Another PETCO Store Bites the Dust

Published December 28, 2011 by Lindsay Pollard-Post. Last Updated November 30, 2022.

< 1 min read

The new year is already looking a bit brighter for animals: A PETCO store in Dickson City, Pennsylvania, has announced that it will close permanently on January 1—which is great news for the hamsters, gerbils, mice, fish, and other small animals who suffer and die every day in PETCO’s stores and suppliers’ facilities.

“Life” for the animals PETCO sells often consists of struggling to survive wild capture or captive breeding in horrific conditions, suffering from untreated injuries and illnesses, and fighting for food in feces-strewn, severely crowded cages. At the massive breeding mills that supply live animals to the pet trade, PETA investigations have revealed sick and dying animals placed in freezers to die, live hamsters placed in a plastic bag and bashed against a table in an attempt to kill them, animals deprived of veterinary care and left to cannibalize their cagemates’ corpses, and other horrors.

For the sake of small animals, please say “No” to PETCO and other stores that sell animals.