Enticing children with free kittens at Wal-Mart

This is a better story than the one last year when several Wal-Mart
associates were fired after it was learned they were shooting cats in
the back of the Supercenter with a pellet gun.

This is a horrible and cruel way to try and get rid of kittens. The
stress of all those kids poking and prodding them is absolute terror
for the poor cats. Parents never seem to understand the horrors they
are allowing their kids to put the animals through by letting them
handle them.

In my city, this is not legal even outside the store. People are not
allowed to try to give away or sell baby animals at any public places,
period.

If the store managers won't send these idiots packing, the cops will.
And if the the Humane Society is called, they will confiscate the
animals and bring them to the shelter which is what the irresponsible
pet owners should have done in the first place.

I agree the manager at Wal Mart was certainly remiss in not taking
care of this situation. Good for you for trying to help those poor
kitties.

Good ole Wal-Mart. The store manager called and left a message on my
answering machine on Friday. It was very apparent that he hadn't
actually read my complaint (sent via PFB as well as emailed directly
to the store). He couldn't understand what the problem was - the SPCA
doesn't set up outside his Wal-Mart. *sigh*.

So I am going to call him back today just to clarify myself.

Oh, but he did wish me a "blessed" day so I am guessing that if this
were December, he would have wished me a "Merry Christmas". LOL

Well - I just spoke to the manager. He was of little help. Oh well ~
I didn't expect much and that's exactly what I received.

I remember when I was a young-un in Australia, my parents where lining
up at the local school to vote that year, and there was a family with
a big basket of kittens.

We ended up taking one home, yes. And I see nothing wrong with getting
rid of kittens in that manner. Where the TEENAGE boys peadofhiles?
(sp?) Was anyone hurt in the end? No.

It's no different to walking past the pet-store with your kids.

Would you rather the boys, desperate to get rid of the kittens,
drowned them? Abandoned them? Left them in a bag on the side of the
road?

While visiting my family in Australia a few years back, a group of
boys who had more kittens than they could handle decided to get rid of
them by TORTURING THEM. They lit their whiskers on fire, left them in
freezers, electrocuted them... and all other kinds of horrible things.
Thank god they ended up in jail.

That's odd that they were allowed into the store with the kittens in
the first place.

All RESPONSIBLE pet lovers know there is NO such thing as a FREE
kitten! Most Veterinary offices would have taken them and gave them
their shots AND spayed or neutered them And then found them good
homes. P.S. That is the CUTEST kitty picture, thanks for posting it :)

Oh, PFB... that picture isn't helping. I'm not a cat lover, but I'll
take those kittens, please.

yes, i'm sure it was inconvenient for you and it forced you to say no
to your child, but quite frankly, with the ways a lot of kids are
these days, they could have killed the kittens or just dumped them.
These kids were making an effort and i think they are to be commended.
It would be a whole lot easier just to take the old bag weighted down
with rocks and kittens to the river route. As a major cat lover, i'm
so glad these boys exist. Just say no to your child and calmly go
about your business. And the only person who is any of your business
is your child, not the other kids.

Meow



Sorry I just had to! hehe

Ab-sol-ut-ely Free!!!

What to do with teenage boys peddling illicit felines at the local
supermarket?

My guess is that they were trying to do something good (as I can think
of many, many ways that teenage boys could be spending time in a less
desirable fashion). I don't condone their actions due to all of the
potential legal ramifications, health issues, animal rights problems,
and public outcry. But has anyone thought about dropping pointing out
to these teenagers problems with what they are doing? If they were
jerks at that point, then get the manager involved -- or get someone
that could do something.

Of course, being inside was a little wierd I have to admit.

I'VE HEARD THEY SELL EVERYTHING AT WAL-MART, BUT THATS FRICKING
HILARIOUS! THOSE DINGBATS PROBABLY DIDNT HAVE PERMISSION, BUT WHEN
THE WAL-MART DINGBAT WAS NOTIFIED, THE ORIGINAL DINGBATS SHOULD HAVE
BEEN THROW OUT. HILARIOUS! ALSO NOT VERY SANITARY....

Somthing very similar happened to me a guy my age (teenager) walked up
to me and asked if I could give him some gas money because he ran out.
It was his own fault plus I didnt know the scam-artist. Scary that
walmart allowed that to happen.... selling kittens in the store! that
is what a animal shelter is for. but I do feel sorry for the kittens

While I doubt that Wal-Mart gave explicit permission for the kids to
bring the kittens into the store, they certainly gave their tacit
permission when it was obvious they knew about it and allowed it to
continue.

These were obviously not bad kids looking to cause trouble. In fact,
I'd go so far as to say they were probably unaware that what they were
doing was wrong.

After all, how could it be bad to try to find a home for a kitten?

The blame for this must lie sqaurely with the store's staff, even
though it's obvious that their intentions were good, as well.

