I've been wanting to rescue bettas. I went to petco today to get some non betta related things. I had the urge to try to find a suffering betta. I found maybe 4 that had cloudy water. I wanted a male and I noticed this one was cloudy and he didnt really want to interact at all. I asked if they'd give him to me and they said no. I don't want to support this trade but I felt so bad for this betta.
He had been in his cup since 1/9. Almost TWO months of just sitting in a cup and they werent even changing his water.
I bought him and went to my car and just felt awful.
They told me they keep their bettas for three months.
My question is what is the normal length? And why is this not considered animal cruelty? It absolutely is cruel. Are there no laws regarding humane treatment of fish? Why are these stores overstocking bettas? Why are they not required to provide at minimum a bowl, a plant, and an airstone? It broke my heart this guy was sitting there for two whole months with absolutely nothing to do and no hope.
I love my new little friend! His name is Jasper.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1rk9xt2
Posted by Secret_Sea_1984
10 Comments
That’s not rescuing, that’s buying. And a sale triggers more to be sent to the store. You wanting to feel good about “rescuing” one dooms dozens more until the algorithm that predicts how much stock a location typically sells *changes*…that only happens when too many die before being sold. So if you ACTUALLY want to have an impact, don’t do a fake feel-good “rescue”
I used to work for a petco (unfortunately) and there are really no laws at all protecting any of the animals and its sick. All of the animals there are kept in horrid conditions and most of the time severely overstocked due to “demands.” In terms of the bettas specifically, saying they keep them for “3 months” is kinda bs. I think they just chose a number since you asked. Unfortunately those bettas will be there either until theyre bought or have passed away. From my experience, most pass away. Unfortunately they are also shipped in much worse conditions (very small bags with barely any water) then employees have to manually put them in those awful containers. Pet corporations should NOT be a thing. Its awful what all of those poor animals go through and most dont care enough or are to dumb to realize how awful it is and to advocate for them 🙁
I don’t know but mine had been there for almost 5 months 🙁
You want to do a true rescue, go in the dumpster out back. I know for a fact that they bag then dump living but ill fish at many pet stores
Steal it next time.
I was a manager at Petco and although we’d label them when we got them, it’s not a guarantee that lid would stay with them. Sometimes they’d get mixed up since water changes were thrown in around other tasks. Ridiculous that it would take us hours and hours to get those cups cleaned out.
Also after like 2 or 3 weeks I’d discount them and I think that is company policy. If they’d been there awhile I’d just zero them out in the system and give them away free if the customer bought a set up for them or if they were a regular customer who had an open tank for them at home.
I can’t figure out how to edit this post specifically. Yes I KNOW that I did not technically “rescue” this fish. I asked the store to give me him for free and they said they won’t do that. They came back and told me they’d be keeping him another month before obviously culling him. He was sitting in milky water and wasn’t interacting at all. I couldn’t just leave him there! If you could then good for you! Ha! I work with algorithms as a career so not sure about your math.
I’m just pissed this is the norm for bettas.
To anyone else who wants to go in to “rescue” a Betta fish from Petco or a similar store.
-Go in expecting to walk away.
-Ask an employee before you’ve even looked at the fish. Explain that you hate Petco practices but would like to rescue a fish they’ve written off.
-Refuse any payment. “I’m not here to support the store, I’m here to save a dying fish and I fully expect not to be able to. I’m not paying for your store to kill fish but I want to ease suffering.”
If an employee gives you one from the back that they’ve pulled from stock you’ve got a fish. If they refuse and want to charge you, walk away. Try again later.
Hell, try the same store again. “Are you willing to give me a dying fish, or are you still unwilling to try to help one of the ones you can’t sell?”
Capitalism is harsh and we need to work on laws to protect these fish. And enforcement.
A one-sie two-sie rescue sale keeps it going unfortunately.
Fuck Petco.
At the store I worked at, 3 months is unfortunately more or less accurate (and the labels were always accurate to the fish) Each month, the bettas were discounted by 25%. Tragically a lot of them did die even when we tried to save them 🙁 but the percentage bought was wayyyyy higher. The amount of betta sales would shock you I think, which is its own issue ! The vast majority of bettas got sold, which is why they forced us to have so many and why some took so long to go home 🙁
Until they die. I walked into a petsmart the other day and had to grab management because half were dead or dying in their cups. Stood there and sorted out the fish that needed a hospital tank for them as well because it was one employee and a 4-5 year old ran up to start looking at them so I was putting the dead ones on the top shelf she couldn’t.
If I were in a better financial situation/space situation I would likely have more fish. But I can’t.