Say No to "Petco Stadium" !

To the Commissioner of Baseball, the Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball, and the Owners and Managers of the San Diego Padres:

We, the Undersigned, wish to express our concern about the recent naming of The Padres stadium as Petco Stadium.

Petco is a national conglomerate of pet stores. They sell cages for pets, pet foods, and other related items. Our concerns stem from the care delivered by some Petco stores to its animals, especially smaller animals such as parrots, reptiles, and ferrets. A multitude of reports, both from customers and Petcos own employees, testifies to unacceptable care in some stores. This allegedly abusive treatment includes: denial of veterinarian care to sick animals by some store managers ; failure to note sickness or even the death of animals ; and some examples of euthanasia which was uncalled for and allegedly involved inhumane methods; lack of adequate food, clean water, adequate perches or cages, and the like. Some Petco stores have also been demonstrated to have cases of Psittacosis (or Parrot Fever), a disease which is communicable to humans. Finally, we believe that it is unethical to continue the mass-breeding and sale of birds, at a time when there are already so many abused or abandoned animals in this country.

We do not claim that such problems occur at all Petco stores but rather, that it is sufficiently prevalent to merit systematic corrective measures.. The management of Petco has generally been unresponsive to notification of such problems. Doubtless, the Management of Petco has denied all of these allegations to the Padres management, who perhaps was eager not to know of the darker side of Petcos reputation. However, even Mr. Katzman, representing Corporate Communications for the Padres, admitted (January 25, 2003 ) that the truth of these allegations would be pursued with Petco post facto, or as he put it, after it was a done deal.

In view of the concerns about animal abuse in some Petco stores, we are dismayed that the Padres would name a stadium after this corporation. We believe that this is tantamount to telling their fans that mistreatment of animals is rendered acceptable if sufficient money changes hands. We also believe that giving such a message to younger fans sets a poor example with regard to respect for living beings and prevention of suffering. It is a question of ethics and, therein, tarnishing the image of Major League Baseball

Therefore, we ask you to reconsider the wisdom of this decision. In the absence of that, we urge you to work intensively with the Petco Corporation to systematically improve the care of its animals, and the education of clients as to the responsibilities of pet ownership. We believe that not only would the care of animals improve, but so would the pride of the fans entering Petco Stadium. Ultimately, the winner would be Major League Baseball.