Thinking about reporting a local Petshop

[Avalanche Wolf]

I have heard many in the past vioce complaints against Pet connection in sacramento before and never understood why. Everytime i went in there all the tanks looked good and were always very helpfull.

Maybe it is because of the past few months my reefkeeping skill has come way up from where it was or maybe I just always caught them on good days. Well yesterday was NOT one of those days.

I went in and the store was in more disarray than it has been in the past. A lot of the reptile tanks were empty, Most of the marine tanks where either empty or had fish feeding apon floaters.

Most of the fish that they did have marine wise where bleeched out and just looking horible. Many were miss labled ( IE a Coral Beauty being called a H.I.D. Flame Angel ) HID seems to be their new gimick to charge more for items.

They have a coral tank now and it used pretty well stocked but only had maybe 5 differant corals in it and of course WAY over priced even for their normal pricing.

Just bums me out when I used to drive from out by the airport just to go to this store when it was under the previous owner because they usally had good prices and Rob always took the time to explain things. The new owners seem like they are really out just for the buck selling cheap knock off equipment at Premium Equpiment pricing.


I wont even get into the 2 dogs we bought from them at 1400 bucks as " purebreds" That recently found to be knockoffs.

Rant over - going to stop in there today for a quality check with a friend and see if things are better or if he sees what I saw.

 

[jlfnjlf]

I have been a reptile enthusiast for some time, and have made similar calls about the condition of the reptiles in this store. The authorities as I will call them do not seem to have an issue with reptile or fish neglect. You will find that the fuzzy critters get the most attention form the authorities.

The best way to get the authorities attention is for them to be inundated with calls form multiple individuals who have been in the store within 24 hours of the call. I was involved in a campaign to get a reptile store inspected in 1998, and it took hundreds of calls within a weeks time.

Best of luck.

John

 

[Avalanche Wolf]

I guess a lot of what I am seeing here is the other stores ( aquaria) and the lvl of care I see at them compared to Pet connection is SOOOOo huge that it is very noticable.

 

[jlfnjlf]

And the economic ramifications will balance the playing field in time. With the awesome choices we have in the greater Sacramento area I would say boycott this store. When enough people do they will have to make some changes to attract customers back, or they will not be able to keep their doors open for very long.

John

 

[edsimmons]

In 2005 I bough a Basset hound puppy from Pet Connection .We brought her home Fri night and everything seemed fine .Sat was o.K.Sunday I started to get worried because she would not eat .I thought a puppy that wont eat something’s definitely wrong! I took her to the vet mon morning first thing ,Tue after noon the vet called and sayed she had Parvo and died that afternoon. : ( I hate that place and will never shop there!

 

[Avalanche Wolf]

WOW ED !! that is really too bad and sorry to hear it. I have talked with others about the store and get a lot of the same reactions.

I had to buy some more turbo calc since i dont have a sump setup so no calc reactor yet , yah yah i know anyways I was at tap yesterday to get stuff setup for a new in tank fuge.

anyways . Med size turbo calc 29.99 !! CRS 22.00

They are also the biggest sellers imo of CA stuff. I totally understand making a buck but on the 1800PH wholesale is 18 and they sell it for 59 ! I have seen a lot of other things just crazy priced as well.

hopefully more people will stop shopping there and things will change for the better and if they dont it will be better for the hobby to have a store that worries about profit over wellness of the animals they sell close their doors even though i do hope they change.

Just nice to see places like CRS , YR, EX where you can tell it is a hobby for them as well and not just a money maker.

 

[djscribz]

something i learned from an interesting trip to las vegas. never ever buy a dog or cat from a pet store. all animals that live for a long time should be bought from a reputable breeder.

 

[raymond4133]

if you want them out so bad or report them so badly...

Just call that Kurtis guy on CBS 13....Tell your story and your thoughts and he can use the power of news and the sacramento region audience to his advantage...

It will be fixed just like that....

