When a for-profit business uses animals, its foremost priority is going to be financial gain, not the animals’ well-being — and the animals will suffer for it. We’ve seen it in puppy mills, where mother dogs are used as breeding machines until their bodies wear out, and we’ve seen it in factory farms, where chickens are trapped in cages so small that they can’t even spread a wing. That’s why PETA works hard to expose cruelty to animals wherever it occurs — including at big-box stores like PetSmart.
Most recently, three managers of a Nashville, Tenn., PetSmart store pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals after a PETA expose caught them repeatedly refusing to provide sick, injured, and dying animals with veterinary care to “keep costs down” so they would receive bonuses.
One guinea pig named Townes had an abscessed knee joint that spread infection throughout his body, including to his heart and brain. The tiny animal could not stand up or even right himself. Yet managers refused to take him for emergency veterinary treatment, saying, “There’s no point in me paying that for a $15 animal.” Townes’ suffering didn’t end until PETA’s eyewitness took him to a veterinarian, who recommended euthanasia.
PETA wishes the suffering of animals like Townes were “fake news,” as Charles Sauer calls PETA’s PetSmart expose in a recent column. But we’ve seen it again and again: At a Florida PetSmart, animals were left to languish during Hurricane Irma; when workers returned four days later, several had escaped, approximately 30 had run out of water, and some had died.
At an Arizona PetSmart, a mouse named Ninetails was denied veterinary care for a pus-filled growth the size of a blueberry.
Not only are pet stores notorious for treating small animals like disposable merchandise, many are also guilty of selling litter after litter of puppies and kittens, which exacerbates our nation’s animal overpopulation and homelessness crisis. Every year, more than 6 million dogs and cats end up in U.S. animal shelters — and half of them have to be euthanized because there simply aren’t enough homes for them all. Many more end up on the streets, where they face dangers such as freezing to death in winter, becoming ill from parasites or other health problems, being hit by cars, and being hurt by cruel people.
While so-called “no-kill” shelters keep their “save rates” high by turning away the animals most in need, PETA operates the only private animal shelter in our region (which includes impoverished areas along the Virginia/North Carolina border) that welcomes all animals regardless of adoptability at any hour of the day, without appointments, without waiting lists, and without admission fees. PETA’s shelter is also one of the few in our area that provide compassionate euthanasia services for destitute owners desperate to alleviate their animals’ suffering. Many of these residents were referred to PETA by other local animal shelters and veterinary clinics.
PETA’s fieldworkers are also on call 24/7/365, poking through junkyards, crawling through sewers, climbing trees, and coaxing terrified lost and homeless animals to safety. When disaster struck, we rushed to help animals in hurricane-ravaged Texas and Puerto Rico. And last year alone, we spayed and neutered more than 13,000 animals in our mobile clinics (since 2001, we’ve sterilized more than 156,000) and we helped more than 3,000 impoverished families keep animals they would otherwise have given up by providing free veterinary care, companion-animal food, counseling, and more.
It’s heartbreaking when animals suffer, and it can be difficult to face. But crying “Fake news!” and turning our backs on them does not help. Here’s what does help: We can spay and neuter our dogs and cats; adopt only from animal shelters, never buying from breeders; and refuse to shop at any retailer that sells live animals — including PetSmart.
Daphna Nachminovitch is senior vice president of the Cruelty Investigations Department at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
