Another reason to avoid Pet-Smart (OT)

OK, this may be a bit off topic but I often read about avoiding Petsmarty stores here. This may be another reason. check out the link for the article. Here is an excerpt. LOL? NOT! Beware if you have a supresseed immune system due to medication or other reasons! This is from the AP news.




At least six deaths of organ transplant patients have now been linked to a rodent virus, raising questions about whether others may have gone undetected and whether the germ also could spread through blood transfusions.


The donor's hamster, bought at a Petsmart store in Warwick, tested positive for LCMV.

Gail Mastrati, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Management said the agency removed 102 hamsters, mice and guinea pigs from the store in the past week. The animals were euthanized and shipped to the CDC in Atlanta, where all will be tested.

Petsmart said it has asked suppliers of rodents to the Warwick store to test their animals. Bruce Richardson, a spokesman for the Phoenix-based chain, said not all of its vendors are affected.

Richardson would not say how many animals will have to be tested. He said it's not clear whether the hamster, which has died, was infected with LCMV when it arrived at the organ donor's household.

"To our knowledge," he said, "we didn't sell any sick hamsters."---





http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TRANSPLANT_DEATHS?SITE=FLDAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Eric

Pet smart sold me a sick guinea pig. The day I brought it home it started showing signs of wet tail. Yet, they are still the most reliable pet store within a 60 mile radius. That's why I buy everything online now.

I believe we have said all along that pet stores do not take care of their inhabitants correctly and you should avoid contact with them, but look for a herpetologist near you :flames:

Wet tail is brought on by the stress of a new environment which your guinea pig was obviously dealing with moving into your home, even healthy rodents from breeders can get wet tail because of the stress.

I'm not one to say all petstores are bad, there are some decent ones out there. Having worked in one I can say that the utmost care was being given to the animals. I'm all for buying from breeders, but sometimes what you want from breeders is not available or near you, and that's when many have ot resort to petstores, it's just a matter of choosing the right one.

I'm not one to say all petstores are bad, there are some decent ones out there. Having worked in one I can say that the utmost care was being given


i agree with echo the PETsMART by my house that i go to like ever day has never sold me a faulty item

boaboi said:

I'm not one to say all petstores are bad, there are some decent ones out there. Having worked in one I can say that the utmost care was being given


i agree with echo the PETsMART by my house that i go to like ever day has never sold me a faulty item

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Absolutely correct.

As a PetsMart employee whose job is to take care of our animals, I can tell you that most people that OWN pets don't take care of them as well as we do. Our hamsters are seen by vets before they arrive at the store, isolated for 3 days before coming out to the floor, inspected every day for any signs of illness, and their cages are cleaned and completely disinfected twice a week. We have an isolation room for sick animals as well, and not extremely ill "on their death bed" ones. Only one animal since I have worked there has had to be euthanized, and that was from a bite from a cagemate. I, myself, have taken a rat to the vet for a swollen toe! It is still in isolation 3 weeks later waiting for results of a fungal infection test. If PetsMart didn't care about their animals, they certainly wouldn't spend the man hours or vet bill to take a $6.99 rat to the vet for a swollen toe or keep it isolated for that amount of time to make sure there is no chance of other animals being infected.

Just my $.02

if a hampster being sold as a pet to a potentially small child or even large adult that has LCMV doesnt prove to me all petsmarts are wonderful. im sure most large petstores are managed individually with different owners, with different views on how well a rodent should be taken care of. to say all petmarts are bad , i think, would be wrong, but to say they are all good and take care of their animals, would also be wrong. either way thats a crazy story.

dr.teeth said:

im sure most large petstores are managed individually with different owners, with different views on how well a rodent should be taken care of. to say all petmarts are bad , i think, would be wrong, but to say they are all good and take care of their animals, would also be wrong.

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Ahhhh you nailed it dr.teeth

Pet stores . . .

