The store I worked for got their puppies shipped from far away. This made it harder for people to investigate where they came from. The excuse was that all the alternate sources in the state were mills, so they had to buy out of state. Pups took long trips in small crates, and were placed in cages in a back room with nothing to do but eat, drink and poop. They were given wormings which sometimes resulted in bloody loose stools. Occasionally a disease would wipe many of them out, so they'd be dying slowly in the back room in those solitary confinement conditions. Because of the separate conditions they were put in, and the sterilization of equipment, the diseases seem like they could have been caused by bad vaccinations. There'd be occasions where someone would inherit money or win a lottery and come in and buy multiple dogs to 'save them'. What they were really doing was filling the pockets of these people profiting on the animal slave trade. The commissions on puppy sales were so great, that sales people would often sell a puppy to someone that shouldn't have one.
Birds
Birds came in a box all together. Most of the time there were only two sales people in the store when they came. One person would bring the box into the bathroom, and reach in, grab a bird blindly placing fingers around the neck to keep it from biting while extending the wing and trimming the flight feathers. They were put in another (clean box), and brought into the sales floor to be further tormented by children. On occasion, one may get loose or still be able to fly. Some overzealous workers would go after it with a net occasionally injuring the bird in their zeal. While I was there, a Conure was smashed in the beak and bled to death.
Fish
Most pet stores in the area didn't feed their fish. The excuse the owner / manager used was that it made the tanks dirty. If people looked, they could see the shrunken stomachs of the fish. Many fish died over night and were removed from the tanks (~2 net fulls). When ordering fish, the owner wanted the highest discount on fish, so he'd order much more than needed. This was also a cause of death for the fish because the tanks were overcrowded and hit with a surge of fish. We started feeding the fish, and I cleaned the tanks more. We had 2-3 fish dead in the mornings as a result. When the manager went on vacation, I ordered the fish. The cost was 1/4 the usual amount, we didn't run out of fish, sales went up, and we rarely had any die. We also had a far less being returned for replacement. Basically many fish are dying because people are too lazy to feed and clean, and think they're saving money by buying in bulk.
Kittens
All the kittens we had were donated. They got shots and wormings, not from a vet, but by us. The wormings were force fed (pushed in from the side of the mouth to the back of the tongue while the head was held up and the neck rubbed. The kittens actually got to play together and stuff inside the cage, and the store actually was good for kittens in general in a way. People often brought kittens to us that were 8 weeks old (requirement), but were severely underweight with runny noses, and buggery eyes and very stinky loose stool. The reason for this is because they were fed milk instead of water. People were sent home with them and some samples of IAMS were given along with some marketing propaganda about how grocery store pet foods were full of fillers and caused loose stools and poor health as well as the information about water vs milk. When the kittens reached 2lbs, they were brought back much healthier. Little did we know about this video: Iams Cruelty: Sponsored Suffering
