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PetSmart Employee Beats Dogs, Keeps Job

consumerist.com — Reader Matt watched a PetSmart PetsHotel employee strike several dogs while waiting to pick up his pet.

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  • realwx, on 11/07/2007, -6/+21That's sick. Remind me to go to Petco from now on.
    • eastcoast, on 11/05/2007, -3/+14I agree. Let's boycott PetSmart!
      • dragon76, on 11/06/2007, -0/+4Maybe you should boycott corporate pet care period. I love how people make the choice of one corporate entity over the other instead of thinking MAYBE the local place will have more personal care and do a better job. If you're sending your dog to the Wal-Mart of pet stores, you're going to end up with a Wal-Mart experience.
    • contractcentral, on 11/05/2007, -8/+6Yeah, the Petco people don't beat their dogs! LOL
      • toxicityj, on 11/05/2007, -6/+10LOL!!!!!

        what? that wasn't funny. shut up.
        • Rawler, on 11/05/2007, -2/+2We all thought it... but just because you want to write it, get dugg up, and get a boost of ego does not make your comment worth it.
          • toxicityj, on 11/05/2007, -2/+1it takes more than 7 people on the internet agreeing with something I said to boost my ego.
      • roberto_deneero, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1Yes, they do, my buddy Mike Vick works there and beats dogs every night.
    • Buddhist, on 11/05/2007, -3/+5Well, if it's where the pets go...
    • Sarevok9, on 11/06/2007, -0/+10As a prior employee of PETCO hanover (store 2707) I cannot help but disagree more with the treatment of animals... Allow me to elaborate.

      Petco has a 'adoption / isolation' area in the back of the store where we hold overstock / injured animals, as well as 2 trash barrels filled with crickets. In an average week we lost about 2-3 animals to not receiving their medication.... and COUNTLESS fish, since the store would not appropriate funds for a fish quarantine area... but thats not even my largest issue... my largest issue were the animals that died in the 'adoption' area. more often then not these animals would die of dehydration or starvation because A. people would sign off on their caresheet without feeding / watering them, or B. it would be an animal that wasn't friendly (a cage of ball phthons comes to mind, or the turtle that was left in about 1 quart of unfiltered water for 3 weeks in a 20 gallon tank). Often times the store management would say 'just go back there and sign off on stuff, we dont have time to do it tonight'....

      The saddest thing about out store, despite all that (I worked there for about 2 years, so i knew a LOT about how animals were treated); we were still amongst the top 'animal care providers' in the company, and were awarded for such.

      I implore each and every one of you to shop at online outlets, and to avoid stores like petco, esp the petco in Hanover MA.

      p.s. check the comment i leave on this post for a prior livejournal entry that i made while employed there, can't digg it up before my edit time expires.
      • Sarevok9, on 11/05/2007, -0/+2Here is the journal entry i referred to, sorry it took me a minute, i was having some emo issues at the time, I also merged the entry below into this one, since I didn't feel like linking 2.

        http://sarevok9.livejournal.com/35791.html
      • Metis2be, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1I've read story after story about things like this, I believe petco is a horrible company. However, the link to the livejournal article gave no relevant information.

        http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/petco
        • Sarevok9, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1It was a spur of the moment link, and yes, it was a half an entry, the other half was subsequently deleted after an internal investigation of my boss at the time was initiated at request of company leadership, sadly i deleted it in my shortsightedness, rather then just privatizing it.
    • kmckanna, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1I agree, give me the employees name and address and I'll show him what it's really like to get smacked around.
  • shaka776, on 11/07/2007, -4/+45Hey, sometimes you just have to beat your dog to keep them in line...and it makes them tougher - M. Vick
  • Skepsis, on 11/05/2007, -8/+4Petco is where the pets go for an obvious reason. Seriously, though - that is pretty bad.
    • animallover101, on 11/06/2007, -0/+0Tell me about it. my sister has a cat who was thrown at a wall when she was a kitten. she's blind now! but she's still the sweeted cat ever.
    • nellebelle1234, on 11/10/2007, -0/+0Take a look at this link and tell me about PetCo. I will NEVER shop at that filthy disgusting store ever again. I bought 1 fish there and 16 others in my tank died because the fish was contaminated!!!!
      http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/44344287 ...
  • whatthefu, on 11/05/2007, -8/+3I bet you there isn't one company out there that someone hasn't called to have boycotted.
  • bossm4n, on 11/06/2007, -1/+50File a complaint with the ASPCA. They take claims of animal abuse very seriously. Let them investigate the incident.
  • blitzer, on 11/05/2007, -16/+9If a gay dog was on your back.. would you beat it off?
    • shadowsurfr1, on 11/05/2007, -0/+2If you read the article, you would know that wasn't the case.
    • llamaguy132, on 11/05/2007, -2/+1if any dog attacks, you dam well better kill the beast.
    • DustyinBFE, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1What does this have to do with the story? And why a gay dog?
    • Scottamus, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1I believe he was going for a double entendre of grade school quality.
  • asdfuiop, on 11/07/2007, -8/+56…………………..,-~*’`¯lllllll`*~,
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    • D3koy, on 11/05/2007, -2/+3I'm going to assume you didn't do that in the digg comment box...
    • rabidg00se, on 11/05/2007, -1/+8facepalm.jpg
    • jmcbain, on 11/05/2007, -4/+4Go back to /b/ and waste your life away with your stupid WHEN I WAS *****.
    • llamaguy132, on 11/05/2007, -1/+1i see your argument but have to dissagree
  • mrfreeziexp, on 11/05/2007, -0/+9NOW I see why Petco is where the pets go.
  • KokomoNYC, on 11/05/2007, -7/+1Hmmm, maybe his employers like Doom music.
    • Pbrane101, on 11/05/2007, -4/+1or Wolfenstein music. He also probably likes to wander in jail cells and eat turkey dinners.
  • ithejosh, on 11/05/2007, -2/+13Wish I was the first to put in a Michael Vick joke.
  • dontencourageme, on 11/07/2007, -3/+3is there anyway for us to get this video?
  • vpshockwave, on 11/05/2007, -2/+11Not to get off topic, but is It Pets Mart, or Pet Smart -- I've been reading it as Pets Mart my whole life, so I'm gonna feel like a dumbass if its the other way around.
    • Cloned, on 11/05/2007, -1/+2Both, that's the point.
    • rarson, on 11/05/2007, -0/+2The damn S is capitalized on the sign. So if you've been "reading" it as "Pets Mart" your whole life, you definitely are a dumbass, or maybe dyslexic?
    • vpshockwave, on 11/05/2007, -3/+1I guess I read it that way because I thought Pet Smart sounded ***** dumb.

