BettaMomma
Fish Aficionado
This is, but isn't, just another one of those ***** about WalMart stories.
I went and got my snail - he's fabulous. He's yellow but was covered in this green seaweedy crap so I knew he needed me. What I saw next made me stomp out of the store and race home to get to work.
There was a dead betta for starters. I promptly picked him up and walked over to a guy working in that very aisle and said pretty loudly "Sir, you have a DEAD BETTA HERE." You could tell he was embarrassed. He sighed and thanked me.
I moved over to the other tanks.
EVERY fish in EVERY single tank had ick. bad. like they had been wet down and rolled in salt. not even kidding. then I saw the 3 little guys that set me off down a path of complete psychoticness. They were 3 adroable little goldfish - the kind with the bubbly eyes - well.... they were so covered in ick and some kind of slimy stuff, that you could barely tell they were goldfish. OH, and it was probably kind of hard to tell because A L L of E V E R Y one of their fins was gone. These were little goldfish bodies. No tails, no fins, they were just bobbing around the tank. 1 eyeball puff had completely burst and was an oozing open wound on 2 of the 3 fish. I glanced at the rest of the fish and knew I had to get out of there pronto. I was literally sick to my stomach. Not because of the sight of the fish but because of how psychotic I was about to become. I was even shaking.
I drove home and fired up the computer.
As I was waiting for it to load up, I called WalMart and had a "nice" long talk with the manager. I then called the district manager. I then called the local news channel and left a message. I just emailed them also and I"m going to contact my previous boss's wife (She's a news anchor on that station) and see if they will consider doing a story undercover and confront a store manager on the spot. I'm also going to write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper and keep my fingers crossed that it gets published.
I am also drafting a written report to send over to the Animal Alliance here in town and I will be figuring out how to get ahold of the ASPCA, even though we don't have an actual office for them here in town - I'm sure they'll LOVE to know about this. And last, but not least I'm going to contact PETA. I haven't yet actually called them and asked them to sick themselves on anyone, but it's time.
I just had to vent to someone - you don't have to agree or disagree with me, you don't have to post back to me whatsoever. However, I am home alone right now and had to tell someone that would actually understand.
I went and got my snail - he's fabulous. He's yellow but was covered in this green seaweedy crap so I knew he needed me. What I saw next made me stomp out of the store and race home to get to work.
There was a dead betta for starters. I promptly picked him up and walked over to a guy working in that very aisle and said pretty loudly "Sir, you have a DEAD BETTA HERE." You could tell he was embarrassed. He sighed and thanked me.
I moved over to the other tanks.
EVERY fish in EVERY single tank had ick. bad. like they had been wet down and rolled in salt. not even kidding. then I saw the 3 little guys that set me off down a path of complete psychoticness. They were 3 adroable little goldfish - the kind with the bubbly eyes - well.... they were so covered in ick and some kind of slimy stuff, that you could barely tell they were goldfish. OH, and it was probably kind of hard to tell because A L L of E V E R Y one of their fins was gone. These were little goldfish bodies. No tails, no fins, they were just bobbing around the tank. 1 eyeball puff had completely burst and was an oozing open wound on 2 of the 3 fish. I glanced at the rest of the fish and knew I had to get out of there pronto. I was literally sick to my stomach. Not because of the sight of the fish but because of how psychotic I was about to become. I was even shaking.
I drove home and fired up the computer.
As I was waiting for it to load up, I called WalMart and had a "nice" long talk with the manager. I then called the district manager. I then called the local news channel and left a message. I just emailed them also and I"m going to contact my previous boss's wife (She's a news anchor on that station) and see if they will consider doing a story undercover and confront a store manager on the spot. I'm also going to write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper and keep my fingers crossed that it gets published.
I am also drafting a written report to send over to the Animal Alliance here in town and I will be figuring out how to get ahold of the ASPCA, even though we don't have an actual office for them here in town - I'm sure they'll LOVE to know about this. And last, but not least I'm going to contact PETA. I haven't yet actually called them and asked them to sick themselves on anyone, but it's time.
I just had to vent to someone - you don't have to agree or disagree with me, you don't have to post back to me whatsoever. However, I am home alone right now and had to tell someone that would actually understand.
At LEAST give them a peaceful death where they didn't have people coming by making faces and knocking on their glass all day long until they quietly die alone.
It makes me want to run out and buy all the bettas I can find. I hate to see them suffer. In fact I dislike going to most fish stores, even places like Big Al's. Last time I was in there I saw at least 15 dead fish. I stopped the manager, whom I have known for years, told him I was disgusted at the condition of their tanks and that I was refusing to buy any more fish or products from them again. There is used to be staff all over that place taking care of the fish. Now the staff stays at the front with the empty tanks or they are worrying about their arrowana display they are building. 
I probably would have held the managers head down in one of the tanks to see how he liked the water. 
Please don't give BettaMomma any ideas!! We'll be taking up a collection to have her bailed out of jail. 
