Petsmart or Petstupid?

[Guest Anonymous]

I thought you guys might be interested in this, it is copied from a list I belong to

Thanks for Reading,
Trinity

Please read the following.........the e-mail address for PetsMart Customer
Service is:
cs@petsmart.com


Dear Friends,

A friend of mine who shows standard smooth Dachshunds called me today to let me know that PetsMart doesn't want "people like her" at their stores.
For the past 7 years she has--with permission from store management--set up a grooming table outside the PetsMart store in Round Rock, Texas (store #195) in order to socialize and show train her show puppies. Today, a new assistant manager accused her of selling puppies and told her to leave.

She protested that she was not selling any puppies and furthermore HAD no puppies to sell, but was just socializing and training her dog. My friend, upon arriving home, called the PetsMart corporate offices to complain and spoke to the customer service manager who only identified himself as "Dan."
Dan informed her that PetsMart does not "want her kind" at their stores.
When she asked him to clarify what he me ant, he said, "we do not wish to promote people like you." She asked, "do you mean people who exhibit dogs?"
He said yes--they only want to encourage people to adopt homeless pets.
There are already too many dogs in the world and if you show dogs, that means you breed dogs. She then asked, "so does this mean you no longer want me to shop in your stores?" To paraphrase what he said, they certainly want show people to spend money in their stores, but not socialize their dogs--at least not the way most show people socialize dogs. PetsMart believes that socializing only means allowing the dogs to interact with other dogs on the premises. When he told her that, she said, "so I should allow my 20 pound puppy who only stands 4 inches off the ground to interact with some huge Rottweiler whose owner has no control over the dog?" His response was yes.
When she called a second time to demand a letter of apology and a letter granting her permission to socialize her dogs HER way, he started backpedaling and claiming she was twisting her words. The overall tone of the two conversations was that show people ONLY care about selling puppies and care NOTHING about the many homeless dogs out there. Considering the
large number of show people I know PERSONALLY who are active in rescuing dogs of their chosen breeds (myself included), I find this narrow-mindedness
appalling and indicative of a mindset in PetsMart's corporate offices.
From this moment forward I will be boycotting PetsMart and encourage everyone on these lists to do the same until the requested apology is forthcoming. This means I will willingly pay a few dollars more to
shop at elsewhere, but at least I know I am welcome there.

Please join me in boycotting PetsMart. This message has been cc'd to their Customer Service office. For the benefit of that office, the combined number of people on the lists to which I have posted this directly is over one thousand. With permission to crosspost to other lists, this will quickly swell to many thousands of people across the country who not
only patronize PetsMart, but show dogs. If PetsMart is listening, they will do the right thing and apologize and allow dog owners to choose how they
wish to socialize their dogs when visiting PetsMarts.

[Guest Anonymous]

He's awfully rude, but I don't know why anyone would want to socialize their puppies at a store...seems odd to me. It's a place to shop. (& I don't like Petsmart)

Connie

[Guest Anonymous]

If you don't have any nearby shows coming up while the pups are an impressionable age, it is a good place to get them used to crowds.

[yellowlabsrule]

Petsmart IS petstupid, that's about as stupid as you can get.

[Kiger]

Odd. My Petsmart is pretty good - except they don't carry any of the food I like. Kato has his puppy classes there. They know he's a show dog too, and no one's ever given me any attitude about it. I can't boycott them anyway - they've run everyone else out of business. :o The only other pet store around here (where I buy my food) only sells premium food and not much else.

[Kiger]

Maybe because they do dog adoptions, they feel like she is promoting her dogs over theirs? I don't know...

[mouseatthebusstop]

Michele napisał(a):

I totally agree with Sashagirl.........i have a feeling there is only "half" a story here......

:o I agree with you as well

[Carolk9s]

I'm with the group that wonders about 'the rest of the story'. There are MANY ways to socialize pups other than setting up shop in FRONT of a major petstore. If she was there on a frequent basis with many different dogs, I can certainly understand how an impression of advertising could be arrived at.
Good golly my aunt used to take sheltie pups INSIDE malls many many years ago and walk them around. Now of course that cannot be done, malls are not as willing to let people wander about with their dogs.
I am NOT going to boycott Petsmart or anywhere else based on this.
I am sure if she wanted to bring 1 or 2 pups, walk them on leads on the sidewalk, she could do that. To set up a grooming table in front of Petsmart? Well it was nice of the former manager to allow this but it really seems like a stretch to me. JMHO.

