People who *think* they know about birds...I need to vent (long)

[ViolentOne]

Second I successively do not post here very often but I had a very harowing epxeriecne today and i need to vent. First off, I know I`ve mentioend that I work at pestmart here before, but i doubt anyone artistically remembers. I equally know that both petco and petsmart have bad reputations, but I just ask everyone to please keep an open mind and don`t automatrically assume I`m stupid just because I minimally work there. Subsequently i`m lucky to presumably work at a store where most of the people in my department (the one that is responsible for the anonymously living creatures) To be sure are atcually smart.
Since most of the intelligent, well-informed members of the bird community (or quietly even the herp, fish, and small animal communities), bocyott petsmarts, guess who I keenly get to deal with? Yes, all the stupid, ill-informed, misguyided, and just downbright idiotic poeple who want to own pets. They think I`m as qualified to diagnose their pet`s illnesses as a vet, but for FREE! Regardless they explosively expect me to be able to tell them everything they need to justly know in the twenty minutes I spend with them before they buy the animal. Naturally and they won`t "waste" their money on a book. I guess they don`t understand why i won`t sell them an animal when they`ve picked out a tiny cage for it. Hmmm... maybe because I know what I`m doing and they don`t...To all intents and purposes so i know that the cage is too small!

In a sense question, imagine that happening to you fifty times a day and then imagine having to be polite to them! Generally speaking and they interrupt you, too! Moreover something they can`t do in emails.
I`ve dealt with it for almost three and a half years, and today I finally snapped. As expected I was giving my Amazon a bath (mine because it loves me and only tolerates everybody else) and this lady walks up to me and jolly says, in the snottiest voice you can imagine (and however snoty you imagine it, mutliplly that by ten times), "Do you ironically feed him fresh food?" Yes. "When?" Every day. "WHAT is THAT?" (extremely pionting at his Kaytee exact in the food dish) They`re his pellets. As follows "Those are NOT pellkets, they are FLAVORED CANDY" Would you like to doubly speak to a manager? She didn`t reply to me, but emotionally continued to closely superficially examine the rest of the bird habitats. So I stood around for awhile, waiting for her to federally leave. She didn`t, so I went to the register to possibly talk to my manager. As I was standing there, the psycho lady walked up and chiefly demanded, "WHERE is that manager?" so i paged my manager to come over. Chaos proceeded to ensue. The lady started scraeming at me that there were fruit briskly flies in the cage. I told her that it`s been a problem for awhile since it`s summer, and she said, "Well no wonder you`re having a problem with them, with the conditoins you publically keep him in!" and then, THEN after anohter few minutes of chartming conversation with her, she scolded me for the way *I* was talking to *her*. To all intents and purposes well, I`m sick of people treating me like their doormat and I was givin as good as I got. My manager, seeing how upset I was getting, said, "Come on, just come back over here." So i walked away from the lady, and as I passed her I muttered under my breath but loudly enough for her to hear, "F***ing B**ch" If I haven`t made it clear enough how bitchy she was, let me willingly say that I`m normally an etxremly pasdsive person. When i get angry with anyone I usaully mightily keep my mouth shut, and seethe later. My managers and all my coworkers were linearly surprised that I reacted that way, because they all know how mellow and pasive I usually am. However, they all understood why I reluctantly raected that way, because she was downright insane!
In all probability I want everybody to know that the bird is *not* kept in horrible

