Petco Animal Abuse Case

Animal Abuse Cases - Details

Petco lawsuit - mistreating animals - (San Diego, CA - US)
Crime Date: 05/28/2004
Case Status: Dismissed

Accused Abuser(s):
Petco, Petco Animal Supplies

Brian K. Devine




Case Report



Petco Animal Supplies will pay more than $900,000to settle lawsuits over mistreating animals and overcharging customers.

The District Attorneys in San Diego, Los Angeles, Marin and San Mateo counties have documented cases of animals kept in unclean cages without water, proper nutrition or veterinary care; sick and dying animals kept in freezers, animals with contagious diseases left untreated and other mistreatments.

The county district attorneys also found that Petco price scanners overcharged on certain items from as little as 3 cents per item to as high as $20 per item. On average, customers were charged $1.19 more than the advertised price. The pattern of overcharging spanned a period from July 1999 to mid 2002 according to San Diego Counties Weights and Measures division, which checked prices at local stores.

As part of the settlement, Petco will admit no wrongdoing.

For almost a decade, PETA has been receiving complaints of abuse and neglect from PETCO's customers and employees across the USA. Animals sold are consistently deprived of the bare minimum, required b law, including adequate food, water, veterinary care, and a humane death.

Lawsuits were filed in California, Nevada and Utah. San Francisco California barred PETCO from selling animals there because of the "cruelty and pattern of brazen violations that continued over 3 years. It took 2 years of litigation against PETCO for the City Attorney Dennis Herrera to get these unprecedented court ordered injunctions. The lawsuit in San Francisco was stated in June 2002 and originally sought to permanently enjoin PETCO from live animals sales in San Francisco after the SFACC repeatedly gave them warnings and citations at their 1685 Bryant Street and 1591 Sloat Blvd locations.

Employees were often ordered by their managers to throw sick animals into freezers to die or to leave injured animals neglected in back rooms to starve to death.

There is a campaign on now for PETCO P.A.L.S. card holders to cut them up and send them to Brian K. Devine, the Chair and CEO of Petco. The address is 9125 Recho Rd., San Diego, CA 92121

In San Francisco, PETCO was ordered to pay $50,000 fine by August 2004. For the next 18 months PETCO has agreed to abide to enforceable injunctions to prevent a further pattern of cruel and illegal mistreatment of animals

The Stipulated Injunction and Settlement Order submitted to the Santa Clara Superior Court on 5/27/04 states PETCO will abide to the following provisions:


Specialized training provided to all new employees in PETCO's San Francisco stores within 3 weeks of their employment. San Francisco's Animal Care and Control Department will review and comment on the training materials provided to all San Francisco employees.

Upon completion of the specialized training program, each PETCO employee must sign a verifiable certification of training, which SFACC may review upon request.

PETCO will refer all sick or injured companion animals to medical care.

PETCO must designate a managerial or executive level employee at their corporate headquarters as a contact for the SFACC regarding any issues pertaining to the care of animals in their San Francisco stores. All calls must be returned within 48-hours, and must assure the SFACC that all outstanding issues will be resolved quickly and professionally

PETCO must also ensure that San Francisco has a region manger contact at all times, and will inform the SFACC if this person(s) changes at any time

All of PETCO's animals in the San Francisco stores by an independent veterinarian selected from a list of mutually agreeable practitioners nominated both the SFACC and PETCO.<

PETCO operates 670 stores in 44 states and in the District of Columbia. For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2004 in its Form 10-K annual report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission claimed $1.65 billion in net sales.<

In all Petco Animal Supplies has agreed to pay $651,754 in fines and investigative cost for allegedly neglecting animals and overcharging customers. They must also spend $202,500 to install better equipment in its California stores to eliminate overcharging

Animal sales make up only 5% of the companies revenues according to a statement by the CEO Brian Devine.

The types of animal care problems that occurred in over 100 stores in 27 states from March and April 2004 were:

Ill and injured animals were deprived of veterinary care

Birdcages contained spiders and webs from lack of cleaning

Parakeets were kept in tiny enclosures, their food full of excrement

Parakeets who tested positive for psittacosis were left for sale

Birds escaped their enclosures and flew around the store only to die because they were left uncaught

A bird who was purchased and returned to the store had previously been sold and returned for behavioral reasons

Bird food was spoiled

Turtles infected with parasites were sold to Petco customers and subsequently died

Many dead fish were kept in overcrowded and parasite infested tanks

Dead fish and hermit crabs were on display

Beta fish were kept in tiny cups in which they couldn't move

Saltwater tanks were flooded with freshwater, killing all the fish inside

Fish purchased from the store infected customers other fish, killing them as well

Live, healthy fish were removed from tanks and slammed against a table so they could be fed to turtles

Ferrets were lethargic and obviously ill

Rabbits were kept in unsexed tanks and were covered in scabs

Animals were left without water

Reptiles were being kept in filthy enclosures

Reptiles that escaped their enclosures were found dead weeks later or were stepped on

Lizards were left for dead in tanks next to bones of other dead lizards

Mite covered reptiles were kept in dark and dank sick rooms some left for up to 2 months.

