Petsmart Cruelty

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I'm not sure if you guys have heard about pet mills before or the cruelty surrounding them, but I want to warn you, if you haven't, it's probably something that will scar you for a long time. However, it is in everyone's best interest to be informed, especially when it comes to helpless animals.

http://www.petsmartcruelty.com/whats_wrong.asp

Visit the link above for some troubling information, and watch the video if you dare. The video was absolutely heartbreaking and horrible. It's just astonishing how people can treat animals. As much as I think PETA can be ridiculous sometimes about things, this is one truth that no one can deny.


I especially feel bad, since I do shop at Petsmart and Petco. Petsmart at least does not sell rats based on size, like Petco does. Any pet store that sells animals by size is selling them purely as feeder animals. Tony/onenitedrive and I bought out first 2 rats from a pet store, but it was a small one (not a chain), yet I still feel as if we gave those rats a much better life. We do visit these pet stores though, along with Pet Land, to buy them food and treats and litter. It's too bad there aren't more smaller pet stores around here that I would feel more comfortable buying from. People on Goosemoose (a pet rat message board) constantly are urging people not to support shopping at these places for the reasons that website discussed.

What do you think? Do you shop at these stores? Did you know about this previously?

[Inerio]

That's terrible!
I shop at those stores too, now I almost dislike myself a little for supporting them. I highly dislike animal cruelty. Especially on such a large scale. But, closing those stores down would be like trying to close down Walmart. Not everyone would be willing to stop shopping there and stricter inspections and whatnot only last for so long.

[Guest]

I don't actually shop at those places, I go get animals at the shelters. And yeah, this is what happens when your animals are sold by a corporate entity rather than people that give a damn, because corporate entities will happily cut corners for the bottom line.

And yeah, PETA are off the hook sometimes, but sometimes they're on the mark.

[Mæstro]

Wow, that really is horrible how they treat animals, and how society treats animal all together. To people like Petco, and other businesses that sell animals, they're just a paycheck, nothing else - or at least to most of them. Even places like KFC, even though they don't sell animals, they do roast them and eat them, and even they treat their animals quite inhumanly before killed. No one takes the time to care for animals in general, which is very wrong because animals have souls, emotions, feelings, and pain just like the rest of us. Personally those companies should get sued, or have someone take the initiative to correct what the way they handle their stock.

[Guest]

Well, the even greater concern is the health of the stock and the quality of the meat and the sort of diseases that arise from the manner with which they actually have them packed in like that. I mean, it's part of the price we pay for not raising and slaughtering our own livestock like my grandmother used to on the farm in Kansas.

Sometimes, I'm tempted by the idea of trying to start my own small garden for things like chives and peppers, and maybe even a chicken coop so I can get my eggs fresh. It's a little extra work, but not really that bad. But I'd venture a lot of us are out of the habit of viewing animals we'd keep in our back yards as food rather than pets, and there are sanitation issues to go with keeping such animals in your back yard, too.

[Mæstro]

Oh yeah, they pack them in there like crazy... thousands of chickens, I mean if one is affected, it practically diseases the entire stock, and the people who handle them don't give a shit. I watched this video on KFC, man they were throwing them against walls, throwing them into crates, cracking their necks and wings, and all that shit, and didn't care. Not to mention when they kill them, they don't cut their throats. They put them upside down, and dunk them in boiling oil that strips the feathers and kills them. That is wrong.

[Kathryn Lacey]

I actually kidnapped my cat when he was a kitten from the outside world where his mother and his siblings were strays. I haven't actually had a pet from a store since my mom bought my step-dad two birds when I was thirteen.

I also just buy my cat's food and litter at Wal-Mart because I get more for my money than I do at our local grocery store. I don't think Wal-Mart does anything more than sell pet supplies. I don't think they have animals for sale, so I feel pretty clean about doing it.

I feel really bad for those animals, and I already learned that if you buy a pet from a store, there's a really high chance it came from a mill, so I really avoid those sorts of places. I wonder if my friend, Laura, knows about this? She just recently bought two mice- Hippo and Potamus ((can you guess what her favorite animal in the world is?))- from a store... I think I should tell her, just so she isn't in the dark. I don't want to make her feel bad, but it's really for the best. At least the sweet Hippo and the evil Potamus are safe in her care.

[Reffy]

Omgosh - I feel so horrible. Knew I shouldn't watch that video. That just makes me want to run down to the local pet shop and buy all the poor baby ratties - saving them from the place - but then that would only be giving money to the devil itself.
I got my 2 ratties from PetSmart ugh! Poor babies.
I knew about puppy-farms but the things that are happening to those poor small animals! Did he really stomp on that poor hamster? Was he really doing that vet procedure with dull knife and wipes? They were all crowded in, eating the dead bodies and shit. Makes me want to cry. It doesn't take much to give a small animal a good life.
Think I need to start looking for a better place to get my pet food from How could I have been so blind? I knew about puppy farms ... the same applies to small rodents.

