i'm going to cry! stupid walmart

[Cheart99]

I hate my walmart even more now than i did before. The first reason was that they carry no mediaction for bettas at all. NOw i went today to look at the bettas and i found 3 dead in their small little containers. I even had to point it out to the lady working there. Then to add insult to injury i asked her if they ever brought in female bettas and she said they used to but they are "not very hardy". "they die to quickly". Anyway i left im am fumming.

[Hannah]

That's weird that your local Wm doesn't have any medication for bettas cause they usually have some sort of med like the Jungle brand. It's frustrating seeing bettas mistreated and I'm guessing any animal right laws there are don't cover fish unless it's in some sort of body of water in nature (unless it's different in the States). The best thing at this time that you can do is to NOT by their bettas and continue sending letters of protest. If they see that they are loosing money on account of mistreatment, they will either stop selling bettas or try to make things better, but if people continue buying bettas from them, the store makes it's profit and doesn't see a need for changing things especially if they are making a larger profit because people are buying their sick bettas!

[Rachel]

Yes, it is very very frustrating to witness and deal with, but Hannah makes good points about how to remedy the problem. Educating people the correct way of how to care for fish and not buying from these places where they mistreat them, although heartbreaking to do at times, is really what is going to help in the long term for better conditions.

For promoting good care for buyers of bettas, I know some people have taken the 1 page care sheet off of the HB homepage and placed a stack at their local stores so at least the people buying them will have somewhat of an idea how to keep them healthy.

[BETTA_JOE]

The wal mart i go to keeps there bettas in bigger tanks and they usually apear healthe but its when they sell them to the inexpirenced people and dont tell them how to look after thembut on another note i was so surprised when I went into a locally owned and operatede pet store they had male bettas in tiny little jars with maby only 2 cups of water if money wasnt in mty way I would have bought all of them

[Jenova]

BETTA_JOE said:

another note i was so surprised when I went into a locally owned and operatede pet store they had male bettas in tiny little jars with maby only 2 cups of water if money wasnt in mty way I would have bought all of them

Yeah, I know it's hard not to buy all of them, but if you do, the store will just keep treating them badly. Telling the people at the store about it and not buying their bettas might mean that they don't survive, but at least there is hope for the future of other bettas....

[teresa]

I guess it all depends on the Walmart. my local store has a woman in the pet department that LOVES bettas...has them herself and is a fountian of great info.

as for the behavior of some petstore workers, I do have a horror story about a shopper...

at the aforementioned Walmart, she was called down an ailse by who she thought was a fish owner with a question, it turns out that he was just getting her away from the bettas cause his friend wanted to see what would happen if 2 where in the same container. by the time she relized what was going on, they had shredded each others fins and were in really rough shape.
I happened to be in the next day and she told me what had happened and showed me them. I have checked up on them regularly and am pleased to report that she is doing wonders for them and they are doing great but she refuses to sell them. she is keeping them there in nice tanks so that she can educate people about mistreating Bettas and has the scars to prove what she says. I told her if she ever decides they need a nice home to give me a call, but she thinks they may end up at her house.

[palepinkvase]

It is sad that there is so much misinformation out there about betta care. Some stores have employees with good intentions, but they lack knowledge. Then there are those who are combative and insist that a betta will thrive in 2 inches of water under a peace lily. I try to refer as many people as possible to this website and hope that they visit the site.