According to one TikToker, PetSmart crossed the line by throwing dozens of live fish into the dumpster.
The horrifying video of the incident was posted in May by a TikToker identified only as Kate (@ugckatehahn32). According to her profile, Kate is from Idaho, and so is the local PetSmart store that she's calling out.
"This is our first time dumpster diving, and we just found an entire box of live fish," she says in the video. The fish are in individual plastic tubs stacked inside a cardboard box.
"They've lost, like, half of their water," she continues. "More than half … This one has, like, nothing. Oh my god."
@ugckatehahn32 Found this in the dumpster at my local Petsmart. #dumpsterdiving ♬ original sound - Kate 🙂
Despite their dangerous condition, the fish still cling to life.
"They're all alive," Kate says. "Petsmart literally threw them away … This is so sad."
Wasteful businesses throwing out food and other products is not new. Resourceful dumpster divers have found fruits and vegetables, piles of books, all kinds of housewares, and totally new in-the-box appliances.
Not only does throwing out these products cost the business money and deprive local buyers of the items, but it also wastes the resources used to make replacements and creates air pollution when they're shipped to the store.
But by throwing out living animals, PetSmart has achieved a stunning new low.
In two follow-up videos, Kate explains that she gave the box of fish to an employee who was leaving work at the time. That employee apparently commented on Kate's video, which blew up with over 17 million views, saying that they brought the fish back to work the next day, and all but one of them survived.
Kate also said that PetSmart contacted her and that they're "taking care of it," whatever that means.
It would be comforting to know this was a rare mistake, but judging by the shocking and sad number of commenters who were unsurprised by the dumpster fish, it seems as though PetSmart is not being smart with their pets.
"PetSmart has been doing this for years," said one user. "I found an entire colony of hermit crabs back in 2016."
"This is like the seventh time I've seen PetSmart do this!" said another user, tagging the company's TikTok account.
What's even more shocking, though, is that one commenter claimed PetSmart wasn't the only culprit. "This reminds me of the video of somebody's father finding a hamster in the Petco trash dumpster," they said.
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