On April 14th, 2012, I bought 4 fish from Wal-Mart’s pet department in Sterling, VA ( store#2038). The sales associate indicated that those fish were suitable to live in a bowl and did not need a filtration system.

After taking the fish home, something didn't feel right and 14 hours later I took the fish to an aquatic specialist who told me that the fish should've never been sold in a bowl and are already displaying signs of sickness, their only hope for survival would be for Wal-Mart to put them back in their familiar environment and treat them. I went back to Wal-Mart, sick to my stomach with that information and asked to speak to the store manager. An associate came a few minutes later saying the store did not have a store manager at this point, they are going to hire a new manager in the coming days, however he was very sorry about what happened and would be glad to refund all of my money. I told him I wanted to make sure that the staff was trained appropriately and I would like to follow up and know what is going to happen to the fish since they needed medical treatment at this point. He told me "all fish that are returned at Wal-Mart, get destroyed", so there is nothing more he could do. Get this people; whenever you buy a live fish from Wal-Mart and return it for whatever reason, Wal-Mart kills the fish.

The multi-million dollar company doesn't want to invest to properly take care of these creatures and would dispose of every single fish being returned to them in the cruelest way possible just to cut costs. Needless to say, I refused the refund and took the fish back, after speaking to the aquatic specialist again, he told me I had 4 days to find a new habitat for the fish before they die, so I am currently looking for an organization, or an individual with a pond that would be willing to adopt these fish that would get murdered if returned at Wal-Mart. Given Wal-Mart’s business model and policy about these animals, they will never give proper care to the fish. This is a terrible act of animal cruelty, so please sign this petition to stop the suffering of thousands of fish at Wal-Mart.

Killing every fish that is returned to the store is a crime, it is inhumane and an utter disregard to the lives of these beautiful and helpless fish which are trusted to Wal-Mart's Care. No animal should ever be treated this way, allowed to suffer endlessly until its death!!!!