BBC Watchdog - Pets At Home - Dead fish, Guinea pigs with Ringworm, ill Rabbits 

Nothing has changed in the 7 years since this programme aired. Bradford store had dead fish floating around in tanks so I went to the Guisely store, bought 5 fish on Thursday - 3 dead by Saturday and noticed one has fin rot! As a fish keeper with many years experience I know our water/temperature and conditions are spot on and even did a water test just to confirm. I will treat the poorly fish myself and hopefully he will be ok, wouldn't send the poor little chap back there! I will be going back to the store with a water testing kit and demanding a full refund if their water is not satisfactory.

When pumped up kicks played I thought they were gonna shoot up the store

This is so true. There were a lot of sick fish in one tank so we told them. They put up a 'not for sale' sign and we went home. Next day they were selling the still-sick fish again.

My experience with Pets At Home is when a customer knows a lot about a specific type of animal & the staff talks to them like it's their first time owning said animal.

The Syrian hamsters were together because they can stay together until 8 weeks of age.

I very rarely see dead or sick fish at pets at home and i go there twice a week

every single fish ive had from pets at home has lived a happy loving life

Pets at home use breeders that breed in AWFUL conditions. Why not try a rescue instead. There are thousends of rabbits in rescues and guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, degus, etc.

Young Syrian hamsters can be kept with litter mates until they mature and become terrarorial.

I can confirm nothing has still changed after buying a rabbit 2 weeks ago, we were told the pet was signed off by the vet, and the infection came back. When i got the rabbit home i noticed the strange smell in its urine, i looked to day and his infection has come back, the poor guy. i am taking the pet back to the store this afternoon, feel like i've been conned. We specifically asked if he was definitely well and the problem was resolved we were assured he was fine. They are literally patching them up and resending them out over and over again, ££££££ this is so unfair to the animals.

Watchdog are wrong. The syrian hamster are kept together because they are 8 weeks or younger. However once they get past that age they can have serious squabbles. Thats why there are three of them in there. Please do your research properly. Are you going to go to a newborn litter and ask why there's more than one in there?

I'm an animal management/care student and work with a range of animals from lemurs, to rodents, and it's frustrating every time I visit.

i got a rabbit in april, only 8weeks and she has been a healthy lovely bunny, the staff are genuinely nice and caring towards the animals

I bought 2 little sweethearts, two dwarf hamsters from this place since it recently came to our town and initially I thought it was amazing. It was massive so I thought they had the right care. I really wanted to see my hamsters get along and play with each other yknow, but one of them died just 2 weeks after getting them and my other one died just 2 days ago. He is meant to live a decent amount of time but couldn’t reach it. He managed to get an eye infection, tumors (which I think spread throughout his body so quick after seeing the outside one. vets refused to remove it) and eventually got pneumonia. It was so heart breaking to see this hamster squeak in his sleep, it meant that he was wheezing. I kept him in my bedroom on his last night and his wheezing got SO loud. While this indicent for this particular hamster can happen coincidentally as they are prone to these issues, I found it quite odd that my 2 previous hamsters before them never suffered from anythingg but died from old age, and I got them from a small and different place. What’s more frightening is how the young one died so quick.

I’m 15, have done work experience in pets at home several times and I am very close with al other staff that work there. I have been from behind the doors to working at the till. I can assure you. They are not pets before profit. I have been told so by the head of the gov and have been talking with the breeders they use. They don’t use mass chain breeders, they use lots from all around the country so that boxes are not overstocked. They also make sure that all sick pets are kept behind and treated properly until healthy enough to go back on sale. Over the years I have bought a huge amount of animals from pets at home and have bought all the supplies I need. I have bought all my rats, the supplies, my 4 rabbits, my 2 guinea pigs and all my others from pets at home and have never had a issue. If you get a sick animal from pets at home.. you didn’t. It is not there fault as I’ve seen new arrivals come in and see what they do. They check them all over, from head to toe then they place them in massive cages until they’re able to be put out for sale. YOU HAVE NOT BEEN BEHIND THE SCENES. So don’t judge

My mum bought fish from Pets At Home, they all died pretty quickly. Whenever I go in their stores I see loads of dead fish, I'd say in 9/10 tanks there are dead fish. It's disgusting.