[Weiss]

Well, to complain about the treatment of livestock would take me to a long-ass rant about how this country wastes way too much food and takes the things it has readily available for granted, so I'll avoid that. The fact is, I eat beef and chicken just like any other non-vegetarian; I simply believe that the regulations for distribution and consumption are far too lenient. Whatever, though, that isn't the point of the thread.

I signed the petition for PetSmart to halt the sale of live animals, and I urge everyone else to do the same. I actually stopped shopping at PetSmart about a year ago because it became apparent that not one associate in the local shop knew anything about animals. I was getting a check-up for my cat because of a dead skunk that was found nearby. He's vaccinated and kept up to date on his shots and the like, but in spite of dealing with a perfectly harmless (at least, as harmless as a cat who still has his claws can be) cat, the veterinarian in the building was acting like he'd been thrown into a cage with a lion. The associate manning the counter was able to handle my cat easily, as was I, but the 'doctor' insisted on wearing padded gloves and acted like he was at risk of unprovoked attack. Naturally, you can imagine how a cat reacts when someone approaches them so cautiously, practically fearing for their life.

In the end, the vet said he couldn't handle my cat, because he "couldn't afford" to get bit. This, added to the fact that he'd walked in chewing on a candy bar and pawned it off with low blood-sugar contributed greatly to my next move, which was to leave.

Want to know the best part? I was billed nearly $200 for the visit. Yes, you are reading that correctly: two-hundred dollars. Because I was coming into the store to make sure nothing was wrong with my cat in light of the possibility that he'd tangled with a skunk, they weren't considered "wellness hours", which is apparently when you go to see the vet because you're 100% certain that nothing is wrong. So, not only did my cat not get his check-up; I was billed $200 for having wasted my own damn time going to PetSmart.

So, yeah, aside from this whole issue with the improper treatment of animals, I have my own issues with that corporation. That only adds to my belief that they poorly choose their staff. Instead of bringing on people who have a genuine desire to care for animals, or at least people who know something about or are trained to deal with animals, they hire anyone who will work the position for a lousy pay and call it kosher.

If they stop selling live animals and stop providing veterinary care, I might regain some respect for them and buy my food containers and litter boxes there, but I still prefer Wal*Mart and Food Lion for the food and litter, themselves.

[Anemone]

Logically, its pretty safe to assume that ALL pets sold in pet stores are farmed, so to speak. If pets were sold by only legit pet owners, there would be far too random a stock, and far to infrequent.

Its a sad truth. I know my pet cat was born from a cat mill....

We live in a capitalist world, where time is money, and quantity is more important than kindness. And, ironically, the parody sketches of healthcare such as those found in GTA, are among the most accurate representations.

"Just because we have to look at your pet because of policy doesn't mean we actually have to do anything. It only covers looking at your pet, and stating what we think, and we think we don't want to tell you"

"Why should I lose money from my bonus for you? Pay us on time, don't get sick, and don't bother us with your illness. Just because you have rights and health insurance doesn't mean we have to acnowledge that. If we were a sports team, and we signed up people who would get sick, people would be furious."

9/10 groups will not treat you, or your pet right. Its a sad fact. They simply make MORE money by wasting your time and charging for it.

We live in a world where lives are born for the sole purpose of making the rich people richer, and where animals are simply a cog in that mechanism.

No life SHOULD be born for the sole purpose of working or dying, most lives are.

[Kiru Naka]

Admittedly I'm really skeptic about PETA and was so about the text that I read... before I actually saw the video.
I... don't know what to say... what I would say has already been said: it's wrong.

I know that I've never been interested in PetSmart, and I don't mean that as in I was against them; I just was never interested. Until I saw that video, I didn't think much of them, they were a pet store that had a funny smell to them... a pet store that I only remember visiting once within the past 5 years.

I'm trying desperately to contradict the argument PETA made, in my head. Animals die, animals get sick, but I'm certain not as often per capita that they do under Those conditions. I'm no expert, by far, I'm not even qualified to judge good living conditions for animals, and I can even say: Yep, those conditions are horrid.

I never cared for PetSmart then, but I hate them now... as said, it's a business out to make money and solely that. It was one of the dangers of Reganomics... if you give corporations too much power, they could greatly stimulate the economy through consumer spending, but they could also greatly stimulate themselves... and their friends.
While most corporations do this... PetSmart goes as far to abuse animals to that extent.

As for where I got my 4 cats when I was a kid... I remember my mom driving up to some house when I was 4... and I got to pick one. Later that one cat became 4, and they were by far the 4 best cats I've known. They weren't antisocial and they trusted humans...
...And I'm pretty sure milling does the likes to animals as war does to drafted man... in a less extreme case of course. It shell shocks them... if you go through a traumatizing experience you're gonna remember it and certain things will be strikingly similar to it.

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