Abuse at Petcetera

[luvmiburds]

I went into a Petcetera the other day to purchase a couple of Budgies for my daughter and after waiting around for 35 minutes for someone to help us (the store was empty there where no other customers) the employee went into the back and got the box ready and what not..... we told him which ones we wanted and he opened the door to try and catch the ones we wanted, a few of the other budgies tried to escape and as they tried to escape he slammed them back into the cage like it was a bat hitting a baseball, the birds where hit so hard that 2 of them hit the display glass and fell to the floor of the aviary. (just stunned him, they eventually got back up) My daughter(8 years old) was horrified as was I! I immediately walked into the back and disregarded the employee only sign and asked him what the hell he was doing hitting the birds back in to the cage.......his response was that if the budgies get out they leave a big mess and try to get into other cages etc. (something that I doubted) at that point we informed him that we no longer wanted the budgies from here and left! While I was in the back I notice there was a budgie starter cage in the back at which I noticed there where about 10-15 peach faced lovebirds in the one cage with no perches or nothing, they looked frayed and dirty as did all the other birds in the back! I am very disgusted with this Petcetera (I apologize to any Petcetera employees, I am not directing this at you personally but the store in general) I need some help in trying to find a way to put an end to this, but I don’t know where to start.

PS- My daughter did get her birds that day at a small "mom and pop" type pet store!

[mumoftwo]

My husband and I had a problem with another well known pet store in the past. It was not a problem with the animals, just with the employ's and the service that we were given on a number of different occasions. We solved it by jumping over the store mangagers and went directly to the OWNER of the store. However, it did help that I knew who he was. You might also be able to do this by simply contacting the store, file a complaint if you like with the manger there, and also ask who he/she 'answers' to. Who her/his boss is, and just keep going up the totem pole until you get something done. Good luck, let us know the outcome. Just remeber that if you do nothing, nobody will know that anything even happened.

[Magnum]

That is just horrible!! I am so sorry you and your daughter had to see and go throught that. :( I doubt very much that employee gave a rip if you bought the birds or not. In fact, they were probably glad they didn't have the mess with trying to catch them for you. Like Mumoftwo said, if you don't say anything, no one will know a thing. Maybe you could spark an inspection of their store with the condition of the birds in the back. That is sick. I don't care what anyone says about them, I hate pet stores. :mad:

[krazy4birds]

I have heard so many stories so close to this one it is pathetic. Most of the time they hire kids who know nothing and further more do not care about the pets. I was in a Petco about 2 years ago and saw a Macaw being tormented by a group of boys and when I went over to investigate one of them was an employee!!!!!!!!
Definatly turn it in even if nothing gets done it is better than saying nothing at all.

['too crazy]

I live in a small town where the paper only comes out twice a week. If this is also your case, contact the paper.

[melanie]

I go to the same pet store for my dogs' food needs. It seems that most of the employees there are very young. I've always wondered if there is any real education given to them on how to properly and humanely treat and care for the animals in their store. I've always wondered if the people in charge care. I've wondered if it's just a job to many of them. I have no clue as to how this store, or pet stores in general, operate. But I would sincerely hope that there is some kind of continuing informational/educational sessions for employees that have animals in their care. Shouldn't that be a standard course of action and responsibility? I'd really like to hope....
But I once overheard a store employee describing a certain dog breed to a potential buyer, and the information he was giving to the person seemed like it was pulled out of his butt. I actually politely interrupted to offer tidbits of my first-hand experience with this same breed, but I didn't want to encourage an impulse buy. I was torn.

[KeetLover]

I hate the fact that the birds always look so distraught!! I saw a girl getting a pet budgie & they had 2 use a fish net 2 catch it in the end. I felt so sorry 4 the poor thing as these huge pet "mega-stores" have the animals all squashed in one giant cage. I always go there for food & stuff but I always see what type of birds they have. Once I saw a wee lovebird that made me feel so sorry 4 it, it was all alone in 1 cage because there was none left. It was screeching & running round in circles constantly. I felt so sorry for it as it is very despressing to see. Are they supposed to be kept alone?? :(

[mumoftwo]

I was just wondering if you had contacted anyone from pretcetra yet. what did they have to say about the situation? Is anything going to be done? Will the person be repremanded? let us know.

[Shelia]

The paper is a great place to go I know first hand how fast they will get things fixed. Also when I go into a big pet store I get what I go in for then I go look at the pets if things are not good I ask to see the maneger they I tell him/her what is wrong then I hand them the things i was going to buy and leave.

[burdzi_view]

Hi everyone, Yes i have asked for the manager and of course "he's not in" (I am assuming he had a science test at school) I have called and called to no avail. I have emailed 3 letters to the petcetera head office, If I do not get a response, I will phone them every 5 minutes until someone with authority talks to me and responds to my complaints. I will keep you posted as soon as I here something and will cut and paste any email sent to me on here.

Jay

[LvnMyLife]

I am new here and don't have this particular pet store chain here, but I would definitly talk to the manager of the store and if that doesn't seem to help I'd maybe check with the local authorites about who to file a complaint with. May the local humane society could get involved? I haven't run across this type of problem where I live, but this shouldn't be legal to sell animals in a place that abuse them.

[tiellover]

How horrible! Report them to Animal Control. (You can call the police and they will connect you to the number).

[Sharebear]

I work at Petcetera and , Nothing will ever be done about your complaint. The Owner DAN URBANI Just doesn;'t care unless it costs him money! He Treats His Staff like Crap, The Store Managers in turn treat the Store Employees Like Crap ............. Round and Round it Goes! The Person you Dealt with is probably 15 yrs old and Has No clue how to treat a bird.
I will be out of this hell whole as soon as I find another job ! It Discusts me everyday the way animals are treated at Petcetera.I Try to do what I can for them, But, I am only one person!

[I love ZF]

I reported about the poor condition about the pet shop nearby and it worked. Still, it's not a perfect condition but the animals (especially birds) are taken care of better than before. Check this link and it helps you how to report the neglected pets at the pet shop:
http://www.avianwelfare.org/action/report.htm

Any action to help poor animals at the pet shop will help! So don't give up trying..... pls.....

[mynameislola]

You could have called the police and reported the employee hitting the birds. Police reports are taken more seriously than email or phone calls.