Petco lawsuit - mistreating animals
San Diego, CA (US)

Incident Date: Friday, May 28, 2004
County: San Diego

Disposition: Civil Case

Persons of Interest:
» Petco
» Brian K. Devine

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 traps
  
• 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.

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

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