]

Republican politics is ******** , thoughtless, and unsustainable on every level.

But when McCain battled against iron-state Democrats to raise the CAFE minimum gas mileage standards, I was on his side.

It's all about compromise and common ground. There are many strange bedfellows out there on specific issues. You don't have to agree with PETA members to agree with boycotting or picketing PetCo.

I find them misguided and their methods sometimes suspect as well, but it doesn't mean I can't agree with them on some issues.

No one is asking anyone to join PETA, I just put up a link to show that some people are not sitting on their arses crying about PetCo (like we are), they are out there protesting and making their voices heard, getting media coverage, etc.

Again, you don't have to be a dues-paying member or agree with all actions of all members of an organization to respect, or at least understand, what they are doing.

I'm sure people who vote don't agree with everything their political party does, either. Doesn't mean you shouldn't vote though.

That was just a link to show people taking action, whether you are 100% in line with everything every member says or not.

And the practice of hunting whales is nearly universally condemned because it is disgusting. You don't have to be a card-carrying member of Greenpeace to understand that.

.Using symbols in place of letters in an effort to evade Reef central's profanity filters is a bannable offense, please refrain from doing the same in your future posts. "Arse" is boarderline at best, and should be avoided as well from here out. ALSO, discussion of a political nature is NOT welcome here. Should this thread continue down a political road, it will be closed.

[Reef This]

Whoooa, Mandarin, your way off your rocker.

Let me make is perfectly clear to you. Boycotting PetCo, is somthing I'd support to the end.

This is about PetCo, and the neglegence of animals. I'm sorry if your perception of what PetCo does involves politics in the least bit. In mine, it doesn't. It involves one thing, neglegence. Politics has nothing to do with dead animals in a nationwide chain-pet-store due to undeducated and ignorant employees.

I was simply using the leftie-fest references as to what this thread was going to turn into, which it has. POsting articles with PETA-style antics and messages, isn't what people want to see and hear. But, maybe I just read too much into it, but then again, my perception of that article and it's political influence against people who own pet stores, or pets, just doesn't belong here.




Boycott PetCo. I think we all can agree on that.

[TheMandarinFish]

Agreed about boycotting PetCo.

I find it funny though, that "leftie" can be brought up and when I post my opinion about the "right," I get bold letters and capitals and all that, threatened to be banned, etc.

Politics was already on the table, and I didn't do any insulting.

I brought up politics because "leftie" thing was already going.

I also showed how issues are bigger than left VS right, which is arbitrary at best.

PETA-style messages and antics is not what I posted, thank you very much.

Nowhere did I mention abandoning animal husbandry. Nowhere did I suggest any PETA activities, other than picket which was already brought up and I merely provided an example.

PETA is close to the mark with some issues, but deliberately gets outrageous to make a point. After all, species extinction happens unabated with corporate influence and government acceptance... every single day. All that group does is try to raise awareness.

Being heavily protective of animals doesn't make those people evil. Thier techniques are specific and thought-through, even if you don't agree with them.

I thought they missed the mark with "Finding Nemo" because they had the chance to illustrate the destruction brought by misunderstanding from the film (on CNN they showed children with 20 gallon tanks hosting Pacific Blue Tangs) and chose to attack the clownfish breeding rather than the tang importing and selling to ignorant people who think Dori is cute and have no idea what it takes to care for a tang.

"Don't you go mouthin' off bout no commie hippie pinko stuff, ya longhair"

Come on now.

Yes, you read too much into this. I posted an EXAMPLE of a PetCo boycott / picket.

THAT'S ALL. No one is trying to recruit you into Earth First or the John Birch Society.

Boycotts and pickets work.

Sorry I did a Google search on petco + boycott.

Won't make that mistake again. So instead of progressing on how to deal with PetCo, it's degenerated into "I'm not a commie PETA member" discussion instead. Great.

[Shoestring Reefer]

I like pie.


Originally posted by williams-crist
However, wanted to let you know that I've seen some change at my local PETCO. Originally posted by williams-crist
Yes, I did bring it up to the salesperson that I didn't think this fish or that fish was in particular condition to be sold and do they intend to treat the fish or what? Originally posted by williams-crist
Well, recently I went in there to try to find some new test kits and low and behold I actually heard the salesperson advising a customer she should not buy this raccoon butterfly because her tank was too small and was not properly cycled. Well, that's a first and then secondly they had a few tanks filled with sick clowns that they were not selling do to illness.

So, it's a start.I've read similar posts like this before, and now I'm starting to agree with others that what we need isn't a picket line, it's an "Adopt-A-Petco" campaign.

[Shoestring Reefer]

williams-crist
Which town is that Petco in?

[TheMandarinFish]

I'm not disagreeing with you; I'd just like to point out that it's terrible that PetCo's should have to be "adopted."

They need a whole lot of adoption.

But the method to encourage thoughtful, responsible retail is sound. I very politely and jokingly educated a cashier at a drug store who kept putting peoples check-outs of single items (like a pack of gum; I'm not kidding)....

into plastic bags (which last 500,000 years because the girl assumed people couldn't put a pack of gum in their pocket).

She laughed and got the point when I rung up.

