This question has been on my mind a lot recently. As you know, I've been working at a retail chain pet store since summer of 2007 and have mixed feelings in terms of our objectives and priorities. Being corporate-owned, there is tremendous pressure for each store to drive sales and maximize profits, sometimes at the expense of the very animals we claim come first. Now, don't get me wrong, not all chain pet stores are created equal and where I work is probably one of the best, BUT we still can't compare with the quality of care provided by reputable breeders. How so, you ask? Well...
First off, the high turnover rate of employees poses a problem, especially where proper training is concerned. My biggest gripe to date has been inadequate training, hence why I created this blog as a personal forum to share what I'm learning on my own time from books and internet research. The best workers we have also choose to research animal care on their own time and they are a valuable resource, but they're also a small minority. There's so much to learn and customers rightly deserve knowledgeable answers to their questions, but with inadequate training and a lack of well-informed peers and managers to turn to, we're limited in what we can do.
Granted, the public shares the responsibility of becoming informed on the proper care of the animals they choose to keep, but in reality many pets are viewed as temporary and/or disposable, particularly freshwater fish. We're encouraged to educate the public while at the same time push sales aggressively, so what do you think typically results from this? Unfortunately, the sales (numbers and tallies) are what my boss is looking at (as well as the bosses above her), so educating the public on their pet purchase tends to take a backseat, despite what the public relations department may claim. ("You plan on putting these 20 neons in a 1-gallon bowl? Hmmm...oh well. Do you need anything else today?") Rarely is a sale rejected.
With low pay and few incentives offered, the chain retail environment doesn't always lure in the best applicants. Some folks just don't really care what happens to the animals in the store. Dirty petters/cages, soiled bedding, untreated ailments and infections, and water bottles allowed to run dry are routine issues we face. Those that do care attempt to pick up the slack for those that don't, and we run in a state of perpetually being behind and rushed, tending to the most urgent matters in a race against the clock.
That's another issue: the clock. Corporations are in business to make as much money as possible, which means cutting hours where possible. We're frequently (numerous times per week) encouraged to tend to the most pressing matters and then clock out early in order to save the company money. Aside from the animals not receiving as much time and attention as needed, the hourly employees experience reduced paychecks, resulting in more frustration and a higher turnover.
When store meetings are called for the staff, the issues being addressed are never about animal welfare or how we can step up our efforts to become better care providers, it's always about sales and maximizing profits. With so much pressure to crank out sales, animal care concerns can't help but fall to the wayside.
Policies and procedures are handed down by corporate, diminishing the discretion used by employees and store management. This is particularly burdensome in cases of treating diseases and illness. We're not authorized to use certain medications even if proven effective or to adjust the temperatures beyond what's specified or even to disrupt the planogram (e.g. - what animals are kept where and how many to a tank or petter). Overcrowded conditions? Sorry, but that's beyond our control.
An issue I deal with regularly is ich and fungus in the fish tanks. We can tell the public the fish are sick, but we're not able to effectively treat the fish since there is no quarantine area for them. When using a sump system as most pet stores do, disease travels to all tanks connected to that water supply, resulting in a steady, high death rate. What do we do about this? Band-aid efforts such as using a "dip" where we may place the fish in a bucket of saltwater or freshwater for 20 minutes at a time and the occasional use of Clout (a medication shown to cause cancer in humans if handled, though we're not supplied gloves or provided any other way to avoid skin contact) is all we really have at our disposal. This is why I encourage customers to set up a quarantine tank in their own homes to house any fish purchased in an effort of protecting their established tanks. This is a good practice to follow regardless of where you purchase your fish.
What about the small animals we sell? Ever wonder where they come from? I can tell you they don't come from reputable local breeders. Instead they come in from a large distributor that sells a huge variety of species to all or most of our stores, just like any other chain retail pet store. Why does this matter? Essentially, the pets come from places that are in the business of mass production of companion animals, which is said to be the primary reason why so many of our animals are susceptible to diseases and illness or arrive sick. The public would be shocked to learn just how many of these pets have to be treated with antibiotics while under our care.
As I learned after purchasing my rat Jimmie Bo from the store where I work, exposing a sick animal to the pets you already keep can lead to all of your animals becoming ill. Now all of my rats are being treated with Doxycyclene and Jimmie continues to live a lonely life in an isolated cage in an effort to reduce exposure until he's healthy enough to be returned to the main cage. It's been weeks now and he's still not yet well. Had it not been for a kind veterinarian and a concerned co-worker that offered medication free of charge, I don't know what I would have done. The vet said the medication that may eventually be needed will cost $60 per bottle, and that's for a $3 pet rat! Just think...Jimmie wasn't the only one suffering with this illness. In fact, most of the rats that come in have to be treated at one time or another, though the duration of treatment is oftentimes just long enough to where they appear healthy and can be returned to the sales floor. That does not mean they are fully restored to health, just improved temporarily so that we might sell them, at which time their healthcare issues become your problem. I'm sorry but that's not fair to anyone, especially the animals.
As you can tell, I'm frustrated to no end and am seriously considering leaving my place of employment, never to return to a chain pet store that sells live animals. I'm completely disenchanted with the management, both locally and at corporate headquarters. During these past 9 months, I've witnessed more crap than I ever cared to and have been instructed to go along with decisions that create moral qualms for me.
One issue in particular that arose recently was a mechanical defect in the freezer where we keep the frozen foods that are for sale to the public, resulting in all of the meats defrosting. I brought the issue to the attention of my team lead who then contacted our general manager. We were told to attempt to repair the freezer (how??) and after that failed, were instructed to place all of the frozen items in crates that were then carried out on to the loading dock. Our general manager gave orders to the manager-on-duty to let the thawed meats (krill, baby brine shrimp, packaged feeder mice and rats, etc.) refreeze so that we could sell them the following workday. I had no choice but to object. That could result in animals (your pets) falling ill after eating rancid meats! The meats weren't partially thawed; we're talking about a 52 degree F temperature in the freezer for who knows how long. So, anyway, that night I called the incident in to the ethics hotline for my company. The thawed goods were disposed of when I next came in to work, but no other actions were taken. The boss isn't too happy with me, to say the least.
The issue there was that profit and inventory concerns overshadowed animal health concerns. Sure, a small, locally-owned business could have acted just as carelessly, but they have a reputation to protect where as retail giants have a bit more flexibility and PR people to gloss over poor managerial decisions.
So really, why should retail chains continue to sell live animals? Besides offering lower prices, what benefit is it to the public or to the animals under our care?
It's time to look for a new job... 
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