Syrian hamsters can live together until they are 12 weeks !!! Pets at home separate them when they reach that ! That’s why they are together then !

I'd really appreciate if watchdog actually researched what they were talking about. Syrians must live alone? Not if they're young mate. Their instincts don't kick in at the young age they are in the shop. Mr. Pets at Home saying he didn't agree with their points wasn't right, he should've told them completely that they were wrong.

Over the years I have purchased a few animals from my local Pets at Home stores. In 2008 I bought four fish from the first store and within two weeks, they had all passed away. One died the day we brought them home and we did absolutely nothing wrong, they were fed and cleaned out regularly and were well looked after. About a year later in 2009 I bought three fish from the second store and all three lived long lives. The first one died after we had owned it for three years and the last one passed away last year. During the years that I had those three fish, I bought fish from the first store that all died pretty quick. In the second store I have never seen a dead fish in a tank, unlike the first store where there is almost always at least one dead fish per tank. I have also purchased a gerbil and a rabbit from them too, the gerbil came from the first store and was older than we were told (sold as 16 weeks old and vet estimated he was about two), unwell and fucking evil, but we took him to the vets and he ended up living to 11 years old. Last year we purchased a rabbit from the second store and she has always been healthy and happy and we have never had any health problems with her. Overall i personally believe that the conditions are down to the staff and store itself and not the chain, not all stores are the same.

I worked at pets at home when I was a student. The animals were really well taken care of, most of my colleagues had loads of pets and were walking animal care wikis. I guess we were just awesome or things have slipped

I went for an interview for them and ended up pointing out that they weren't following the law. Did not hear back from that interview haha.

I was at pets at home in Camden yesterday & told the staff about 3 dead fish in their tank but was ignored

This is now 7 years later in 2019 and nothing has changed, I have a pets at home round the corner from my house and exactly the same thing is still going on. Every time we go in with the kids there is something dead. We even had to tell the staff about a dead rabbit how they never noticed I’ll never understand! God knows how their still open

...giving that many carrots to a rabbit can make it really sick as they're high in sugar.

I remember when I was a kid there was this store that had all different types of tropical fish. As I had a tank with some angelfish (bought from one of my dad's friends) and wanted to get some other fish I bought several there now and again. Weeks later all my fish had white spots. I went back to the store and realized most of the fish there for sale were sick. Most "big" pet stores in the area had the same problem. That's the reason most people who get a fish in pet stores can't get them to last more than 2 weeks (that and fishbowls xp). Big stores just don't care or know how to take care of smaller animals.

Not to mention whenever I'm in the fish section of P.A.H there seems to be pretty much nobody there (except confused customers) and whenever I ask someone in another section about fish, they seem to have no idea what they're telling me when they reply.

you can't say the space is appalling because you obviously didn't know that when the hamsters are baby's they can easily live in a small cage.

I been to two pets of home stores in my city and they still have dead fish in some of their tanks I only buy from them when the tanks look clean.

I purchased two gerbils in pets at home a couple weeks ago and they're absolutely fine, infact they settled in their new home perfectly.

I've had two hamsters from pets at home. One died from wet tail after owning it for about 4 months, and the other one lived for about 2 years.

Just bought a cage for my hamster from Pets At Home but it's literally too small for her, despite the sticker on it clearly saying "suitable for Syrian Hamsters" and being recommended by staff. The wheel they recommended is also way too small for a Syrian Hamster and I now have to purchase another one to avoid back problems for my hamster.

I went into a Pets At Home store yesterday and the water in the tanks was crystal clear but there were about 10 dead fish, there was at least one dead fish in nearly every tropical tank and one dead fish in the coldwater. I always thought they had a good selection of tropical fish, but when I went into one of their stores yesterday there wan't really much variety in the tropical fish they had, that combined with the amount of dead fish meant that I said I was just looking

I had two rabbits from pets at home that were very healthy. Sadly, one died at about the age of 3 due to illness that we couldn't help. The other is still going strong at 5 years old. I also brought two hamsters and two fish. The hamsters I have had for a year are very healthy still. I got my fish at Christmas last year and one died a couple of weeks ago. None of these two deaths had anything to do with PAH or us, it was just unlucky.

Recently bought 2 baby rabbits from that same place and they were all kept in perfect conditions, so glad they have changed for the better!