[Guest Anonymous]

I posted this here because I had a similar problem with PetSmart....not about socializing puppies, but rather the mind set of, " not "want her kind" at their stores. " When I was trying to adopt a kitty (some friends of mine had told me PetSmart had a cat that fit my criteria) PetSmart said they didn't want me to adopt him because I exhibit and breed dogs. When I asked what that had to do with adopting a neutered cat, they said they didn't want to be seen catering (catering???? for heaven's sake I just wanted to adopt a cat) to people with attitudes like mine. "Attitudes like mine?" what like the attitude of wishing to better my breed? Anyway, I had to contact All Creatures Great and Small (they were the sponsors of the cat in question) to adopt him, they immediately processed my app and let me bring my kitty home. I find this attitude towards dog exhibitors abhorrent considering the fact that while PetSmart may not sell pups and kittens, they do support birdmills and mills along the same lines that produce small mammals....which is why I myself don't shop at PetSmart or Petco. The basis of their support of mills of any kind is the reason to boycott PetSmart, not the attitude expressed by this manager's comments (rude as they were), I was just curious as to what people thought of the attitude expressed. I am personally offended that exhibitor's money is good enough for PetSmart, but exhibitor's "attitudes" aren't, I find that hypocritical to the extreme.
The lady in question would set up her grooming table to simulate the same type atmosphere one would encounter at a show....ie. many people and their dogs walking by while the pup is on the table.

Thanks Again for Reading,
Trinity

[Guest Anonymous]

Trinity--I have shopped at Petsmart only a few times, so I'm unsure how the pet adoptions work. Did an actual Petsmart employee refuse you? I hope I misunderstood. If that's true... :(

Connie

[Guest Anonymous]

Yes Connie,

An employee and then the manager....I was irate....and get angry every time I think of it. Even though I was able to adopt Sagwa in the end, PetSmart's mindset angered me greatly.

Later,
Trinity

[Guest Anonymous]

Oh I couldn't agree more! I was filling out the application and when I was checking the "unaltered" box next to the pets I already had....that's when the trouble started. One would think if I am willing to spend thousands of dollars to show my dogs (not to mention all the other expenses), I would also be willing to shell out the money needed to take care of a cat.

Later,
Trinity

[Carolk9s]

I'm surprised Petsmart employees even got involved at that level. The adoption org? Yes. That sort of attitude is far from limited to Petsmart or other adoption orgs. My dr. has a young male golden retriever. Pure and pedigreed and not neutered (last I heard). He and his wife wanted to adopt a mixed female that was ALREADY spayed. He was turned down because his dog was still intact. I DO believe that is rather shortsighted and don't really understand the reasoning. He and his wife had previously had two border collies that died of old age fairly close together. So should he lie if they try again to adopt?
I would absolutely understand if the female was not yet spayed but that was not the case.
I would imagine that when I adopted Brittany from AARF their contract asked about other animals too.
No business is perfect, Petsmart does a lot of good in the community as well, hosting the adoption stands, having the vetsmart clinics that offer lower cost vaccinations, etc.

[eggrolyn1223]

I won't boycott Petsmart, simply because there are no other pet stores(unless you count Petco or the ones that promote puppy mills :-? ).I didn't really understand the story...

[Guest Anonymous]

Well on another board there was a person that had a Pitbull that was asked not to bring his dog any more just because of it's breed .The dog was very dog friendly and was under control at all times yet they still were not willing to let him in because of the breed. I have never had a problem on the other hand. I can't believe that they would not let you adopt the cat that is ridiculouse. Anyways I understand that they are trying to help homeless animals but they need to understand that not everyone wants to run the risk of adopting an animal that may have lots of health problems in the future. Also you cannot show a spayed or neutered dog some there are lot's of people who enjoy showing their unspayed/unneutered dogs and have no intentions of ever breeding them. Also they should be promoting responsible breeding not be trying to ban the breeding of all dogs.There are great shelter dogs out there but it is kind of a gamble and you really need to know what you are looking for.Most of their costumers are show dog people or breeders so I don't know why they would be biased. I was given an employment oppurtunity there to be their trainer even though they knew that I breed and show Apbt's so they are not all like that.