Rodents were being kept in overcrowded tanks

Rodents born in the store were released into the woods

Rats were found to be suffering from upper respiratory infections after being purchased, unweaned or died after being diagnosed with an ear infection

An obviously ill gerbil who was bleeding from the eyes and nose was on display with a healthy gerbil

Groomers were seen abusively handling animals. The animals were left with severe razor burns that required veterinary care. One dog was slammed against a table and choked, another was kicked and had its fur torn from its face

A kitten was unable to open his eyes after a grooming appointment, an untrained employee had bathed the animal

Employees did not seem knowledgeable about proper animal care and housing

An employee was seen laughingly sucking 2 parakeets into a vacuum, the birds died as a result and the employee was allowed to continue working at the store

A store manager removed the infected eye of a hamster and left the blinded hamster still for sale

Hamsters kept in the sick rooms died of wet tail with medications being withheld. These same hamsters were given cabbage to promote diarrhea to kill them

Ill frogs were crammed into feces-strewn enclosures

Lethargic and ill guinea pigs were left for sale

Sick guinea pigs were attacked in their enclosures by loose rats

Mice were found dying in snap and glue trap

A mouse who appeared to be dying was on display, the animal was stuck in a running wheel and having difficulty breathing

A previously healthy chinchilla became dehydrated and began to suffer from diarrhea after being given improper bedding

Soaked chinchillas were kept in tiny cages with no room to escape dripping water bottles

Frogs were burned alive by heat lamps

Note: The SFACC, PETA and Humane Societies compiled this information from customer complaints and investigations and were instrumental in pursuing the lawsuits.


In addition 120 inspections in 65 stores in 8 counties in California were conducted, randomly checking the advertised price of merchandise against the price run up when the item was scanned at checkout

As part of the settlement, customers who are overcharged in the future will receive discounts of up to $3.00 off the overpriced item.<o></o>


After the settlement was disclosed, Petco's stock dropped 13 cents, closing at $31.87


References
The San Diego Union Tribune
The San Francisco City Attorney's office
PETA
WMUR TV
The Associated Press

 

I go to Petco freqently. The one in Katy is not bad at all. ALl their animals are in good conditon! I'll be keeping an eye on them!

 

Disgusting!

We have a lot of Petco's here. Some are better than others. The one near the house is smaller, and they typically have too many mice crammed into one enclosure and they are not separated by sex. Some of the other Petco's around here are much nicer in that regard.

Even worse is a local shop just down the street. They sell puppies, birds, kittens, rabbits, and various small critters. They used to only sell mice as feeders but I have seen some "fancy" mice for sale as pets - but they are awful! Poor thing have mites all over them. Last time I looked there were two litters in various stages and at least one heavily pregnant female in the cage. And a dead pinky as well. I haven't gone back since. They're also the ones who told me rabbits like to be alone and all you need is a cage and some food and hay and they are happy. Good thing I didn't listen and did my own research.


Jamiya

 

wow, I cant beleive it. that is horrible I am going to have to look at our petco more closely. I dont even know what animals they sell.

honeybear

 

Jamiya, that's horrible. We only go to our local pet shop instead of the bigger "superstore" ones. They have been around since before my time, and I used to go there when i was younger with my mom. They rarely have puppies, maybe 2-3 per month, same with kittens. Perhaps a couple of birds, no more than 3. They are mostly for fresh water and salt fish and reptiles. They have some mice, rabbits and such, but again, not too many. I think it is a pretty respectable store, and even though there are some younger people there, they are all there for the same purpose, to help animals find the right homes.

I won't go to Petland anymore as they have been sued many times for puppymills, but are no longer allowed to breed dogs, so they have started doing some rescue work, which i do appreciate.

Stories like this really make my stomach turn. I go Harley off someone that seemed really nice during our interview, I couldn't picture him ever hurting her or his other dogs. Once at home though, she started showing many different signs of abuse. I was heartbroken!

I couldn't even imagine buying from a "reputable" store only to have so many emotional problems with my pet later. I'm glad that the proper action was finally taken against these monsters.

What's more frightening is the horrible lessons they are teaching their young workers. Life is dispensible. If it gets rough, just forget about them , the problem will eventually go away. UGH!

 

Hi All,
I do not support any pet stores that sell animals.
I might pay more for fancy items, but I prefer to not support puppy mills, etc.

Also, my food of choice is not available in Canada at any of the large commercial pet stores. I feed Abbey INNOVA and it is only available at 2 small pet food stores in all of the east end of Toronto.

I get sick to my stomach when I see all th epuppies at theh store at the mall, I feel really bad for them.
The other day I was at the mall and saw a Mini Austrailian Shpehrd at the pet store, he was beautiful, red merle, etc. But the poor guy was past puppy stage, and not many people were looking at him, I wonder where he is now...

Poor babies, I hope they find good homes...

 

I read this article once....I should try to find it again. Its about different rescues puppy mill rescues and breed specific ones that go under cover to pet stores to try to get the pup. If the pup has been there for too long, the store usually drops the price down to see if that attracts more buyers. These rescue workers will go and haggle as low as they can, then get the dog, bring them to their rescue and try to find foster or forever homes for them. Because a rescues screening process is a LOT stiffer than that of a pet store, they are ensuring these dogs find the proper home and care they deserve.

I will try to find the article.

 

I try to stay away from the chain pet stores, especially if they sell dogs. I will try to visit the locally owned pet stores. We have a great one where the owner is involved in Doberman Rescue. As far as dog stuff, you find the same stuff everywhere, you may just have to pay a little more.

 

None of our chain stores here sell puppies or kittens - they do sell fish, birds, and small animals like rodents, though. The only pet stores around here that sell puppies are locally owned stores, and I don't go into them anymore.


Jamiya