I got my chinese hamster from PetsAtHome down in Barkingside (Redbridge) and their place was quite clean and healthy. My hamster had the petsathome brand bedding and got conjunctivitis but that was only when I took him home and it started playing up. I then took him to the vet gave him his eye drops for a week and he was fine now I use the wilkinsons brand... My friend goes there too and all her animals were fine and healthy. Its not ALL petsathome shops are terrible they aren't all doing the same thing so its only in certain parts.

The dead fish aren't surprising. My local pets at home is next to an aquatics shop owned by professionals who were giving us advice about our fish and pets at home, when we visited there, literally said the opposite. They have also sold me... - a sick gerbil (died in a week) - an old gerbil sold with the young ones (died after two years but was never tame) - an old hamster who was obviously unhealthy (died in two months from what we think was a mass in her stomach) - a betta fish (we don't know how she died but we think it's because we made the mistake of listening to pets at home instead of the professionals across the street)

One of the cages i bought from pets at home actually ended up killing my gerbil. I found the poor baby hanging with its leg stuck in the gerbilarium cage.

They literally keep rats in a single level tank

My local petsathome is brilliant though.

My local pets at home is great but I went to a different one and they happily sold me shrimp even though they knew it was a new tank

ive had 7 pets from pets at home and none of them have been like this

with the hamster and it says they must live alone when they are adults but when they are small and babies they dont fight

My bunny , Savannah was bought from pets at home, we got her on my sisters birthday. A couple of days later she died. I was really sad....

I went to pets at home two months ago, and I bought two male dwarf hamsters . Except they weren't . Two weeks ago I found babies , so they missold me and now I'm having to pay for 7 hamsters .

My guinea pigs also had ringworm when we got them from pets at home

Bought 2 fish from pets at home last year got a big old tank with another 15 fish in it 2 days later one of the ones I bought was dead and took 6 other fish with it

Got two guinea pigs from pets at home. One of them was tiny but the lady checked it and said he was fine. 5 days later he passed away and we still don't know why. We took him back to complain and all they said was ' we'll see how he died'. It was horrible and the fact that they sold us a sick piggie is digusting.

Pets at home changed management since then and now work well with animals

The one near me is also awful, I actually contacted the rspca about my local shop and they were very shocked about it. The bettas fins were breaking, the filters were very clogged and so many dead fish were in the tanks, others were even eating them. On the 4th of January 2014, I bought 2 rabbits, and on the 14th if February 2014, one of them died over night. That was, as u can guess, not what I wanted on Valentines Day aged 9

I had a guinea pig that had a crusty ear it had like a white weird stuff after about 2 weeks it was fine and then the guinea pig lived for another 3 yrs

From this news, I’m quite thankful that I’m getting my guinea pig tomorrow from my friend Sophie because her guinea pig had babies and they can’t keep them so I’m getting guinea pigs :D we’ve only gotten the hutch and all of that from pets at home. And this must be so difficult to know that pets at home didn’t notice these incidents and I hope they will learn ♥️

The guinea pigs that are in my profile picture are from pets at home they are both 8 years old and still alive now and I've never had any issues with them

If you want to buy a pet, go to a small pet store where the staff are properly trained, not a huge complex where they just don't care. I used to work in a small privately owned pet store, and we often got people in who'd gone to these places and had bad experiences. Like: * Sold a rabbit with myxomatosis. * Sold a rabbit, told it was male but actually turned out to be female. And pregnant. We bought the baby rabbits off the customer once they were ready. * Sold two goldfish that died in days. * Sold a rat that was savage, probably from being badly handled as rats generally are laid back as a rule. * Sold betta fish, told that they were all female but there was a male there, ended up with a zillion fish.

I got two guiniepigs from pets at home one died a month after getting it so sad

Five years later and I get half of my Fish from pets at home things have changed all my fish of lasted 5 to 6 years

this is exactly like the store near my house - they make buying a gold fish more difficult than buying a handgun, yet they always have about 20 dead fish floating around thier tanks... when i pointed this out to the 'fish specialist' she just laughed saying 'whoops thats not good' then walked off!! they really dont have a bloody clue

my friend bought fish from pets at home and they said they could be kept in cold water. she did and the fish died soon after she bought them

