Pet Stores Petsmart Good News and Bad News

[mufasa]

I was in Petsmart today for the first time in forever because I'm on a continual quest to find good hay wherever possible (everything around here has been awful for the past few months). I got excited by a sign that said, "Ask us about specialty animals up for adoption," referring to the piggies, birds, rodents, etc. The Petco in my area does small animal adoptions where it takes in unwanted animals and places them, along with whatever supplies they were dropped off with, in exchange for a donation to their charitable foundation (sadly, they still sell animals too). I thought Petmsart must be doing something similar and felt a pang of hope; even though they'll never be okay as long as they sell small animals, adoptions would be better than 100 percent selling of the poor milled critters.

I asked at the checkout, and they told me, "Oh, that's for animals we can't sell because they're blind or got hurt or were here too long and are so old that nobody wants them." Grrrrrrrrrrrr! Taking mill animals off their hands, and thereby giving them more room to buy more salable critters, is NOT adoption. I said, "Oh, I thought it was REAL adoption, like Petco where they take in unwanted pets," but my sarcasm was totally lost on them. So that's the bad news...my hopes for one tiny glimmer of progress toward an all-adoption world were up and then got dashed.

I did promise some good news, though, so here it is. They also have big signs saying, "We feed and recommend Oxbow for all of our small animals." Can't believe they're actually pushing a quality brand!

 

[Svenandolaf]

That's good with the oxbow!! If only they quit selling animals and brought in ones for adoption

 

[ClemmyOddieIndy]

They've always used Oxbow. All the animals are actually fed high quality foods. Offering the animals to the public I believe is new. In the past, at least at the store I worked at, only employees were allowed to adopt the unsellable animals. I do consider it adoption because there is no fee, and in many cases they've put a lot of money into the animals care and medical costs they won't get back.

The reason they don't stop selling animals is because, in the words of one of my former co-workers, "we sell the $%*# out of guinea pigs".

 

[aqh88]

Our petsmart adopts taken in animals. Most have a note of how old, where they came from, and any specific traits their previous owners thought were important.

 

[StarTaleMaddnes]

Our Petsmart adopts out guinea pigs, rabbits, and ferrets by working with the shelters here in town. I'm glad they're touting oxbow though. I ran short of my KMS pellets once and ran into Petco to pick up a small bag of oxbow and they people there had never heard of it... I was so surprised.

 

[mdodge]

I have to go to petsmart today to get specialty food for my dog so I'll take a peak and see what they have .I did see something last time I was in that I thought was pretty kewl buy at same time dangerous for piggies .it was a cage some what decent size and the front opened up and you had a small fence to put around about a 3X3 for floor time .what I didn't like was what flipped down.wasnt flat or very small grids for them to walk on.thier legs can.slip and get caught.the petsmart is in south philly .

 

[BaconAndEggs]

I have seen the "Petsmart recommend Oxbow" sign too! I was just amazed when I saw that.

At my Petsmart, they adopt out cats and dogs, but of course they still sell guinea pigs.

 

[ClemmyOddieIndy]

Our petsmart adopts taken in animals. Most have a note of how old, where they came from, and any specific traits their previous owners thought were important.

That's weird, because that violates policy. They can have adoptables come in with rescues, but they're not supposed to take in animals. We can't even accept surrenders for the shelter we work with that has the cats.

 

[mufasa]

That policy makes zero sense. Sounds like it's just a handy excuse for not adopting out small animals. Petco does it with no problem, so I don't see why Petsmart can't do the same. I'd love to know their supposed reasons for the policy.

 

[ClemmyOddieIndy]

That policy makes zero sense. Sounds like it's just a handy excuse for not adopting out small animals. Petco does it with no problem, so I don't see why Petsmart can't do the same. I'd love to know their supposed reasons for the policy.

My understanding is that the policy is in place to prevent illness. I know the argument will be that PetSmart sells sick animals, but there is a strict quarantine policy on new animals that I think is not always followed, and even if it is I think a lot of people don't know how to tell if an animal is sick. PetCo and PetSmart have different policies regarding animals and illness. From some of the stories I've heard from PetCo employees I would never work there. It seems around here most the PetCo employees were fired from PetSmart.

 

[ClemmyOddieIndy]

Oh, I realize you are talking about the adoption center. Yes, there is an adoption center at PetSmart, but the animals are NOT part of PetSmart. The adoption center is floor space for the shelters that PetSmart works with to put cats in front of a larger audience because there are so many cats in shelters that are euthanized. They try to work with no-kill shelters, but there are some that work with kill shelters. The staff at PetSmart does care for the cats while they're at the store, but they shelter that supplies the cats are who determines adoptions and if a cat is sick they are responsible for it.

Dogs and small animals are brought in on special adoption days. Most stores try to do at least two a month, but some are better at it have many special adoption days throughout the month. I'm not sure how it all works, but I know the shelter is the one who schedules when they come in. I think it's up to the store to reach out to multiple shelters to have more than a few adoption days a month.

 

[mufasa]

The policy is definitely not followed at some Petsmarts. I saw a dead guinea pig in with the live ones in the sales tank once. When I alerted someone, he said he was unhappy because it had just come in the day before. Ugh. Thankfully, that's not the Petsmart nearest to me. I was there because they had the only vet clinic that was open and could take my cat on Sunday for an emergency. The closer Petsmart has never had pigs that looked nearly as bad. I think it's a males-only store.

The illness prevention excuse doesn't really hold water. At Petco, they just keep the adoption animals over by the cash registers, which is nowhere near the stock animals, so no problem with spreading any illness. I know the ones here do give sick animals vet care because they use my guinea pig vet, but I have no idea if that's true of other Petcos.

My understanding is that the policy is in place to prevent illness. I know the argument will be that PetSmart sells sick animals, but there is a strict quarantine policy on new animals that I think is not always followed, and even if it is I think a lot of people don't know how to tell if an animal is sick. PetCo and PetSmart have different policies regarding animals and illness. From some of the stories I've heard from PetCo employees I would never work there. It seems around here most the PetCo employees were fired from PetSmart.

 

[Sparklederp]

I think it's positive that they adopt out the ill/"defective" animals. Many pet stores would just send them back to the supplier to a certain death.

 

[ClemmyOddieIndy]

I think it's positive that they adopt out the ill/"defective" animals. Many pet stores would just send them back to the supplier to a certain death.

They will reject shipments and send them back to the mill. The animals that are available for adoption are ones that were accepted and then became sick.

 

[mufasa]

I think it's positive that they adopt out the ill/"defective" animals. Many pet stores would just send them back to the supplier to a certain death.

I know they accept sick animals because of the dead pig that the Petsmart guy had come in one day prior, so obviously it was sick. Also, the girl at the adoption" Petsmart said that some come in blind or limping or whatever and are adopted out. The correct response (but one that will likely never happen in the real world) is that the store would charge back the supplier for the medical care, then drop them completely for breeding their mill animals under such bad conditions. And since there's no such thing as a mill with good conditions, that means they would stop selling piggies altogether and go to just adoption of unwanted drop-offs. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm in a dream world, but I just can't give them credit for adopting sickly animals from a place that they still give money and business to.