I work at Petco. This is at the grooming salon, but I often wander about the rest of the store. All of the employees are very nice, and the animals have always appeared very well cared for to me. I always see the girl who works with the birds cleaning out the cages, as she has to come to grooming to get the supplies. One large macaw (sp?) bird has taken more then one trip to grooming to visit with us, hehe. He's a real cutie. And I love to look at the ferrets, and they always seem happy to me. I don't think you can judge every store because of incidents in some. I don't think I've ever even looked at the small animals at our Petsmart. I don't even know if they have them, lol. I always look at the kitties though. Of couse, the cats they have are from shelters, etc. up for adoption.