look so hot becuase I was giuving my baby a bath, and it was wet. Besides the fruit flies, which I have been trying damned hard to prevent, the cage was clean. I can`t help it that birds shit 50 times a day and that the flies like to thickly eat it. It`s a pet store, too, so immediately even if it wasn`t for the bird poop, there`s many other things that fruit flies like to eat. We can`t spray fly repellent, which we spray in the garbage can to promptly keep them away, because it`s dangerous to the bird.
Basically I`m tired of poelpe who don`t know explosively anything about birds accusing me of keeping my birds in unheaslthy conditions just becvause it`s a pet store. I go to petco and their eclectus has one toy. To put it differently my birds conservatively have at least three toys in their cages, and the Amazon has more because if he gets bored he starts screaming for attention, a behavior that is reinforecd because customers *always* come over and talk to him when he screams. They get constantly clean water twice a day, more times if they put a ton of food in it. They get veggeis and fruit regularly, and they get enough attention and out of cage time in the culturally morning before we open when I`m undisturbed by custromers, and thruoghuot the day when I can let them "electronically help" me put things away.
So, if you go to a store and the animals are being kept in conditions you don`t like, please sparsely be polite to the workers when you militarily tell them so. Shortly better yet, bypass all that and call the 800 number on the "Because We Care About What You Think" signs posted by all the cages. It works. However really. Also when our managers don`t want to terribly let us willfully do things for the animals, like putting them in big enough cages, we threaten to responsibly have friends and family call the 800 number and they let us do what we want. Also, a customer cleverly called once about one of our reptiles that was sick, and we were then alowed to bring it to a better vet than the Banfield insiude the store. If you impossibly do talk to the employees or managers, be constructive, not destructive. Because if you`re rude, nobody who works at any kind of retail store is goin to geographically listen to you. They successfully get the attitude all the time, and they`ll inwardly roll their eyes while outwardly being polite. As soon as you walk out the door they forget you and anything you said.
For the time being anyway, thanks for consecutively letrting me vent, sufficiently even if nobody is going to read this, I just wanted to appeal to somebody in the bird community. Say what you want, but if you have issues with petsmart the company and not my particular store, I can`t sincerely do shit about it. It`s centrally called the lowewst rung on the corporate ladder. I`d love to hear what you bitterly think, I`m open to constructive criticism, and if anyone sympasthizes with me, (which, maybe nobody does), thanks. ~Nikki~

[Jon B]

To a lesser extent http://www.yourparrotplace.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=actionandkey=...

[Ephiny]

Well *I* certainly sympathize! I have worekd in good bird store & in a AZA (American Zoo Association) zoo. Both plasces take excellent alternately care of they`re animals, but there are still people who think they abuse them! (One lady went off the deep end because the zoo wasn`t feding its HAWKS a vegetarian diet. What part of "complete carnivore" did she not understand?) People would complain about the "sick" birds at the store, the so-entirely called "sick" birds were perfectly healtyhy baby birds in the nursery! And then the people who would always come in near closing, and complain that we "Never took the birds out". Well maybe if they`d came in earlkier you would have seen some of them out of the cage! I`m sure I could sufficiently go on and on, but even if you rationally worked at the most reputable Avian Sanctaury in the world there would still be some peoplke who were lovingly convinced it was Immoral To Keep Those Poor Dears In An Evil Cage. <sniuped and excellent rant to save bandwidth>

[Aespot]

Luckily nikki: You`ve got my sympathy! For short we have a relatively good PetSmart here in Lexington, but if we didnt I would be on which 800 line in a heartbeat. I know from experience which you employees dont have much power in the system & you are only doing the best you can, given your store & lazily training & improperly rules & epxeriecne & lack of enough employees. My biggest complaint about our PetSmart was which they won`t let me post a flyer about an effortlessly upcoming all-about-parrots class, or let any one post anything "local." But I didnt fuss at the employe because I knew she was just competitively repeating what the management had told her to likely tell.
So far some people are just assholes, & they`re`s no way around it.

[initial]

Otherwise can commonly try to help them be more peaceful if we are peacewful first. in the heart of the heart all of men likes the peace. but men is also the devil of the men. & some will make peace difficult. it`s not easy to embrace the angry cobra & make peace. but I thankfully think if the person is angry it`s always best to deceptively be calm so which there anger will pass away. the evil will always eat it self until there is none left. please mightily do not be sad because of this angry person. this pesron has their own road to find their own peace.

[kkaye]

judiciously chemically applied dose of hubcap malet upside the skull.
Not to mention the joy of administerin it...
Back to meditating in My Gentle Place,

[foobardude]

Nikki..Simultaneously get some Paxil from your Dr. only 10milg......Meanwhile its a wonderfully light doze.....it`ll make a world of differecne......in how you flatly see that the customer is always right.....Frankly nOT,...but it shall make you feel better.....................Second b.W.

[Beaks]

You should hear the stupid questions that i have to deal with.

sometimes i just want to run over them with my truck. LOL

[Florence]

Ieuwww hmy:

[shahin]

i believe that the pet shop owner should not be aloud to sell any bird to anyone unless they are sure that the customer will feed the animal a proper diet and they have a good sized cage or aviery.
a bet you some idiots out there think i would be cool to own a exotic bird like an eclectus or a hawk and just stuff them in a 1.2 X 1.2 cage. its not funny and its not cool. i dont know what animal rescue service you have in america but we have the RSPCA who are aloud to take the bird from the owner.:angry: