I needed a job to get through college and happen to be really into animals, so I got a job at PetSmart as a “petcare associate”. My job is to care for all the live animals in store as well as sell them and answer customer questions.
I can't even begin to cover the level of neglect and pain this company inflicts on animals, as well as how shitty they treat their associates. All of this while acting like they're the good guys. I'm only going to talk about the working conditions in this post but I promise you, they are horrible evil people.
First off all, 12 dollars an hour. I get asked questions every single day that are veterinarian levels of complexity. Diagnosing and offering potential fixes in everything from dogs, leopard geckos, fish, chinchillas, you name it. Not only am I expected to be able to answer all of these questions correctly, but you are given absolutely zero training on the care of these animals or how to answer these questions. I thought there would at least be a shitty click through PowerPoint on each animal. There's the one sheet pamphlets that are really just a shopping list and that's it. Your education that is necessary to do your job is entirely on your own time and dime.
We “have the right to deny service to people who will neglect or abuse an animal”, however their definition of neglect and abuse is extremely extremely loose because they are guilty of it themselves. When I do deny a sale usually the manager just overrides the decision and chews me out because the customer will give a bad review. I've been yelled at for not selling fish that grow 12 inches into ten gallon tanks even when the tags clearly say “minimum of 29 gallons”, for not selling two syrian hamsters into the smallest cage we sell (they'll kill eachother), not selling a guinea pig to a guy who returned his last one on deaths door after not taking it to the vet when it didn't eat or drink for five days. Unless they flat out say they are feeding the chinchilla to a snake I really can't say no.
I am not allowed to say anything bad about any product we sell. I am not allowed to suggest that the person should not be getting the pet they want. Do you know how horrible of a pet a hamster is for a five year old?
By myself, in three to four hours, I am expected to care for every animal in store. Typically this means caring for about 100 different birds in about 12 cages, a hundred hamsters in about 30 cages, 20 guinea pigs in 4 cages, chinchillas, all the different lizards, fish, and insects. deep cleaning one animals section (birds, back rooms, lizards), deep cleaning about 20 fish tanks, all of the cats for adoption, open and tidy our section of the store, and then give treatment to all of the sick animals in back (can range from one to 30 needing just general observation to daily cage cleaning and medications).
How am I supposed to be dedicated to a company that is the embodiment of corporate greed? Why do a good job when it just means more money goes twords hurting these animals? I mean today it was below -40 with wind chill and we got a shipment of fucking reptiles, all dead of fucking course. But the company doesn't care because the supplier takes the loss. These animals are just annoying products to this corporation. They only sell them because they're a vehicle to sell all of their supplies which is where the actual profit is.
Can't wait to be done. Only wish I could do it without feeling guilty about not being able to do anything.