PetCo, Plover Wisconsin (Stevens Point)
Poor care of Russian Tortoises - Russian Tortoise— (living creature)

We were driving through Plover (Stevens Point Wisconsin) at about 6:30 pm on a Saturday night. I have a Russian Tortoise, so of course am attracted to the reptile department. I was really concerned to see a large female that had claws so long that they curled beneath the tortoises feet and made it difficult for her to walk properly. (They tend toward long claws, which is normal, but these were severely too long!)

They are a burrowing tortoise, but there was only a dusting of substrate in the tank, which I think helped lead to this issue. Furthermore, they had 1 female in a tank with 3 males. Ideally, being solitary in in the wild, Russians are kept alone. If females must be mixed with males, the recommended ratio is ONE MALE to 3 FEMALES so that the mating attempts can be spread out to avoid stressing and physical harm to the females! They had one female to 3 males!

When I told the PetCo employee that the nails are far too long, she tried to make me believe this is a recent thing. Claws don't grow that quickly. I told her that if they put a piece of slate, a flat rock, or an overturned ceramic tile in, it would help wear claws down to prevent them from growing so long, after the female has a proper clipping. (If a Russian tort is given proper care, you should never have to clip nails!) She said she had to follow "PetCo policy" and couldn't put that in. I told her certainly PetCo policy isn't neglecting their tortoises. I referred her to www.tortoisetrust.org for proper tortoise care and she rolled her eyes.

She then said the shell wasn't looking right (it was fine on the female, though the males did show some signs of possible old damage. Tortoises sold in chain pet stores tend to be wild caught and in shipping, they often suffer damage and shell rot, so this is to be expected.) and said she better take it to the vet, whisked it out of the tank and walked to the back room. It was a Saturday night— why wouldn't she leave it in the tank until Monday?

Also, these tortoises sell for 139 dollars. I very much doubt they are taking it to a vet, which would cost more than their profit margin. Beside, it didn't need a vet, necessarily. It needed some nail clippers (the same kind you use on a bird) and some substrate in it's tank, and a place to hide from the males.

I live an hour away from this town, so will be unable to check what they have done with this beautiful tortoise that is probably at least 20 years old. I have contacted the local humane society and sent pictures and did write PetCo, but they had no where on their site to reference pet store animal-care concerns, so I do not know if my email will be seen by anyone that matters or simply a minimum wage customer care rep.

In an age where almost everyone has access to a camera on their phone, there is no excuse for animal neglect in pet stores. The remedy is a simple place for customers to send photos of their concerns to the parent company so that they can stand behind their motto of "animals first" and remedy problems. I have photos, but no where to send them... Except the humane society, which I did

Company: PetCo, Plover Wisconsin (Stevens Point)
Country: USA

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