For Immediate Release:
September 5, 2003

Contact:
Christy Griffin 757-622-7382  

Concord, N.H. — PETA will roll out its 60-second anti-PETCO radio paid public service announcement (PSA) to coincide with the "Grand Opening" of PETCO in Concord. The PSA will air on WJYY-FM from September 5 to 7 as part of a national campaign to encourage consumers to say "no" to PETCO. PETA can now get out the real story about PETCO, which includes a litany of lawsuits, suffering animals, and angry customers.

According to Forbes magazine, PETCO "has been embroiled in at least four recent court-related matters … charging animal cruelty or neglect." The city of San Francisco has filed a lawsuit to bar PETCO from selling animals there because of "the cruelty and pattern of brazen violations … [that] continued over three years." After years of receiving a never-ending stream of customer complaints—including reports of sick and injured animals who were left to die in their cages or placed in freezers to die, enclosures caked with feces, a lack of veterinary care, severely stressed animals’ cannibalizing each other, and staff members untrained in basic animal care—PETA has launched a national campaign against PETCO aimed at getting the "pet"-shop chain to stop selling live animals and carry only animal supplies.

On PETA’s behalf, pop star P!nk and "Bond girl" Denise Richards have written letters asking PETCO to sell only supplies, and actor Tippi Hedren, star of the Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds, has asked PETCO to stop selling birds. Last November, PETA filed a letter of complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that PETCO failed to disclose to its stockholders its animal sales figures, animal death totals, the significant number of customer complaints it has received, and the legal actions filed against the company.

"PETCO officials have ignored the suffering of animals in their stores for years, while conditions have deteriorated," says PETA Domestic Animal Issues & Abuse Director Daphna Nachminovitch. "Customers should be aware that there’s a very dark side to PETCO."

For more information about PETCO, please visit PETCOCruelty.com.