Local Petco Stores Found Skirting State Animal Welfare Law

More Than a Dozen Stores Statewide Warned Over Sick Animals, Dirty Cages, and More; Stay Away, Says PETA

For Immediate Release:
June 8, 2020

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA has reviewed damning North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS) records revealing that 13 Petco locations—including ones in Chapel Hill and Durham—were ordered to improve conditions for animals in order to comply with the state’s Animal Welfare Act.

An NCDA&CS inspector at the store in Chapel Hill found waste splattered on a wall, which had apparently not been cleaned in at least five months. When an inspector found that cats had scratched a sheetrock wall at the store—to which they shouldn’t have had access—she “was told a work order would be issued” but on re-inspecting “was told the same” thing again. In Mooresville, traces of blood were found in a cat enclosure, and in Kannapolis, two kittens who were sneezing and had eye discharge and a cat whose eyes and nose were runny were on display.

A store in Durham was warned for having exposed wood in a cat enclosure, and the Greensboro store was warned over wooden doors on cat enclosures, since wood can’t be sanitized to prevent the spread of disease. When an inspector returned, the manager “stated that he had put in a request for corporate to replace the doors” but received “no response.” Six weeks later, the agent found that bare wood was still exposed.

“Any person who takes care of animals is required to provide them with veterinary care, clean living conditions, and other basic necessities, and a billion-dollar company shouldn’t consider itself above the law,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA regularly receives reports of bad practices and animal suffering at big-box stores, and our advice to caring consumers is to stay away.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—notes that the NCDA&CS records reveal that Petco stores in Kernersville and Hickory also came under fire for failing to keep adequate records of animals offered for adoption.

Online stores that aren’t affiliated with chains that sell animals include Target, PetFlow, and Wag.com.

PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.