Please urge everyone you know to boycott Petsmart throughout its
entire network in the UK and abroad. Tonight a report on the BBC
"Watchdog" programme showed how Petsmart encourages its employees to
abuse animals. There is text of the programme at...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/stories/wwpetsmart.shtml

I  have also printed the text of the website below in case you cannot
access the site. It is appalling that such practises have been taking
place.

regards, helen s

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Thousands of pets will be bought in the run up to Christmas - and
where better to go than Petsmart - whose colourful sign and slogan
promotes ‘Where Pets are Family’.

It appears to be everything that you would expect from the UK’s
largest pet supermarket, however Weekend Watchdog has discovered a
shocking catalogue of cruelty at many of their stores.

A former employee who worked as a livestock assistant for Petsmart,
spoke to Weekend Watchdog.
She claims Petsmart regularly sells unweaned hamsters, which is
illegal. She says:
"They would be bought in at about four or five weeks and they would be
just too young to sell. They would get stressed and ill very quickly.
Most of these animals would die and we would have a lot of very
unhappy children after Christmas."

Natasha Stewart worked at Redhill Petsmart, in Surrey. She says during
the summer of 1997, the store’s air conditioning was often broken and
the animals were left to swelter in the heat. Natasha was told by the
manager, if the RSPCA or press visited the store then staff were to
say ‘no comment’.

Scott Wilson is a former employee of Petsmart in Peterborough and
worked there until April of this year. He recalls rabbits kept in a
rusty apex pen, with many cutting their feet on the sharp edges.

Andy Guile was the store manager of Petsmart in Kilcaldy. He also
worked at three other stores in Scotland. Andy says Petsmart are very
unprofessional and don’t really care about the animals. He feels
Petsmart is using the animals as a shop window, to get customers into
the rest of the store.

Weekend Watchdog discovered more disturbing facts about Petsmart.
The programme has learned that sick or unwanted animals have been
killed in the most gruesome of ways. One former employee said she can
remember a rabbit being taken out the back of the warehouse and being
knocked over the head with a spade. The rabbit was then put into a bag
and disposed of in a skip. Andy Guile also told Weekend Watchdog about
similar stories. He says hamsters were often disposed of in a bag, by
hitting them against a wall.

Any shop selling animals would expect to dispose of sick or dead
creatures from time to time. It would be impossible to run a
successful business by preserving stock at all costs until natural
death. However, the rules say animals should be killed in a humane
way. The normal method being euthanasia, using an injection of
barbiturates, normally given by a veterinary surgeon. There are also
strict guidelines which govern the disposal of dead animals. All
clinical waste should be placed in a separate, clearly marked yellow
plastic sack - and picked up by a licensed carrier to be incinerated.
Employees have told Weekend Watchdog that this did not happen.

Petsmart says it is absolutely determined to make whatever changes may
be necessary to get things right. It says:
"We have strict animal welfare procedures and we want to make sure
that all our staff know about them and stick to them. To help us do
this, we are setting up an external Advisory Panel, made up of
independent expert consultants, veterinarians and educators to
investigate immediately all of the issues raised and carry out a
comprehensive review to make sure we do things right. We are also in
contact with the RSPCA who have agreed to review on paper our
standards and procedures."

Petsmart have also set up an Animal Welfare Hotline for staff to use
and asked the company vet to review every one of the 92 stores. This
will be followed by spot inspections by a team of managers. Petsmart
says it has many experienced and dedicated staff around the country
who are passionate about the care and welfare of animals, who share
it’s concern over Weekend Watchdog’s report.

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Love us, love ower hoomin...