      Don't you people have something better to do than troll digg?
    • Yuthinkiwont, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1You're not stupid. It used to be PetsMart, but about two years ago the company decided to change it to PetSmart, to sound more enticing to customers.
      I only know this because I worked there when they changed. They had to overhaul the store to follow with the new capitalization, changing uniforms, name tags, and the outside sign.
      • rarson, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1The store that was in the town I lived in was definitely called "PetSmart." It was built at least 5 years before I left the town, and I haven't lived there in almost 7 years. And the same freaking sign is still on the building.
    • Thuktun, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1I always assumed the original intent was to be ambiguous in an overly-clever marketing kind of way. You know, it's a "mart" for "pets" and they're "smart" about your "pet". Bleah.
  • xsquirrel378x, on 11/05/2007, -2/+18when these dogs owners are beating this guy senseless in the parking lot, remind everyone that you were just playing with him
  • brentinkc, on 11/05/2007, -3/+0I hope the dogs held their own better than that British guy
  • AndrewDB, on 01/10/2008, -1/+11Can we beat the employee?
  • Namakemono, on 11/05/2007, -4/+4The only pets that should be spanked are monkeys.
  • Slacker1031, on 11/05/2007, -6/+101 out of hundreds of thousands of this chain store had a guy abuse the dogs. It is not company policy to abuse the dogs. Where does boycotting the company make sense? and how does using a local kennel make your dog safer?
    • mst3kcrow, on 11/05/2007, -0/+8I believe their boycott of the store is more towards the fact that the District Manager didn't fire the employee. I don't agree having a dog at a local kennel will necessarily make it safer; I do believe that having a dog with a person you trust will make the dog safer. Just my $0.02.
  • stackered, on 11/05/2007, -3/+3he did what Michael Vick couldnt...
    • bonds, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1Get down on all fours and fight a pit bull himself while having people gamble on who dies first?
  • mst3kcrow, on 11/07/2007, -1/+9What a cruel piece of ***** employee.
  • slashbot, on 11/07/2007, -2/+8There is no excuse to beat a dog =(

    pets have no chance to defend themselves
    • spyd3rweb, on 11/05/2007, -1/+2tell that to police attack dogs.
      • cdahlkvist, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1They are trained to do so, dumbass. Furthermore, there are countless stories of police dogs being beaten, shot and killed by perps. Try Google and then kill yourself.
  • zerhynn, on 11/05/2007, -8/+2Shop smart. Shop Pet-Smart.
    • spyd3rweb, on 11/13/2007, -2/+2no, Shop smart, Shop S-Mart.
      • zerhynn, on 11/05/2007, -1/+2That was the joke. :D
        • spyd3rweb, on 11/13/2007, -0/+2apparently the people that read both our jokes dont get it.
    • Hollic, on 11/13/2007, -1/+2Bad luck on the negative diggs. Try reversing the joke next time.
  • riverstyx, on 11/05/2007, -6/+6Dugg for having a dog with a lampshade on his head. That never gets old.
    • bonds, on 11/05/2007, -1/+1"God I really wanna chew on my crotch right now."
  • slayernine, on 11/05/2007, -2/+1In response to the word art up top

    It would be an interesting statistic to see how many 4chan users frequent digg.
  • chubbymidget, on 11/05/2007, -4/+1Hey maybe he had it coming, he did use "The N Word".

    ohh wait that was Dawg....
    • bonds, on 11/05/2007, -2/+0Racist dogs run they mouth, they bound tah get smacked. Raise a paw in anger, you gon' get ya jaw jacked.
  • NathanielJ, on 11/05/2007, -3/+1Unverified blog post trying to bash big, evil corporation #452. It sucks if everything's exactly as they claim, but why would the district manager conclude that there's nothing going on there if there actually was? Why would they risk getting animal aid etc on their case if they could simply fire the bad employee who means nothing to them, unless the person making the complaint was hugely overreacting?

