Petco fail

Paiige

Arachnobaron
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Oct 2, 2016
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Checking the Petco website because I have a coupon for some eco earth and I stumble upon this...
http://about.petco.com/2016-04-28-Petco-Expands-Tarantula-Offerings-to-Include-25-Different-Breeds

This is the list of available Ts Petco is now stocking. :banghead:
Had to do some Googling to figure out the common names for some of these but look at the Ts that some poor unsuspecting child will be inevitably taking home...

(From their website):

Temperate Tarantulas:
  • Chaco Golden Knee
  • Costa Rican Stripe-Knee
  • Haitian Brown
  • Mexican Curly Hair
  • Mexican Red Leg
  • Mexican Red Rump
  • Oklahoma Brown
  • Texas Tan
  • Mozambique Golden Baboon (A ezendami)
  • Rear Horned Baboon (C darlingi)
  • Usumbara Orange Baboon (P murinus)
  • Rose Hair
Tropical Tarantula:
  • Brazilian Black & White
  • Brazilian Giant Salmon
  • Brazilian Giant White Knee
  • Brazilian Red & White
  • Brazilian White Banded
  • Costa Rican Tiger Rump
  • Guyana Pink Toe
  • Indian Ornamental (P regalis)
  • Ivory Ornamental (P subfusca)
  • King Baboon (P muticus)
  • Mysore Ornamental (P striata)
  • Trinidad Chevron (P cambridgei)
  • Venezuelan Sun Tiger (P irminia)
 

dopamine

Arachnobaron
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Feb 7, 2010
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341
Wow. "Haitian Browns" aren't the friendliest species out there lol. I didn't even notice the highlighted pokies and baboons either :rofl: I doubt they'll provide any kind of cautionary info that'll get in the way of a sale.
 

Andrea82

Arachnoemperor
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You would've thought they'd know better by now.... I know they have received multiple complaints about it.
Are these sold in those tarantula huts?
 

Paiige

Arachnobaron
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Wow. "Haitian Browns" aren't the friendliest species out there lol. I doubt they'll provide any kind of cautionary info that'll get in the way of a sale.
I didn't recognize that name or Google it but yeah that's P cancerides...not something you want to take home to show your toddler.

I can't believe they sell pokies!

And can you imagine a first time T buyer trying to get that "little orange fluffball" out of whatever cup they send you home with it in? Let alone the Petco employee trying to get it into said cup...
 

Paiige

Arachnobaron
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You would've thought they'd know better by now.... I know they have received multiple complaints about it.
Are these sold in those tarantula huts?
I would imagine so, that way employees don't have to handle them. I've seen 3" avics in those tiny Tarantula Huts before...
 

EulersK

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The location right by where I work sells these, they always have fresh stock. Whether they're being sold or just dying off, I'm not sure. They always say that they'll carry those hot species, but I've never seen anything other than NW terrestrials.
 

dopamine

Arachnobaron
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I'm guessing they'll still be using those tarantula huts. Hoping for a warning label of some kind but not holding my breath. Poor T's
 

MetalMan2004

Arachnodemon
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Can't wait to see the news headline:

"Kid hospitalized because parents bought him a Pokie from petco with no prior research and also Petco is Stupid."

Thats how I would write it anyways.
 

Paiige

Arachnobaron
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The location right by where I work sells these, they always have fresh stock. Whether they're being sold or just dying off, I'm not sure. They always say that they'll carry those hot species, but I've never seen anything other than NW terrestrials.
I'm sure every Petco has at least one reptile enthusiast that knows something about Ts...or at least has heard enough about OBTs to tell their managers not to order them.
 

Paiige

Arachnobaron
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Can't wait to see the news headline:
"Kid hospitalized because parents bought him a Pokie from petco with no prior research and also Petco is Stupid."
Thats how I would write it anyways.
'Tarantula escapes local Petco when "cool" teen attempts to handle - 3 hospitalized, deadly spider on the loose. Petco being sued for selling "monsters," story at 5'
 

EulersK

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I'm sure every Petco has at least one reptile enthusiast that knows something about Ts...or at least has heard enough about OBTs to tell their managers not to order them.
People in the stores have zero say on what they get for shipments - it's all automated based on inventory. They log any sales, deaths (which would also count as inventory going down), or escapes. From there, the system automatically tells their depot what needs to be replenished.

