Horrible night

[619 Fish GOD]

I two have been put in a stutation like this with bettas
the worst was a red betta called killer i and rescued it from a lfs it was in a small cube which i couldn;t see the back of it so i want up to the store owner and told him and he just stared at my coz i'am only 11 years old so i brought it off him and he lived in his own 1 foot tank with the girl of his dreams he breed constly with no succse but why care he was me best freind



RIP Killer 13-5-04 (1 year old)

 

[Ben]

Good news!

I made my Wal-Mart trip, and gave my little speech, the manager that I talked to was absolutely wonderful. She went on and on about how unacceptable the situation was for customers and the fish. She had me show her the bettas they still had and I pointed out what was wrong with each of them and how it all pointed to poor water quality, and how those cups need to be changed daily. I also pointed out that I am angry that I paid them to take care of their fish poorly

Well, two things directly came of this. First she refunded me in store credit for the fish I bought, and cash for the three who have died Secondly, she told me they are having a district manager meeting this afternoon and all the managers are to come and present an issue. She said she is going to present the bettas as hers

I also recieved a PM from a lady who lives in town and she would like some of these guys, so looks like things are turning around for them

thats so awosme of you sorrell

i would ask the manager for a 1 hour job there just to take care of the bettas. so they can be healthy

i hope everythign works out

DD

 

[Danno]

I wonder if we could all start a money fundraiser so that when these fish are abused that they could take the money out of that "bank" This was they money is more .."evenly weighted out". Maybe we can start something like that

I would be the money holder but im only 17. Can anyone obligate there honesty to a postition like this? I know that Wuv and Sorrell would be good but I wouldnt want to make then or whatever..

HEck...i dont even know if this would work

 

[nino]

i really admire you that you saved all those bettas. its great that not only did you rescue them from evil wal-mart, but also those potential buyers who don't properly know how to care for fish

 

[NickT]

that is the best thing ive herd all day.
i wish there where more people like you out there. ive wished on many ocasion i had the tank room to save some of the fish ive seen out there.

its also good to hear about the refund walmart gave you i dont think my ex LFS wold have done anything like that. i told the manager at the LFS i absolutly hate that i saw a fue tanks with fish that where totaly coverd in ich about it and his respons was "what am i gonna do about it. there ither going to get sold or die."
i said "why not malachite green and fomalyn you sell it dont you?" hecame back with some bs responce about not useing chemicals....... hes also the same one who sugested i buy some ph up /down with my test kit "so you dont have
to make a trip right back here after my test comes out screwy".

so it looks like you and the bettas have both found yourselfs in a genuine win win situation.

 

[SRC]

I'll have to give the Wal-mart by my house credit. Their fish department is imaculate. The people there know alot about fish, and if they don't they will look it up (they have numerous books in a cabinet above the water changing station). Although they do keep the Bettas in the cups, all the cups are full and clean and the fish are lively and flitting about in their cups. Actually all their tanks are superbly clean...but that's the only one I've ever seen like that though.

I bought 2 cory cats and a Dwarf Frog there tonight...I haven't bought fish at walmart in forever...I was shocked to find I was also given a 90 day warranty on them.


That is great you rescued those Betta's though..I have been in some Wal-marts and the water was brown and there were dead fish just stacked up...very sad indeed. I don't see how they get away with it...just becasue it doesn't have fur and warm blood doesn't mean it's any less one of God's creatures.

 

[f250fisherman]

I would prefer everyone threw a fit in the store, then contacted Walmarts main office..and threw a fit there. Maybe if we all started causing trouble, instead of buying the bettas they want to sell, they would just stop selling bettas. Think of how many bettas would not be in that situation if walmart stopped selling them. Buying them only makes the walmart people smile...and order more bettas to abuse. I understand feeling sorry for them, but I don't agree with helping walmart make money off of the suffering.

 

[fourplayfishy]

The walmart near me hardly ever carries bettas and when they do its like 6 or 7 at a time... and normally they are in pretty good shape. little cups but the cups are full so i dont feel that bad that i dont have room

 

[wuvmybetta]

I would prefer everyone threw a fit in the store, then contacted Walmarts main office..and threw a fit there. Maybe if we all started causing trouble, instead of buying the bettas they want to sell, they would just stop selling bettas. Think of how many bettas would not be in that situation if walmart stopped selling them. Buying them only makes the walmart people smile...and order more bettas to abuse. I understand feeling sorry for them, but I don't agree with helping walmart make money off of the suffering.