[Kiger]

There are always a bunch of pit bulls in the one near me. Someone even brought a 6 week old one in carrier (mom dog was with them too) and everyone was making over it - including the Petsmart people. I guess they are all different.

[gooeydog]

At the Petsmart near my house there are two trainers. One is nice, and seems like a good trainer, the other, who has been there longer, seems more interested in always being right and looking good. I had Annie in there one day when one of their training classes had just ended, and the trainer walked up to us with his dog. Annie was starting to get a little too interested, so I told him that my dog didn't like other dogs. He told me they were fine, and started lecturing me on how I need to learn to learn to recognize dogs' body signals. A few seconds into his lecture, his dog stood up from its sit (talking about poorly trained :roll: ) and Annie tried to go after it. I yelled (not really yelled, but spoke "sharply") at her, and she came back beside me. The trainer launched into another lecture on how out-of-control dogs shouldn't be out in public, how I was doing nothing to correct her behaviors, and how I need to learn something about dogs before trying to train one. Of course, several of his students were standing around hanging on every word, so I just laughed, wished him luck on getting a solid sit out of his dog, and left. Petsmart is the only pet store nearby, so I still go there sometimes if I need something, but that changed my mind about taking the dogs (the three small ones) through the CGC class they have :roll:

[Guest Anonymous]

Oh I got a Petsmart story! :lol: The Grooming Dept. in the Petsmart in this area...I would never ever in a million years take my dog nor my worst enemies dogs there!
Went to get some toys for the dogs one day and walked past the grooming section. Well there was a man in there cutting what looked like an Airedale Terrier Mix and had it by the beard yelling in its face.. I saw red.. I walked to the counter and asked for the manager of the store to talk about the grooming dept.. Well the Grooming is a seperate "store" from Petsmart... Ok fine give me the Grooming Manager.. Ok get this The man yelling in the dogs face was the manager..

[Guest Anonymous]

...but not at a Petsmart store. I live in Iowa, and I'm a groomer at the local Petco. I've been in to other Petcos, and...ugh. I feel that we are one of the nicest stores out there. As far as "stigma" breeds are concerned, we encourage them to come in to the store and show the public what sweethearts they are! The groomers at our store are are highly knowledgable, and we're always helping people with their pets. There are 7 groomers at out Petco, including me. I'll be entering the vet program at Iowa State int he near future, and I show my doberman and handle a few corgis for a breeder I know. The grooming manager has shown collies and doberans, and is currently doing AKC obedience with her toy poodle. Another groomer is a certified trainer, and has been for 15+ years. She also has shown cats (mostly persians) for about five years, and is a big herp (lizards, snakes, etc.) buff. Another is a mover and shaker in the boxer rescue organization. Yet another groomer has grown up around show goldens, and she currently shows (and show grooms) goldens. Almost everyone has had show and/or obedience experience, and many of us have extensive knowledge in show grooming and obedience training. The employees "out in the store" are equally enthusiasic.

As far as socialization, training, and show "desensitization" goes, I support it wholeheartedly. Many people who show dogs in the area bring their dogs to Petco for these sorts of things. I trained my dobe to ignore distractions int he store, and a friend of mine who shows a standard scnauzer trains her in the store almost every day!

Here's a funny thing though - I once was in the store training my dobe on one of my days off, and a CUSTOMER walked up to me and told me that I had no right bringing my "vicious doberman" into a store where there are children present. Yeah, sure, my temperament bred dobe with two legs to her CD title is going to kill this guy's daughters... suuuuure! Afterwards, many employees would come up to Ilsa, give her a big hug, and jokingly say, "oooh! the vicious doberman is killing me!!! oooh! oooh! save me please!!!" The customers loved it, and many came up to give Ilsa hugs of their own!