I'm not really sure why Petsmart should be avoided because it sold a sick animal, unless it was obvious that the hamster was sick. If it was, why did anyone buy it? I'm sorry that this happened, however it sounds more like a sort of unfortunate freak situation to me. Anyone who owns pets takes a certain risk, those of us who own reptiles expose ourselves to salmonella. We take precautions against becoming ill ourselves, however there still is the occasonal "freak" situation where someone gets sick from their pet. Should a pet store that possibly sold an animal that exposed a human to salmonella be avoided just for that?

I think that as consumers we should be careful where we shop. I shop my local Petsmart and Petco, and 1 other local petstore and have been happy with them, partly because they don't sell puppy mill puppies. I refuse to shop at any pet store that sells puppies, perhaps it's a "pet" (LOL ) peeve of mine. And I think that by having adoption clinics at their stores the big national chains have done more to support animal rights than to detract from them. No, they are not perfect, however my experience has been that they do support healthy, happy animals.

JTGoff69 said:

Absolutely correct.

As a PetsMart employee whose job is to take care of our animals, I can tell you that most people that OWN pets don't take care of them as well as we do. Our hamsters are seen by vets before they arrive at the store, isolated for 3 days before coming out to the floor, inspected every day for any signs of illness, and their cages are cleaned and completely disinfected twice a week. We have an isolation room for sick animals as well, and not extremely ill "on their death bed" ones. Only one animal since I have worked there has had to be euthanized, and that was from a bite from a cagemate. I, myself, have taken a rat to the vet for a swollen toe! It is still in isolation 3 weeks later waiting for results of a fungal infection test. If PetsMart didn't care about their animals, they certainly wouldn't spend the man hours or vet bill to take a $6.99 rat to the vet for a swollen toe or keep it isolated for that amount of time to make sure there is no chance of other animals being infected.

Just my $.02

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And it was a good $.02 IMO

I don't care for the PetsMart that we have in town, just because of the goofuses that work there. But I don't doubt for a minute that there are great examples just as Jen described.

[AGREE]

Yeah, I had a lady tell me at Petsmart that they don't sell snakes because they're "too scary". I started to say that "If anything in here is scary its those freakishly ugly bald hamsters that you guys are selling..."

To each his own I suppose...

Petsmart is way to over priced on crickets tho :twoguns: . The one here is 8cents per cricket. Thats alot considering my bearded dragon goes through about 500 a week! but iv started ordering from cricket breeders.

Guenhwyvar said:

And it was a good $.02 IMO

I don't care for the PetsMart that we have in town, just because of the goofuses that work there. But I don't doubt for a minute that there are great examples just as Jen described.

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Thanks! :wavey: And you are right, there are doofuses in every store unfortunately, thank goodness ours is an extremely well managed one.

ROFLMAO Daniel, we don't have any BALD hamsters :grin01: .

PetsMart actually tried the market out in Arizona with cornsnakes. Unfortunately, the reptile habitat is not "snake proof" and they were escaping. Rather than revamp the whole habitat, they nixed the snakes.

I agree that not all Petstores are the same.
But I work At a PetsMart and we take really good care of our animals. we even will take back small animals from customers if they get sick and treat the animals for them. I cant count how many time the animals have gotten better and the same owners have decided to come back for the animal.

And as for That case with the people dying, well its sad that they died, the people all had a connection, it could happen to anyone, the pet could have come from any store. and the original animal owner died of an unrelated stroke. Its hard to blame PetsMart for something all small animals are potential carries of.

Had1nowwant1 said:

Petsmart is way to over priced on crickets tho :twoguns: . The one here is 8cents per cricket. Thats alot considering my bearded dragon goes through about 500 a week! but iv started ordering from cricket breeders.

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you think the crickets at your PETsMART are over priced the one by my house charges 10 a cricket and there not even that big thoes bast**ds :twoguns:

to had1nowwant1


why dont u just breed your own crickets it's not that hard


list of material
3 10 gallon tanks
enough play ground sand to fill the bottoms of the tanks
1 3 by 6 bowl
1-2 heat lamps for the baby crickets

go to google and in how to breed crickets that should help you