I've been going to pets at home for 4 years now and had no serious problems

There are several shops near where I live and I have been in most of them quite a few times, for the veterinary services mainly since I have a dog who gets his boosters there, and I always look at all the animals and they always look so well. I have never seen any dead fish. The only animals kept in tanks are the animals that would be kept in a cage all the time, i.e hamster chinchilla. And the rabbits and pigs are kept in these runs with hutches, and they look healthy always running around :)x

A lot of the pets at home 'neglect' have emerged weeks later from the guinea pigs being brought home. Guinea pigs are highly sensitive animals, any vet will tell you that they should not be pets for children. Rabbits, should not be housed alone. Pets at home can't refuse a lone rabbit sale, but advise that you buy them in pairs and offer a lower price for pairs to encourage this. Rabbits become stressed when left alone. If you're working all day long, don't get a rabbit. Common sense people!!

We got our Syrian hamster from Pets At Home and he lived to the age of 4 :) I don't think I would buy a guinea pig or rabbit though

i bought 2 gerbils from pets at home, they ended up fighting and, as people can see in one of my vids, one of them got very ill and died

I'm sure some stores are run better than others but my local store (Norwich) is terrible. None of the fish look healthy or happy, in fact just yesterday I bought a shubunkin which already had whitespot (I didn't realise until after adding him to his new home) so I had to treat the whole tank with medication and unfortunately he didn't make it, but I still have to continue treating the tank in case my other goldfish contracted the disease. These things happen but considering the condition of some of the other fish they sell it will likely be a regular occurrence for their customers. Lesson learned, don't risk it and buy fish from pets at home, go to a dedicated aquatics shop.

I don't think it's all Pets At Home's fault, a lot of the time it's the owners fault. I'm not saying "Always buy from a pet shop and never adopt", in fact, adopting is far better but sometimes people can't do it (like me) I've never had any problems with them, other than them having a lack of knowledge in keeping the animals but they always health checked my animals and what not. Told me a lot of correct things but some things were false, myths or just things that I (and a lot of people) don't agree with. So far I've bought a Syrian hamster, 3 guinea pigs and a rabbit.

i got mine from the pets at home in old bury and they was perfectly fine the laddie didn't want to get rid of one

Please help my mum is getting me rats from pets at home and I don't know how to talk her out of it

I agree there isn't enough room for the hamsters but pets at home keep them in there until they are eight weeks old.

When I was at one of their stores I mentioned to an employee that a rabbit had got injured and was bleeding from their eye. He went and picked the rabbit up but wasn't very gentle at all. He looked frustrated. Didn't like the look of it. I took home a hamster from the re-homing section rather than buying one and they said the hamster wasn't friendly and bit. With patient and gentle handling he was absolutely lovely, never bit me once. Also I hated their own cages they were selling. Even the ''large'' ones were way too small. I had to buy 3 of their ''large'' cages and connect them with tubes to make an adequate cage for him. They also sold cotton wool bedding and wire wheels. They either don't know enough about animals or don't care enough in my opinion

I tried to buy shrimp for my aquarium in pets at home they said that they were out of stock even though I saw some and then I came back and told another person that I was buying some shrimp and they let me buy them then

Its horrible to think pets at home would do this, however i am confident they have changed their ways and made things a lot better. The pets at home I go to in Norwich I know for a fact takes great care of their animals, i went their in 2010 to get fish as a birthday present, all the tanks were crystal clear and all fish were healthy, I got myself two lovely common goldfish, one of which died recently due to I think swim bladder disease. I am getting a new one soon so the other one isn't all alone. All other animals in the store were fit and healthy. For me there has been no problems in the Pets at home I go to. Just so you all know it is not all pets at home shops that behave this way , only a certain few.

I bought a baby rat from pets at home in Luton and shortly after got another one to keep her company. However, the first baby rat I got only lasted a year when they are meant to live to about 2-4 or more years. My other one that I got from Another pets at home in Suffolk, lived for nearly 4 years.

a couple years ago I got two Russian dwarf hamster and one of the hamsters who was a albino ended out to have diabetes and then died 6 months later.