---Just a suggestion---

 

[lilleahseafreak]

we got 2 dogs from there in the past (when rob owned the place, i liked him) both are gernerally fine but are obviously second rate purebreeds, as in "breeder rejects" as the pomeranian has poping kneecaps as does the chihuahua, these are common in small dogs but with breeders they guarantee the pups won;t have the problem and if the pup does at the time of purchase the price is dropped, the price we paid was for a "perfect" puppy, i still love the dogs but it irks me that in the future we will likely have to do surgery to fix their knees. plus the pomeranian already had to under go surgery to remove some of her baby teeth that never fell out, the vet told us its an inherited trait.

the store used to be nice but it has been going to hell lately, and its begun to smell and we figured out why: my sister noticed some of the feeder mice lose in the store and they are likely breeding in the walls and living off of bird seed from the bottom of the cages.

they need to clean up their act, i have been going there since i was little and i hate to see them sink so low.

 

[Reefugee]

Or they should be adopted from the shelters or an animal rescue organizations. Here's a local rotweiller rescue that Stacy and I do technical (web support) for. We got our rotweiller through that rescue.

http://www.scrottrescue.com/

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9413389#post9413389 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by djscribz
something i learned from an interesting trip to las vegas. never ever buy a dog or cat from a pet store. all animals that live for a long time should be bought from a reputable breeder.

 

[racrumrine]

Cats and Dogs from the pound are great.

Fish and critters from other reefers are great. Bought a beautiful green carpet last night for $40.

Why by new when you can buy "previously owned".

Best of luck,

Roy

 

[lilleahseafreak]

i think buying reef critters from fellow reef keepers is safer too, i feel i am ALOT less likely to introduce a problem such as a diesease into my tank if the coral/fish/rock/invert came from a persons private display tank.

plus with risky fish like coral beauty angels if you buy one from a pervious owner you will have a much better idea on what corals may be at risk to it (mine only nips one of my leather trees it seems to only be eating the slime, but i need to sell or trade the coral as its been staying scrunched up latley and i am afraid its not handling being pecked at, its odd as i have 2 siliar corals in the tank and fish does not bother them at all)

on a second note: i have noticed most pet stores no longer sell puppies or kittens, the only ones i know of are pet connection and one near sunrise mall. there is alot of liability in selling them and alot of controvercy over selling them due to pet over population.
i have 6 cats and no one came from a pet store, 1 from the SPCA (she is actually the ONLY cat we intended to get all the rest just kinda happened) , 1 trapped and tamed feral caught at ARC (she is so tame now her name is sweety, i did not expect her to tame up so well so we are keeping her) 1 stray in the street, and 3 hand raised bottle fed babbies whom are percious to me.

out of our 4 dogs, 2 came from the pet store (we are NEVER doing that again, we figure most pet store pups are faulty ones breeders cannot sell or are from puppy mills) and 2 from breeders.

at this point we have enough pets and the only way we are getting any is if they fall in our lap (which has happend, i have come across and claimed 3 parakeets, 2 white pigeons, 1 stray cat and a box turtle all on our own property!!!!)

 

[MandM]

It's a shame that only furry critters get attention for complaints of animal abuse. When Rob owned the store he at least kept the animals safe.
I won't go in the place anymore. It's a health hazard for patrons and staff, not just the animals.

 

[kdblove_99]

Here are my thoughts on why buy new.

If we never buy things from the fish store like fish, corals etc then these businesses which i really enjoy going tto go out of business. Especially the fisha nd coral only places.

Yeah, I agree i would never buy anything from Pet Connection. It is just a dumpy place.

But places like Coral Reef Shop, Your Reef and Aqualife are great and i like to go to these places often and purchase things.

Just my $0.02!

 

[MandM]

I don't think anyone is saying not to buy from any LFS. We have some really good ones in town. This one is a sad exception.

 

[Avalanche Wolf]

Exactly M&M

I think this is a huge reason why i noticed the conditions there. When i walk into places like YR,CRS and ALife and soon to be fishplanet you can see the level of care that goes into their livestock.

I look for deals on the boards then i hit the LFS which still ends up being around 90% is bought from the information you can get at LFS can be invaluable !!!