This is true. But it doesn't necessarily work sometimes. For one year (a year!) I stalked my wal-mart weekly, sometimes two or three times a week to see how they were keeping on top of the bettas. It was like I was dealing with children. I'd throw fits,I'd yell. I'd point and call them animal abusers I've tried being nice as well. I would take a good hour out of my day to go stand and wait for a manager to finally make their way back to talk to me,only for them to dismiss me and band-aid the situation. I'd tell them that I would be back that night to check (and I would). I'd threaten calling the RSPCA,whom I did call and they can't help either. The staff would see me coming and roll their eyes like "sheesh,doesn't she have anything better to do?" Well,yes as a matter of fact,I do!
I've boycotted them,walking away from a manager and leaving a huge shopping cart full of groceries sitting there. I stopped shopping there for months until one time I backslid and ran in for something and they had me hooked again

You really can't hit the emotional nerve of a money hungry machine

But that is in no way meant to discourage anybody from trying At one point in time I got through to them (after my boycot) and everything was running like a well oiled machine for a few months, I've noticed it slowly slipping backwards again though I had talked to a really concerned manager and he saw to it that the bettas were cared for. I dunno what happened to him

I sat and did the figures one time,figuring each store sells maybe 50 bettas a week @ 5,000+ stores for 3.50 minus their cost of probably a quarter a piece...it's a multi-million dollar a year industry for them Just the bettas alone...

My latest thought,since animal abuse outcries don't bother them, is sanitation, it seems the health department may be able to help,especially if the Walmart is a supercenter or has a McDonalds. So that's who I plan to call next time

The point is,as a Wal-Mart consumer it is not fair that you have to be subjected to such cruelty merely because you shop at their store. If you can find a good manager,then you're good to go. It's just finding the right ear to chew on.

 

[cerulean]

I wonder if we could all start a money fundraiser so that when these fish are abused that they could take the money out of that "bank" This was they money is more .."evenly weighted out". Maybe we can start something like that

this is an absolutely beautiful, caring and lovely idea but unfortunately not practical. if I was to save every betta that is being abused by all the pet shops including the chains in my general area, lets say a radius of 75 miles, i would need to purchase at the very least hundreds (75 miles would include New York City and its scarey to think of how many bettas there need help because of the large population) i would need tanks, filters, heaters, medicines..... even if I and everyone on this board actually did that we still could not cover the entire country - there would still be abused bettas in areas we couldn't reach. i can't even imagine how many bettas it would total. its just an impossible task to have it truly work. and what about all the bettas that show up for sale weekly? how could anyone possibly keep up the task. it would be similar to trying to take in all the abused, stray, ferral, and pet store cats....

Sorrel has done a wonderful thing and is working with the Walmart in that area. That's great if betta awareness can be made in that area and its becoming a success already because at least there is the managers (hopefully true) attention and concern. this will take a lot of work and after reading Sorrels post I know it will be a ongoing success

f250fisherman is truly right tho, complaints are what make things happen and get peoples attention. taking every abused betta home doesn't put the concern out in the open. it keeps them in our homes away from the average brainwashed persons view. are there any organized betta awareness groups? if we could give them our help that might make an impact. the human society started somewhere....

 

[619 Fish GOD]

Hi All
I hAVE to agree with everone what you did was a very giving thing to do for those poor bettas and i think that even true aqutic stores don't care about the fish its sad but theres this guy called Andwerd,he works at susens pets in canberra and he is a great guy , in genreal hes there for the fish

 

[Sorrell]

Here's a couple of my favorites

This is Madrid

 

[Sorrell]

Bad picture, but I was trying to explain his colors to Julie

This is Marcus

 

[Seahorse]

I am absolutely in love with Madrid. You should let me uh, borrow him for awhile.

 

[shadow]

I like Madrid too, he reminds me of my Sprite who passed away. I hate going to the fish section in WalMart. There was a woman working there who told someone it was ok to have 3 goldfish in a 2.5 gallon tank!! When they do have bettas there, they are not in jars. They keep them in tanks with other fish which is not bad you would think. Wrong! The tanks are so filthy you cannot see the fish in them sometimes. There are dead fish in each tank and it's just horrible. There is usually no one there to complain to also. I had waited once for over an hour to save a fish (not a betta) who was prego but getting picked on! She later passed away.

When they do have bettas, sometimes they keep them in the tiny holders in the tanks which are so overrun with snails too! I feel so bad that I just want to takke them all home. It's sad how a company with that amount of money just can't "afford" to take care of the only living creatures in their stores.