Earlier in our conversation she calmly detailed the story of Satchmo, the cat she purchased from Pet Kingdom, a pet store on Cleveland Avenue in Fort Myers. Only when she talked about the cat’s horrible and painful death did Schmidt begin to sob.
“He didn’t deserve this,” she cried.
The cat had been dead just a few days when on Aug. 29 Schmidt launched the Facebook page, “Justice for Satchmo.” By Tuesday more than 300 people had “liked” the site, and many posted their own stories about purchasing sick dogs and cats from Pet Kingdom.
Schmidt, who lives in Estero, said that on July 25 she, her husband and daughter were on their way to the Broadway Palm but were way too early. They stopped at Pet Kingdom to look at the animals.
When she spotted Satchmo, he was with three other cats in a small enclosure sharing one litter box. Schmidt asked to see the orange Persian, and when the worker went to get him, “I smelled him before he was out the door.”
Schmidt described a mass of fur and feces covering his rear and matted fur. She showed the worker who agreed to shave the cat so he could to use the litter box. Schmidt said she was told the cat would cost $500 but that the price was negotiable.
Schmidt went to the play and two hours later returned to the store.
“I don’t believe in buying animals, but he needed help. He was blatantly neglected,” Schmidt said.
She negotiated the price to $300 and took Satchmo home. She was told the cat had been seen by a veterinarian the previous day and the health certificate she received had been signed by a vet a week earlier.
Schmidt said when she got the cat home it was obvious he was sick. She isolated Satchmo from her other cats and took him to see her vet. He was diagnosed with a respiratory infection. It never got better. Finally when she found him on the bathroom floor panting, she took him back to the vet where he was diagnosed with Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), a disease that is almost always fatal.
Satchmo had to be euthanized.
After the diagnosis Schmidt said she called Pet Kingdom and the owner, Jeffrey Thompson told her to bring the cat in, they would get it treated or determine if it needed to be humanely killed. Schmidt refused. “I wasn’t going to drive 40 minutes with a dying cat in my arms,” she said.
Thompson said he and his wife recently closed on the purchase of the business. Thompson’s wife, Stephanie, had worked in the store for 23 years, and when the former owner Charlotte Hornsby was looking to sell, they decided to buy.
Every so often a couple of people may complain, Thompson said, “But we have a zillion customers that will tell you this place is fantastic.”
Thompson said if an animal gets sick, a customer can bring it back and the store’s vet will treat it. That’s why he said he wasn’t responsible for the $1,350 vet bills Schmidt wanted him to pay. He did, however, refund her the cost of the cat as a "goodwill gesture".
But then, “She put up a website that we’re a horrible company,” which is not true, Thompson said, describing himself and his wife as animal lovers.”
Ria Brown, the spokeswoman for Lee County Domestic Animal Services, said they get one or two complaints a month about Pet Kingdom. The agency promptly investigates but, “Everything seems to be in order when we go out.”
Still there are plenty of online complaints about the business, and I’ve had a couple too. One I wrote about in 2009 in which a dog died shortly after being purchased from the store. And the Better Business Bureau gives Pet Kingdom an F.
Hornsby said she would reimburse Schmidt’s veterinary bills. But Schmidt said getting her money back wasn’t the point. She wants to raise awareness about Pet Kingdom and warn others the store sells sick animals.
(The News-Press - Sep 2, 2014)
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