    Oh, and including a picture of an injured dog at the top of the "story" who actually has nothing to do with the story is extremely bad form.
    • jcounterman, on 11/05/2007, -0/+3Here here. Until we have video, we won't know if it was a bad employee, or one of those overly paranoid dog owners who would never dream of roughousing, or even playing with, their beloved pooch.

      I am friends with an overly paranoid dog owner who is confrontational if somebody even smokes at the dog park, she yells at them because of the health of her dog. Without proof, there is no way to say this isn't the same type of thing.
  • cnot3, on 11/05/2007, -1/+2does he beat the one-eyed weasels too?
  • heynow21, on 11/05/2007, -2/+0Their rape stands and cattle prods are also way overpriced.
  • JonTheGoose, on 11/05/2007, -1/+7Video or it didn't happen.

    Seriously, sometimes dogs like to rough house play especially larger breeds and the guy said him self that they were LARGE dogs. It's not like he was drop kicking a chihuahua and besides, if they were in fact large dogs if they felt that they were being attacked, especially by a stranger like a pet shop employee, they would have eaten his ass.
  • flip, on 11/07/2007, -2/+6Both petsmart™ and petco™ have HORRIBLE records with their abuse of animals.
    They constantly get cited by both animal welfare and animal abuse officials within various cities around this nation.

    They hire inexperienced people and pay them base bottom minimum wage.
    As a exotic animal breeder the industry is buzzing with a constant stream of reports about treatment by these corporate warehouses that would put any of us ethical breeders out of business in a heartbeat.
    They buy their animals from either wholesale pet brokers or from bulk breeders directly, many ethical breeders Refuse to do any business with them after it became known how poorly their animals were treated after they left their care.
    To top it off BOTH corporations have contracts that protect them from "product loss" where they return dead animals back to the breeders as "defective product" and demand a full refund for not only the cost of the animal but the expense of shipping the dead animal back to the breeder (when such action could be done without causing a uproar from the shipping company)
    upon necropsy of such returns the breeders found evidence of ill treatment abuse including death from lack of water, food broken bones and direct physical abuse.

    I STRONGLY URGE TO SHOP ELSEWHERE... the old fashioned mom and pop neighborhood petstores can serve all your needs
    perhaps for a buck or so more but it
    I'll be better service without the animal abuse.
    http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en& ...
    http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&safe=off ...
    and if you ever see something happening
    NEVER call for the manager
    note the time and people involved then contact city animal welfare asap
    the management will always cover the companies ass
    the only way to deal with these people is to shut them down.
    • cdahlkvist, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1"As a exotic animal breeder", "ethical breeders"

      Here is how to be ethical. Don't breed animals. There are enough animals, cats, dogs, snakes, rabbits, etc. without homes. You are not ethical since you are clearly breeding animals for profit and nothing more.
    • graberc, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1sounds like you hate your competition.
  • WatchingTV, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1Call Pet Smart Corp Office and Complain to them about this
  • holysocks, on 11/05/2007, -2/+3how else are dogs suppose to learn?
  • toetagger, on 11/05/2007, -1/+1BOYCOTT
  • MacSuxWindozSux, on 11/05/2007, -1/+1I beat dogs... at checkers.
  • DustyinBFE, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1Letter to the editor of that site:
    In regards to your post at: http://consumerist.com/consumer/cruelty/petsmart-e ...
    Regarding the quote, "If you need to board your pet, use a local kennel instead a chain pet store."
    I just wanted to leave you a quick note about that quote. When I was 18 years old I worked at a "local kennel/petstore" when I moved to a new area and needed a job asap. I lasted 1 month at this place, because they beat the dogs and manhandled the cats. My last straw, which was the day I quit, was when I watched the owner literally smack her foot down on a dogs neck as it made a chocking sound.
    So taking them your "local kennel" isn't going to be any better then taking them to PetSmart. People are cruel.
    Why don't you suggest to the owners to do it themselves ... that's what I've been doing since I saw how these people treat cats and dogs.
  • roberto_deneero, on 11/05/2007, -1/+2Was it a small dog?? Small dogs are annoying...all they do is yip yip yip all f*cking day long...they deserve a beating. Where's Vick when you need him?
  • Error601, on 11/05/2007, -1/+2Consumerist - fictional or excessively exaggerated.
  • firechill, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1i hope one day this guy gets his face bit off.
  • ckasprzak, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1SICK - these animals trust us humans and then we have people that do this sh*t.....
  • graberc, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1if a dog is bad you smack it. . .WTF do you want here.
  •  

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