The tough thing is, PetCo seems to have a profit margin based on an acceptable turn-and-burn.

Sadly, these are reef animals (as well as all the others).

I'm not saying join PETA (I never did, and I'm not a member; I only looked for a PetCo protest link on google news and PETA happened to be out there... sorry for any confusion), but picketing and protesting are effective.

Look at what it did to / for Nike.

Nike is now one of the *most* responsible companies. Believe it or not.

[Shoestring Reefer]

Originally posted by TheMandarinFish
I'd just like to point out that it's terrible that PetCo's should have to be "adopted." Yup.
Originally posted by TheMandarinFish
I very politely and jokingly educated a cashier at a drug store who kept putting peoples check-outs of single items (like a pack of gum; I'm not kidding)....

into plastic bags (which last 500,000 years because the girl assumed people couldn't put a pack of gum in their pocket). Tell me about it. Heck, even McDonald's won't give you ketchup unless you ask for it, so why can't the drug store try to pinch a penny? I'm not usually a tree-hugger, but some things are just so obvious and easy, how can people not do them.

"There's your shoe laces, sir, and could you please throw this plastic bag away for me? I've got a whole pile to get rid of."

[DgenR8]

Originally posted by TheMandarinFish
Agreed about boycotting PetCo.

I find it funny though, that "leftie" can be brought up and when I post my opinion about the "right," I get bold letters and capitals and all that, threatened to be banned, etc.

Politics was already on the table, and I didn't do any insulting.

I brought up politics because "leftie" thing was already going.

I also showed how issues are bigger than left VS right, which is arbitrary at best.

PETA-style messages and antics is not what I posted, thank you very much.

Nowhere did I mention abandoning animal husbandry. Nowhere did I suggest any PETA activities, other than picket which was already brought up and I merely provided an example.

PETA is close to the mark with some issues, but deliberately gets outrageous to make a point. After all, species extinction happens unabated with corporate influence and government acceptance... every single day. All that group does is try to raise awareness.

Being heavily protective of animals doesn't make those people evil. Thier techniques are specific and thought-through, even if you don't agree with them.

I thought they missed the mark with "Finding Nemo" because they had the chance to illustrate the destruction brought by misunderstanding from the film (on CNN they showed children with 20 gallon tanks hosting Pacific Blue Tangs) and chose to attack the clownfish breeding rather than the tang importing and selling to ignorant people who think Dori is cute and have no idea what it takes to care for a tang.

"Don't you go mouthin' off bout no commie hippie pinko stuff, ya longhair"

Come on now.

Yes, you read too much into this. I posted an EXAMPLE of a PetCo boycott / picket.

THAT'S ALL. No one is trying to recruit you into Earth First or the John Birch Society.

Boycotts and pickets work.

Sorry I did a Google search on petco + boycott.

Won't make that mistake again. So instead of progressing on how to deal with PetCo, it's degenerated into "I'm not a commie PETA member" discussion instead. Great.

I've been wanting to address this post, and have started several times. Each time, I could see I was being sarcastic, and that my reply would not do anything positive.
What was relevant each time is this. The warning about taking the thread down a political path was meant to be very broad, and directed at all participants, as I saw it could very well be going that way. The reason the warning appeared in TheMandarinFish's post is that he was the one I noticed trying to evade the profanity filters, and heading down the political path. I put two warnings together, where they should have been seperated, or at least put into a post of my own, not an edit of an existing post. My apologies for allowing it to come off as looking like TheMandarinFish innitiated the political path.

[TheMandarinFish]

Thanks for the clarification, DgenR8.

I was trying to point out to my non-"leftie," non tree hugger friends that sticking with perceived political standpoints is ignorant. Sorry to name a party, but it helped me point out my own need to overcome assumptions.

We can all find common cause in issues.

Boycotts and pickets aren't leftist, even against major box-stores.

I really respect those PETA folks for spending their time out in front of PetCo spreading the word of PetCo's morally bankrupt corporate culture of epic destruction.

I don't have to be a member to appreciate it. But had I heard, I would have been out there alongside them.

Their message might be better received if they focussed specifically on the issue and weren't so controversial.

But that's how they get attention and at least get their side out there. And PETA's not 100% wrong about animal issues, even if they sometimes miss the mark, IMO.

They really could have let PetCo, for example, have it when they had their "Finding Nemo" minute on CNN. Tank-raised is very necessary, obviously - they should have plugged O.R.A. farms !

Anyone know when any pickets are organized? Something has to be out there... (PETA or not)

Also, has anyone discouraged friends from shopping at PetCo?

[vitz]

has anyone considered making their concerns known to the suppliers of petco, rather than to petco itself?

[Gerard Alba]

PETCO %&$#""#!

[nite99]

Bottomline is, if you don't like PETCO don't go there, I have been to our local one for dry goods and have talked to people and sent them 1 block down to family owned shop, because they are good. I agree that the the fish and other livestock are well below par, but the main thing to hurt them is simply not to buy them. Picketing only brings publicity to them and you probably won't be able to target the folks you want, because the sw folks aren't that numerous. If people did their research prior to jumping into any hobby they would know anyway. That is what needs to be the focus.

Kelly