The two biggest pet care chains in America, Petco and Petsmart, sell a massive number of pet fish to first time pet owners, families of young children and fish enthusiasts across the country.
Fish are far more complex, emotional, and expressive creatures than most people believe. Fish can feel joy, develop depression, form altruistic friendships, and pass down cultural traditions. They learn, feel emotions, and use an array of senses and forms of communication that humans have never experienced. Fish are sentient beings.
Mac McMullen, who has years of experience with fish and has been teaching oceanography at Clover Hill for two years, knows how important it is for fish to be given proper care.
“All living things with a nervous system feel pain,” McMullen said. “All living things have basic needs, and fish are no exception. [Fish] need ample space to swim around, they need food, they need shelter.”
Despite their complex needs, fish are excluded from the Animal Welfare Act, the only federal law protecting animals from abuse in pet stores. They regularly experience immense suffering, pain and depression when they are held and sold by these companies, ending in a preventable death.
(Jackson Lair)
The Cavalier Chronicle visited a local Petsmart store and documented the condition of the pet fish. Many were severely overcrowded, suffering from treatable but deadly diseases, or already dead and rotting in their tanks. These conditions create a severe risk for the spread of diseases that can kill fish soon after unknowing customers bring them home.
Many students at Clover Hill have or had fish from Petsmart or Petco, often with bad experiences.
Sophomore Paul Garret, describing what he saw in one of these stores, said “It was pretty overcrowded in the tank, and there was dead fish in there, I saw. And it looked kinda not clean. The fish lasted for only about a week or two.”
Sophomore Caitlyn Driggs had a similar experience.
“One of my fishes died after he got home. Same week,” Driggs said. “They have these little tiny containers, which isn’t good at all. I don’t think I ever saw them be fed and the lighting’s kinda iffy. There’s no water flow at all.”
Sophomore Wyatt Schmitz noticed that some fish were kept in extremely overcrowded conditions.
“You could see the goldfish tank, it’s like there’s just a bunch of goldfish, like there’s no room
(Jackson Lair)
whatsoever, and there’s nothing in it, it’s just goldfish and water,” Schmitz said.
The website of Petco states, “Petco is a category-defining health and wellness company focused on improving the lives of pets, pet parents and our own Petco partners,” and PetSmarts’ motto is “Anything for Pets.”
Neither of the major companies meet their own standards of dedication to the care and health of animals. Based on the experiences of students and teachers and the conditions documented in the Chronicle’s photos, these stores regularly fail to meet the basic needs of fish and neglect to prevent their slow deaths.
