{"id":992475,"date":"2021-05-06T11:32:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T18:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/?post_type=feature&p=992475"},"modified":"2024-04-25T09:53:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T16:53:31","slug":"petco-animals-suffering","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/features\/petco-animals-suffering\/","title":{"rendered":"How Animals Suffer When Petco Sells Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dead fish on store shelves, feces piling up in cages, sick animals suffering inside severely crowded containers, reptiles deprived of proper heat, dead animals being cannibalized in small tubs, and animals gassed, frozen alive, and left for dead\u2014that\u2019s just the misery that PETA undercover investigators, whistleblowers, and government officials were able to note. Imagine the pain and suffering that goes undiscovered at Petco stores and in its suppliers\u2019 mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petco treats the sentient beings it sells as disposable merchandise, but the buck can stop with us, the consumers. For all these \ud83d\udc47 animals\u2019 sakes, please don’t buy into the pain that Petco peddles.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

How Much Does a Bird at Petco Cost?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the cost of buying a bird at Petco may be that animal\u2019s very life. We\u2019ve been pushing Petco to end live-animal sales since the early 2000s, when we first owned stock<\/a> in the company, which saw it end the sale of large<\/em> birds<\/a> in its stores and recommend and promote flight cages for all birds. But the big-box pet store hasn\u2019t actually listened to the countless people who have begged it to stop exploiting all<\/em> animals, including small birds, like these finches whom a PETA investigator observed while undercover at Sun Pet Ltd., an Atlanta-based wholesale animal dealer that supplies animals to numerous Petco stores:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Feather loss\u2014as seen in these finches\u2014frequently occurs when birds peck at one another, a sign of stress, which is often the result of severe crowding and continuous confinement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Video footage and photos captured by PETA\u2019s investigator revealed how thousands of birds and other small animals at Sun Pet Ltd.\u2019s enormous warehouses experienced widespread suffering, including incidents in which a worker violently killed hamsters and a supervisor abusively handled hundreds of other animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or consider this white-capped pionus<\/a>, a species of parrot. A concerned good Samaritan noticed that the bird\u2014whose price tag read 50% off $799\u2014had apparently spent 14 months<\/em> in a cage at his local Petco store, waiting to be purchased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With PETA\u2019s help, this good Samaritan adopted this white-capped pionus, whom he affectionately named Tegan, after she\u2019d apparently spent more than a year in a cage at a Petco store.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the Colorado Department of Agriculture\u2019s (CDA) 2019 inspections, a \u201clarge amount of feces\u201d was found in a parakeet cage at the Northglenn store. Several stores lacked essential documentation, including one that was without a certificate for conures (parrots) whom it had evidently held for more than a year<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And even when they\u2019re not heinously abused, birds sold and kept as \u201cpets\u201d are denied the opportunity to satisfy one of their most natural instincts\u2014to fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does Petco Still Sell Fish?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although PETA has repeatedly exposed cruelty to betta fish in Petco\u2019s supply chain and at its stores, the company is still selling these animals in tiny containers, causing hundreds of thousands<\/em> to suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petco stores\u2019 own Yelp reviews<\/a> are proof of just how miserable it is to be a betta fish on a store shelf: \u201cThey had multiple dead Betta Fish, with one of them having fungus growing on [them],\u201d one reviewer in California commented. \u201cI counted at least 10 dead bettas just molding in the jars,\u201d Megan from Washington wrote after visiting another of the chain\u2019s stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis betta fish was suffering from fin rot,\u201d this Petco reviewer pointed out. But a store manager was apparently reluctant to help.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

PETA\u2019s investigations<\/a> revealed how betta fish are individually confined to small bags that contain hardly enough water to keep their bodies fully submerged and that are stuffed into boxes for transport. Many fish die before and during shipment to Petco retailers, which can take days. At the stores, they\u2019re placed in tiny plastic cups, which are sometimes stacked directly on top of one another\u2014even though Petco acknowledges on its website that the fish breathe by swimming to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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