Please visit the Nene Valley retail park one

I got my guinea pig and he’s only ever got on infection on his ear cus my guinea pigs had a fight and I separated them and my mum treated him and he is eating now I’ve nearly had him a year

All my pets are from pets at home and all lived happy, healthy lives

This is so sad it made me cry

They have made massive improvements since this video was shown. They have ridged due diligence tests before they sell to customers, so you get questioned about future animal welfare. The fish are well fed - all the staff tend to keep their own fish at home, so they give excellent advise. Always buy from stores that have a bit of fish poo in the tanks because it means they are feeding them and keeping them healthy. The range of fish is very safe and appropriate - you only get fish that don't grow too big or fight each other. Prices are excellent. Great guidance leaflets to take away for free and in-store videos. They even sell planting substrates and snail-free live plants. What is not to like. Its come on leaps and bounds and is one of the best places to buy fish in the UK. Well done PAH. 10 out of 10. My fish from here for the past year have all survived and are looking immaculate. Buy with confidence - or report to their HQ. Just please stop this bad press, they do not deserve it.

I bought two guinea pigs and they both died in at least a month from pets at home

my hammie cam from pets at home, i didnt buy her but got her from the person that did, she wasnt very old but has grown with no problems

I got a fish from pets at home and it had a deformed mouth and no top lip and could eat and then his fins started to stop working and after two weeks he died 😭

That's terrible I hope my store isn't like this might need to check

That fish floating on the top SCARED THE FUCK OUT OF ME

My local pets at home are amazing, when I got my hamster they gave him a health check; they suggested what wheel I got him and helped me get everything i need. It’s sad to think that not all pets at home are like that :(

My friend bought a guinea pig from pets at home and it lived 10 years now they do health checks infront of people

Its not always Pets at home fault, if the customer doesn't know how to look after their animal BEFORE they buy it then of course they're gonna develop disease or die.

Mine got ring worm and a lung disease and died after months and it was horrific 😩!

This was 8 years ago my sister bought a hamster 2 weeks ago and it died of wet tail 6 days after purchasing they’re still doing it ..

This is 100000% true because today I was at a pets at home store and i saw a Rabbit avaliable for sale who's ear was flopping down and the other was straight up . They probably haven't done anything about it and just left it for anyone to buy

I bought 3 rats from here on separate occasions. 2 of which died from the same disease within a few months of being bought

One of my hamsters from pets and home lasted for 3 years but this is still appalling

This video is 9 years old, I went in a London based pets at home the other day to buy a fish and I unfortunately saw a lot of blatantly sick fish in the tanks for sale… two particularly were obviously depressed floating in the corners of the empty tanks with their fins hanging down, not to mention one had a massive white spot that definitely didn’t look healthy but was yet still for sale. Definitely still not taking full on care of the animals there unfortunately.

Omg there are three Syrians in there because the are young, I’m a 12 year old and I even know THAT

We go out guinea pig and by the time they were 3 months old and the both died with a resportary infection from when the were born D:

Wait..that Ann from the Weakest Link?

Something bad happened to me at Pets At Home. I bought 2 rabbits and when we were looking at them, one rabbit nearly jumped over her shoulder and my parents were slightly worried and the staff just said 'hes a bit feisty'.Then about a week later they were fighting and we ended up giving him away. But my nice bunny who wasn't mean has had a happy ending. We bought a girl bunny from the RSPCA and they are happy together. But they said Pets At Home should not of sold 2 male bunnies to us. :(

When I go to pets at home. Again I will have a look at the 🎏. If I see a dead fish . I will tell a member of staff

I did work experience for pets at home. The conditions they keep the animals in are awful . The animals, before they go onto the shop floor to be sold are kept in a room, next to each other, radio on. No air nothing. The fish, don't get cleaned out for months. I now work for Pets corner. The difference in animal welfare is drastic from both companies!

I did my work experience there and I was there for 1 week and we had about 3-4 fish die every day and the other animals we kept in really bad enclosures. I have been a buyer there as well I got two gerbils and they said they will live up to 5 years mine died in 1 1/2 years I was only in year 5 so I was about 9 years old and I was devastated both find them both dead

If you want to wind them up then take pictures in one of their stores as i did recently.

This company has certain policies for animals. They are cleaned out every day, and all animals are health checked as soon as they come into store, again before put out into store and once again when sold to customers. As for Syrians, they can live in groups until 16 weeks of age as the hormones to reproduce have not yet kicked into their systems so they are no threat to one another. Also, fish tanks are monitored and treated just like the rest of the animals. I couldn't think of a better place to ask for advice or receive animals.