100 Animals Die At Petco In Flood, Company Blames City

[douglas9]

Nearly 100 animals died last week at a Johnson City, NY, Petco after flooding filled the store with several feet of water. Outrage over the incident was fanned when the company posted an apology notice on its blog that at first blamed the city for incident for not adequately warning the store about the flood risk.

"We want to stress that this was not carelessness on our associates' behalf, but a communications lapse from the city to the store in evacuations orders," said the post, which was written by Petco's VP of Animal Care and Education. "We are investigating why we did not receive those evacuation orders from the city if this area was known to flood in the past," it continued. "Had we been aware of potential flooding, we would have removed all of the animals from the store as we do in all other locations."

While 100 animals died in the flood, at least 100 were able to be rescued by store employees, pressconnects reports.

http://consumerist.com/2011/09/100-animals-die-at-petco-in-flood-company-blames-city.html

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. I don't get it. What were 100 animals doing in a petco?

I go to petco frequently, I never see 10 animals in there let alone 100.
Is this referring to the rodents and cockroaches that live in the pet food aisle?

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. Make that 200 with 100 rescued

Was thinking the same thing. Horrifying thought - do they have a Vet center that keeps animals overnight? Even so - if it was evacuated where there was no overnight care on hand, why wouldn't the owners be notified?

This doesn't make any sense (unless they are counting all the fish along with the wee-little furry and crickety ones)

[nadine_mn]

4. lol - you posted my exact same thoughts

get out of my head!!

[nadine_mn]

3. said 100 were rescued by staff too - so that meant over 200 in the store

Even accounting for cat adoptions (which our petco has maybe 10 cats up for adoption), some ferrets, bunnies, birds and grooming - that still doesn't seem to add up to 200.

Oooh unless they mean fish in fish tanks - oooh the irony of fish drowning in a flood

[haele]

7. The shock of sudden cold and polluted river water could kill fish -

I doubt they would have been able to rescue the fish, and they'd also have difficulty with the birds. :(
There were probably around 50 small birds (parakeets, canaries and finches) in the store, and that could have driven the number up - just the shock of a flood and an emergancy move would kill some.

Haele

[nadine_mn]

9. Oh I know - especially if they were tropical fish - I know how hard

it would be to save them safely. I guess when I think of animals at PetCo my first thought was large furry creatures. It took me a minute to realize all of the smaller animals. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to move the fish, birds and reptiles.

[brendan120678]

5. According to the Binghamton, NY newspaper...

it was, "Petco's animals, which include hamsters, reptiles, birds and aquatic life, were left in the store during the flood..."

see: http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20110910/NEWS01/109100392/PETCO-discovery-Close-100-animals-lost-flood

[Supersedeas]

13. Republican respect for the sanctity of life--disrespect then blame the City

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. 100s in my store in Los angeles - hamsters, birds, mice, lizards, snakes, guinea pigs

[Shagbark Hickory]

11. You mean to tell me people in LA buy mice and snakes?

You don't have enough of those just moseying about?

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. yup. We do buy 'em.

[LynneSin]

10. Petco sells alot of small animals and birds plus has setup for Rescue adoptions

My local Petco will have about 20-30 cats available for adoption from local rescue groups. They also sell hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, mice, gerbils and even a few ferrets. They'll also have turtles and lizards. Plus include the various birds from the small budgies (usually a cage with 40-60 of them flying around) all the way to at least 1-2 parrots.

So those numbers seem valid.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. How bad was this flood?

Unless the manager was looking to maximize space, aren't most little critters caged at eye level and higher with supplies/food/bedding at the lower levels? I know in my store, the lowest glass cages you find are at 4' above ground level.