Comments on: Family Blames Pet Bird for Deaths

By: Just Another...

Just Another... — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:29:20 +0000

First of all the De La Garza family just wants PetSmart to stop selling birds and also inform the public of their unfortunate loss. They want to ensure that no one else has to go through what their family did. Amanda has to live with the fact that a bird she bought from PetSmart killed her father.

This innocent family cannot be blamed when a multibillion dollar corporation knew this disease was being transmitted throughout their stores and could have prevented it. Joe De La Garza would be alive today if it weren’t for the negligence of this arrogant profit driven industry. This is disgusting and just another reason why I refuse to shop at PetSmart, Petco, Petland….the list goes on who support mill style breeding. There are enough homeless animals in the world where this sort of mass breeding just isn’t necessary.

By: beth a

beth a — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:55:15 +0000

I work at a family pet store and this story is bunk. Sure maybe the bird got sick but this poor family was mis-diagnosed from the start and that’s the real story. There’s no way it should have been fatal. We do not sell dogs or cats, but we do sell fish, small birds, reptiles, small animals. Many of our customers do not care to ever spend one dime on vet care, even though vets will give you a free wellness check up on your first visit. We’ve taken back dozens of ferrets over the years and I can’t recall a single one ever coming back with shot records. We preach and preach about vet care and have had to institute tough return policies because of it. People threaten to turn their pets loose if we don’t take them back. We get our livestock from wholesalers and local breeders and we quarrantine them in our store for 7 days before selling them. People come in and want to buy a pet but trust a 20 year old part time employee to be the encyclopedia of knowledge about the pet. Most of them do very little research and are surprised that you have to spend so much money to set up a new pet properly. People have the “I wants” with little regard to consequences. The answer is not to stop PetsMart or any other store from selling animals. The answer is for people to get a brain and think about it first.

By: daun1919

daun1919 — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:55:18 +0000

I have never heard about the disease before. But is it seems to such a dangerous diseases. Do we have a vaccine for that? I think we should do something to make people more aware about the disease that are transmitted from their pets.

By: Renee Ward

Renee Ward — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:50:54 +0000

This shows that there has to be regulation in the breeding community. The fact that someone died is horrendous but to make light of it is even more so. Breeders are not all bad but those who are just are there to make money, no matter the cost to life of animal or human. The people at PetSmart and Petco have to be held accountable for their lack of education of employees and the same of prospective buyers of all pets.

By: Samantha Petri

Samantha Petri — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:48:35 +0000

Wow Ok people look. Suing petsmart itsn’t going to solve anything. I buy most of my animals from there whether its a hamster, dog or even cat and nothings gone wrong yet. Have you ever thought that the family didn’t take good care of the bird and it happened because of that? Now I’m not saying that the familiys are animal abusers or anything it’s just that they may be taking this a little to far.

By: Sandy Rogers

Sandy Rogers — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:27:21 +0000

Pet Smart needs to STOP selling animals. Kaytee Preferred Birds collects all of Pet Smart birds, they pick them up in a truck from breeders, they take them to a community warehouse, then distribute them to Pet Smarts.

Kaytee needs to be made responsible for the death of this person also.

Bird diseases are contagious and some are “air born”. Birds can’t be quarantined properly if they are in a community truck or warehouse together.

Pet Smart and Kaytee only care about the money and not the welfare of the animal.

By: Dennis Frank

Dennis Frank — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:20:22 +0000

I’m not going against them, but when you buy a bird you should check it out with the vet first AND keep it away from other birds until the results come back.

By: susie chen

susie chen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:52:36 +0000

Please do your research before you report. The bird in question could not have caused the girl to go into a coma, s/s of the disease are flu-like then over time get worse. No one goes right into a coma, get it right before you report. I have been a fan of fox, for a long time, I watch daily, I am very dissapointed in this reporter, get all the facts , first, what happened to ” fair and balanced ” ?

By: Peggi Collins

Peggi Collins — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:42:48 +0000

I am sorry for your lose.

By: karen

karen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:26:41 +0000

We bought 2 hamsters from PetSmart and they died in 2 days. When we went back for replacements, the employee was very rude and didn’t think they had to replace them. Don’t they have some kind of gurantee on pets? I think so.