My Google Review of Westgate Petco

In April, I posted the following Google review for Westgate Petco. I can see it because I’m always logged into the site from my LG phone, but Facebook friends can’t, so, from what I’ve found while researching the problem, Google isn’t posting my review for all to see because it thinks I still work there, making me a biased reviewer. I’ll fix that when I have time. Until then, here’s the review is in its entirety.

My Google Review

I’m a freelance writer and editor who started working retail to help make ends meet in 2017 because I often wind up working for clients like Destination Cleveland who say they’ll pay me “sometime this fall.”

During my four months at Westgate Petco, at least one mouse, one gecko, one snake, two birds, and several hamsters died in addition to a slew of fish. I say “at least” because a) I wasn’t there every day, and b) I rang registers for weeks until the manager of the small animals department got into a shouting match with the store manager and quit, and I was trained to take up his slack until he was replaced.

Illnesses and injuries included:

• baby ferrets that were diagnosed with respiratory infections;
• numerous guinea pigs that went to the vet w/crusty eyes and noses;
• a lizard with fungus jokingly referred to as “leprosy” that spent several months in a back room until it was well enough to be adopted rather than purchased;
• a dwarf hamster w/a ruptured eye;
• a snake w/a prolapsed rectum;
• a snake w/mites in its eyes; and
• a bearded dragon that suffered a broken arm for God only knows how long before someone noticed.

That one even struck my manager as strange. “How do you not notice his arm’s all bent back like this?” she asked, imitating him, when she trained me how to care for the animals in the so-called Wellness room.

But I wasn’t surprised. A hamster’s toe turned black and fell off after an employee injured him on the sales floor.

The Blame Game at Westgate Petco

Hamster with ruptured eye.

Managers blamed the breeder for some of the illnesses, injuries, and deaths. Sometimes, this was fair. The ferrets started sneezing the day after they were delivered, guinea pigs often came with crusty eyes, and the dwarf hamster with the ruptured eye arrived that way. petMD.com says infection or trauma can cause this, “though it may also happen if the hamster is restrained too tightly from the back of the neck.”

I was constantly reminded that Petco is allowed to reject sick or injured animals, but there was no way I was sending an animal back to a breeder – especially after reading about Petco and PetSmart’s Georgia-based breeder that gassed sick animals and put others in a freezer to kill them. Hamster breeders, the equivalent of puppy mills, have zero incentive to pay a $60+ vet bill for a $14.99 hamster.

Managers also blamed breeding in general. The morning I teared up because a mouse was struggling to breathe, the store manager said it was a common problem because feeder mice have been interbred so often. We placed her in a tank in Wellness and gave her bedding, food, water, and millet, and I held her after my shift until half an hour before the store closed, but she died alone – in pain and undoubtedly scared – overnight.

Why I Quit Westgate Petco

Westgate Petco’s deep freezer for dead animals and fish.

Every time I cried because an animal was suffering a slow, painful, and unnecessary death, I was told, “All animals die.” Although that’s true, Petco shouldn’t accelerate the process. Hamsters weren’t dying because they were old or diseased. They were dying because they were shipped in single-digit temperatures, employees weren’t trained, and a stubborn, arrogant manager refused to listen when I told him cabbage (especially the amount of cabbage being given) was making hamsters sick.

A Westgate Petco hamster dying of wet tail.

As The Hamster House website said, “Hamsters love fruit and vegetables, but you need to be careful about the amount you are giving them. Hamsters are obviously only small creatures and too much fruit and veg in their diet can cause diarrhea.”

The site recommends a smidgen of the following foods:

• apple
• banana
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• carrot
• cucumber
• chicory
• peach
• pear

petMD added the following to the list of safe foods:

• bok choy
• cantaloupe
• celery
• cherry
• kale
• mango
• raspberry
• strawberry
• sweet potatoes (with skin removed)

But “whatever you choose to feed your hamster in addition to their pellets or seed mixture should amount to no more than the size of two raisins,” the site said.

You should’ve seen the amount of cabbage an employee doled out the day before another hamster got wet tail — with a green hind end.