Pet Supermarket animal abuse, selling defective products Deerfield Beach, Florida

It sounds like this ex-employee didn't leave on good terms and has a personal issue with the company. I am a current employee of the company in question. While we do have a "sick bay" for the animals, they are not left there to die. In my current store, animals are cared for twice a day or more. If medication is needed, it is administered at the proper times. The medicine box has clear instructions on the front for the medications. This includes what kind of medication to use for certain illness, what dosage should be given, and how frequently it should be administered. There are cage cards for sick animals so you can track who cared for the animal and when. And if it is a serious problem, vet care is provided. Sick reptiles are often taken to the vet to receive medication. Also, wet tail is not always fatal. Wet tail drops and probiotics often clear up the problem very quickly. In stressful environments (like a pet store) it is quite easy for wet tail to develop. This is prevented by putting a 72 hour hold on any new animals (company policy) and coating the food with probiotics to create a healthy gut environment. Any animals that may pass away are not disposed of in the garbage daily. They are bagged in black bags, labeled put in a freezer, and sent back weekly so the remains can be "disposed of" properly. As far as store use of products goes, it sounds like this store had a bad manager. Anything that is used by the store is taken off the floor completely and processed through the system. It never returns to the floor to be resold. If there is a problem with a product, such as broken or missing pieces, or it is expired it is removed from the floor and damaged out. It is not sold. The company is also very serious about rodent prevention and if there are rodents, it is a serious matter that is addressed quickly. Every week the store is inspected for evidence of rodents. If there is evidence, it is reported immediately. Usually within a day of report, a pest control agent from Orkin is sent out to deal with the issue. Afterwards, there are daily follow ups until the problem is resolved. As far as product quality and further rodent prevention, every inch of the store and every single product is cleaned and inspected at least once every six weeks as part of the "CPR" schedule. This is "clean, price, and rotate". The product is rotated to ensure that no expired product is left on the floor. Every single business that sells things with an expiration date rotates product. This is also done with every delivery of product to the store. Which means most everything in the store is checked three times a week as new products come in. Each store also undergoes an inspection every month to make sure this policy is followed. While not every store is perfect, Pet Supermarket takes pride in quality products and quality services. It really sounds like the person who filed this complaint did so out of malice, nothing more.

I won't say that everything you said is untrue. However, it depends on the Pet Supermarket district as well as each individual store and it's store management.

At the stores that I managed at, animals were always number 1 and we had a zero tolerance for that type of behavior that you mentioned. We made sure that our animals went to the vet and pushed for District Manager approval again and again until we got it.

We made sure that each staff member was properly trained on medicating each animal and if they had precise medication/dosage questions we directed them to refer to the detailed info glued to the main medication box as well as read the Animal Maintenance binder behind the front counter (which includes detailed info on each animal that is sold by Pet Supermarket as well as specific medication information for each species.) This main medication box is standard in every store and it is mandatory that each store use it correctly and on a regular basis. However, it is up to the managers of each store to follow through with this basic procedure. 

As for the store use, I was always unhappy with the company's limit on supplies that we could use for the animals. When I left the animal store use limit was capped at $400 dollars a month and when I started working for the company in 2008 the store use limit was $500. Prices on every item continued to increase all the time but our animal supplies limit went down, even when we started having cats live at the store. However using items for the animals and putting them back on the shelf is EXTREMELY against the rules and will most definitely result in termination or a severe write-up.

Honestly, if corporate knew the things that went on in some of the stores it would make them sick and every employee at that store would be terminated.

My biggest problem with Pet Supermarket was how they treat their employees and their illegal overtime expectations (expecting Assistant Manager's and Store Manager's to work 45-50+ hours a week and only pay them for 40 saying it's a "salary" job.)

Overall with how the company is run it won't last much longer unless serious management changes are made in corporate.