Melissa Kaplan's
Herp Care Collection
Last updated January 1, 2014

Petco Correspondence: 1997 Follow-up

Mike Fry (Animal Ark) to Dan Cowan (Petco); Cowen to Melissa Kaplan

After I received a copy of Mike's July 28 letter to Cowan, I forwarded to him my 1994 letter. He sent it along to Don Cowan, with the following cover letter:

July 29, 1997

To: Don Cowan

From: Mike Fry
(Reprinted by permission of Mike Fry)

Since my e-mail yesterday, I found a letter that was sent to the president of Petco about 3 years ago. A copy of the letter has been included at the end of this e-mail. Melissa (the sender of the letter) has received no response to date. I have also been made aware of other, similar communications which have been sent to Petco over the years, which have also gone unanswered.

It is my intention to forward these communications to the reporter in New York working on the "Petco Ig" story, unless you can provide me with some real, solid indication that Petco is interested in changing the way it works with its reptiles. The method by which you sell and house your reptiles (years after being made aware of the problem) and these unanswered complaints and communications indicate to me that your talk of "Public Education" may be a pretty hollow smoke screen that you hide behind in order to continue exploiting these animals for large profits.

As you know, Petco is a fairly new chain in the Midwest. When they started opening stores here, I was hoping they would "do the right thing". But it looks like my hopes have been unanswered. It looks like Petco is just another mega-corporate giant exploiting animals for profit. Please tell me this is not the case. Please explain this in some way that makes some sense. I am open to hearing a rational explanation. . .

Looking forward to hearing from you. . .

/s/ Mike Fry

I received the following acknowledgment from Don Cowan:

July 30 1997

From: Don Cowan
To: Melissa Kaplan

Melissa,

Thank you for the clarification. I have shared your communication with a number of people and we will discuss it further and get back to you soon with more information. We appreciate your genuine interest in this issue.

/s/ Don Cowan