Menu
Login
I was in the Petsmart in Salem MA earlier today. I was there to purchase some small fish for my daughter. I have a larger tank at home but was going to keep the new fish in a bowl just for a while so my 5 year old could care for them and call them her own. The person selling the fish would not sell them to me because the bowl I was buying was not big enough. I tried to explain to him but he still refused. He was arrogant and rude. He was in his late 20's or early 30's with dark hair and glasses. he may or may not have had facial hair (I can't remember.) First of all, I am an animal lover. I have a 14 year old diabetic dog that requires 2 shots of inculin per day (a rescue from Northeast Animal Selter.) I have a 19 year old cat (rescue), a 2 year old cat (rescue) and 3 fish one of which is 4 years old. I have several friends who laughed when I told them this story because they buy feeder fish and one has a snake that is fed small rodents. While I would never have an animal that would have to be fed live creatures, I still had to wonder what this guy was doing. I have always shopped at Petsmart because it is closer to me. I left there so angry and insulted that I will never go back. I went a little bit out of my way to the Petco in Peabody MA. I spent $87.00 this trip and found the employees in this store very helpful. I do understand wanting to do everything possible to prevent animal cruelty, but I think there is a fine line that was crossed by your employee.
Is this policy? The bowl not being big enough sounds like a reasonable enough excuse for not selling the gold fish. We should be grateful that the worker was thinking of the welfare of the fish.
Fish need room to swim to survive.
The person selling the fish would not sell them to you because the bowl you were buying was not big enough. The employee was correct.
I work at Petsmart and I would have done the exact same thing. If you are planning on having an animal for a pet, take care of it properly. You wouldn't buy a german shepherd puppy and put it into a tiny crate so your kid could take care of it for a little bit before putting it into a back yard... A fish is a living, breathing thing and it needs the same care as any other living, breathing creature. Yes, they are sold as feeders, but they are killed so another animal can live. They arent mistreated just so a little kid can forget to clean the bowl often enough. Goldfish often don't even last a year in a bowl. Considering their life span can be somewhere between 15 and 20 years... That is NOT fair to them.
The idiocy of your statement is painful.
This right here proves PetSmart employees are extremely stupid and ignorant. JESUS ate fish. It’s common for humans to eat fish. It’s not common to eat dogs or cats unless you are in Asia and even there it’s frowned by many. You people act like a fish is a dog or a cat. It’s a fish! Get over yourselves. This is why Amazon is winning and companies are going out of business and can’t keep up. I can get live fish off Amazon to bypass idiots like you at a pet store.
Oh shut up. If you want to compare other countries, then explain why Japan got praise for their A5 WAGYU STEAK……it’s bc they actually care for their cows before butchering it. They legit massage, and fed it sake. We look down on China, not just bc they eat dogs and cats but bc of how they treat them. They are worse than us. JESUS would rather have a fat fish than a dinky feeder which is “probably” sick.
You're insane. People like you make me want to yell or cringe. You're one of those pet owners who selectively puts the needs and priorities of one animal over another, based on preference. You care about your cats and dogs with their expensive medical vet bills and provide them the proper care they need to thrive, but you clearly don't understand the basic principles of fish keeping (aka, why can't fish simply survive in a "fish bowl"?).
I hate when people buy pets they know nothing about, especially with fish. Fish are just as needy with care as dogs and cats; they just don't go to the vet. People think of fish as easily disposable since they can run cheap, so they keep replacing the old ones without actually learning why the first one died to begin with. There are so many unique kinds of fish, each having a set of their own rules of care. One doesn't rule all - different species have totally different attitudes/temperaments, diets, and requirements for their environment.
The tank setup MUST be the priority when you first start keeping fish, and once your tank is stable you won't have to do as much work later (but be aware, it can take anywhere from 4 weeks to 6 months to get through the Nitrogen Cycle). You have to ALWAYS make sure your fish are living with proper water quality & temperature requirements, pH stability, good tank placement, tank mates that get along, common & contagious disease prevention, quality diet. There's probably one I missed, but I hope you get the point. It's not as simple as feeding the fish every other day. They take responsibility and work, just like your other pets.
If you're feeling overwhelmed right now, good. Go to your local library or do a search online and actually read about the type you plan on getting. And not read a paragraph on one website, I mean read as though you were planning for a new kitten. If you can't grasp what I've just said, you definitely should stay away from fish- actually, from pets all together.
Oh and I don't care what your mother told you, fish live for years, some even 10+ years, not only a just week/month/year or so. She probably told you that off of feeling guilty for killing your first pet.
/end facepalm
I love how you criticize someone for putting the needs and priorities of one pet over another, while defending a store that sells feeder fish
PetSmart associates reserve the right to refuse the sale of an animal if the pet parent does not intend to follow very basic living needs. Fish are the ones most complained about. This refusal is for the safety of the animal and limits returns. The reason we don't question about the habitats of a feeder fish is for a very easy to understand reason: it is a feeder fish.
No fish should be kept in a bowl, not even a betta in my opinion IT IS CRUEL.Good for them for turning you down.I hope they educated you a little as well.
Anyone saying the employee was just concerned for the fish is an #####. If that were true they wouldn't sell feeder fish. Petsmart employees are always arrogant and rude and always try to discourage customers from buying any fish. If I've owned fish tanks longer than you've been alive, I don't need your advice and fish.
Selling a fish to be eaten quickly by another fish is very different from selling one to die slowly choking on its own urine. One is supporting the natural way of things that carnivorous animals need other animals to survive and it is not a cruel way to die. Slowly choking to death on your own urine in a tiny cage bowl for the amusement of a child...not so much.
Do you not understand what a child attention span is like? Who cares if YOU own 50+ animals. The point is that YOUR child is willing to take care of it without your help. You’re basically teaching your kid it’s ok to keep an animal in a tiny space. You have animals. Give them a test if your kid can’t bother to clean up after your other animals then why bother wastes your money on a fish that last for a day?!?!?!
I was recently "educated" on fish care by the manager on duty at PetsMart in Brunswick, Georgia. They took the time to look up the maximum size of all my fish on Wikipedia (really Wikipedia) and calculated that I could only have one more inch of fish for my tank and could, therefore, not sell me two tetras (again - really, two small Tetras). I wasn't asked about how my tank was set up, the frequency of maintenance that I perform, whether I planned to transition to a larger tank (which they sell at PetsMart!) as the fish grow, etc. The rules they are trying to enforce are actually "guidelines" that have been in fish books for a long, long time. The point is that they are "guidelines" - not rules. Any experienced fish keeper knows this. Regarding whether they are looking out for the well-being of the animals, you only have to observe how they stock their own tanks. They loose many, many fish everyday by overstocking their tanks and hoping that high sales volume will take care of the problem. It never - repeat - never does. What is needed here, is some common sense - the ability to think and not just follow what they think are the rules. Yes, take care of the animals, but when a customer gives you an educated, reasonable request - please be reasonable in return.