As for education, not necessarily. With these tarantulas, all employees had to go through a "training" that involved reading a premade caresheet. You can guess what the caresheet said.

Note: A friend is a supervisor at one of these stores
 

Paiige

Arachnobaron
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deaths (which would also count as inventory going down)
That hurts my heart :(
When hubby and I first started dating, he took a seasonal temp job at Petco just to make some extra money for the holidays...lasted one week because the animals were all treated so poorly and no one cared.
 

EulersK

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That hurts my heart :(
When hubby and I first started dating, he took a seasonal temp job at Petco just to make some extra money for the holidays...lasted one week because the animals were all treated so poorly and no one cared.
I've just gotten so jaded in this hobby. Don't get me wrong, I love these creatures, but I'm not going to be a freedom fighter for them. Concerning those stores, I'd much rather see the mammals and birds be taken care of better. At the end of the day, these are just spiders. Those mammals/birds can feel pain and hunger, spiders just fizzle out and die. They do seem to take care of their mammals, so I'll give them credit there.
 

Paiige

Arachnobaron
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I've just gotten so jaded in this hobby. Don't get me wrong, I love these creatures, but I'm not going to be a freedom fighter for them. Concerning those stores, I'd much rather see the mammals and birds be taken care of better. At the end of the day, these are just spiders. Those mammals/birds can feel pain and hunger, spiders just fizzle out and die. They do seem to take care of their mammals, so I'll give them credit there.
To me, it doesn't matter whether it can feel pain or abandonment - it's a living creature. I'm just a big bleeding heart, I can't help it :banghead:
 

Tygarys

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There is one up-side to this, they are a source of cheap slings if you have never raised one. I picked up a B. smithi sling from them some time back to give raising slings a try.
 

Andrea82

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There is one up-side to this, they are a source of cheap slings if you have never raised one. I picked up a B. smithi sling from them some time back to give raising slings a try.
Not sure how i feel about this statement. I understand cheaper means more accesible..but to support this kind of commerce simply for a cheap sling..
I don't know.
Besides, fellow hobbyists are more often than not willing to sell you a sling for much less than petco-prices.
And i would not rely on what te package says when you buy a sling from them. News has traveled that people ended up with completely different species than they thought they bought. This includes buying a NW, and discovering it is in fact an OW.
 

Vanessa

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Petco is a hell on earth for animals - regardless of species. Hate on animal rights groups all you want to, but they have spent forever trying to shut that place down for the cruelty that goes on there. And it goes on in Canada too - PJ's Pets were one of the very worst places there is and they are where I bought Evelyn, my first tarantula, almost 18 years ago. They carried species not appropriate for new people and I talked a 12 year old out of buying a C.lividum a couple of weeks after I got Evelyn. They experienced a rash of very bad publicity, due to the condition of the animals in their stores, and sales plummeted because of it. They have recently gone out of business and I couldn't be happier. Petco needs to go out of business too, but they won't as long as people continue to shop there. They are vile and despicable and I would love to see the end of them - tarantulas or no tarantulas.
 

Vanessa

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I'm sure every Petco has at least one reptile enthusiast that knows something about Ts...or at least has heard enough about OBTs to tell their managers not to order them.
The managers would not be the ones to order them, more than likely, although in their weekly/monthly reports to head office they may try to make requests. They have regional buyers who sit at a desk, nowhere near any store, and order everything for a dozen locations in their region based upon sales figures and charts alone. Chances of any of them knowing a lick about tarantulas is slim and none. They probably have a .pdf, with a bunch of photos and a couple of lines of detail on each spider, and they use that to order them from.
That is the way big corporations usually work.
 
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