But, good intentions or not, you're right,LadyMac, it was not a good
situation. I'm sorry your little guy got so upset and I hope he's
feeling better now.

(also, I hope all the kittens got new homes with responsible, loving
owners. And then I hope the parents of the teenagers made sure that
their particular kitten factory was spayed)

lol ;)

Wow, I guess your Walmart is more clueless than the others. If I tried
to walk in my Walmart with kittens, I think they would notice. I
believe that what they were doing was illegal by going in to the store
and doing this. However, they can stand outside of Walmart and ask.

I'd just like to say, I love the title for this letter.

How could you possibly see the line, "Enticing children with free
kittens at Wal-Mart," and not want to read the corresponding letter?
You wouldn't. It is, in my opinion, the perfect teaser.

Bravo!

I have never heard of such a thing!

There was one poor lady who was harassed at a Sam's Club for bringing
her service dog into the building and sitting him in the seat of a
shopping cart. I can't imagine how these children brought in multiple
kittens and got away with it if a service dog was discriminated
against.

Unfortunately, I think you need to get the local manager involved
before you can go to WalMart Corporate, but I wouldn't let this rest.
Something is very odd about the store even allowing something like
that to happen.

I've seen people giving away animals in front of our walmart too, on
several occasions. However, I think most of the times there were
cages and it was an organization doing this. But I do remember one
specific time with kittens also. I stayed away because you just don't
know what you are getting yourself into and if they were not properly
taken care of you could get toxoplasmosis (sp) which my own aunt got
by petting a stray and now lost vision in one of her eyes for it. She
was very sick for a long time with that. Definitely go through the
proper channels to give or get a kitten. And Walmart should monitor
who is out there too.

Am I the only one wanting to call shenanigans on this letter?

I just can't imagine a Wal*Mart store letting people bring kittens in.
I can't imagine a Wal*Mart letting a kitten be hawked in front of the
service desk.

Thus, I call shenanigans.

Your "best case scenario" aside....

There's some very very serious issues with the contents of this letter
That should have been addressed immediately to customer service and
management. Child dosen't understand or can't handle "NO"??? Point
child away from the enticement possible added stress no longer
paralyzing you from acting. If you don't get management to act,a quick
call to 911 in this case was not in the realm of unreasonable.

There's a bacteria or parasite or something in cat feces...if it gets
into a pregnant woman's system, it puts her and her unborn child at
great risk of serious illness or even the loss of her child.A paper
cut, small wound or a hand brought to the mouth to cover a sneeze is
all that it takes...

Code Adam and Amber Alert Issues....Lock all doors and get every
employee involved. kittens are one m.o. predators use.. One of those
"teens" could have been a small adult on some nefarious mission...

Health Issues. Pharmaceuticals are dispensed and food items are
handled and sold. Contamination and cross contamination can and does
happen and spreads very quickly.

It was important enough to let management know while in the store. So
to err on the side of safety they could call the healh dept or 911 and
have them and the kittens escorted out and some measures taken to
clean the areas if not the whole store.

. Something should have been done

Added Stress? Lame excuse

Any department store isn't the place for kittens. Outside the store
where people at least have the choice to walk away is a bit better...
For any adult to realize there's a problem and wait to get home to
call???? Well that's responsible and acceptable because you and your
child are home safe.

If he was luring the kids out of the store they should have called the
police on him.

You say you didn't speak to a manager in the store because you didn't
want to go to customer relations as it would subject your son to a
kitten.
Does that mean that one of the guys giving them away was up there? I'm
confused.

I agree with you that one of the kids could have been lured out. Which
begs the question-----So what if your son would have been subjected to
a kitten? What if they WERE perverts and some child was taken because
not one person complained to the manager?

I 100% agree that this should not have been allowed. Not only for the
reasons you describe, but also for the safety and well being of the
kittens. This is how pet over-population and animal abuse starts - -
these kittens were most likely not spayed/neutered and hadn't had
their shots. Picture it - - some kid, without his parents permission,
takes a kitten home and Mom or Dad doesn't want it so it gets tossed
outside to fend for itself. Bad news any way you look at it.

While I wish every unwanted domesticated animal could find a loving
home, the proper way to do it ISN'T to make it so darn easy for people
to take one home. I don't want someone taking a kitten home on a
whim, or because they're afraid to say "no" to their young child.

Make people seek out pets, and go through the proper channels so we
can be assured the pets get their shots, spayed/neutered, etc.

I wonder if they even had permission to be on the premises.

They proabably snuck them in...

And you are right, it could be a safety issue.

I agree completely with you. They should have never been allowed in
the store to begin with! They should have thrown those guys out.
Standing outside and hawking free kittens is one thing but walking
around inside the store with them is another.

I also agree that this could have been a potentially dangerous
situation.

Good letter.