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PetSmart Terminates GFNJ Meet & Greets
Well, it seems to have been looming on the horizon for awhile, but today it happened. PetSmart has "terminated" Greyhound Friends of NJ from their stores - "This means your organization is no longer welcome to conduct meet and greets ... at any store location.".
This past weekend GFNJ was asked to leave a PetSmart store after a verbal disagreement between the GFNJ coordinator and the store manager. There had been difficulties between these two for the past several years, and it came to a head on Saturday.
Today Linda Lyman received a phone call from Anita Garcia from PetSmart adoptions to discuss what had happened and the relationship between GFNJ and PetSmart. Linda described the conversation as stressed in the beginning, but at the end the two had worked out an agreement that each GFNJ store coordinator would contact their store manager and work out an agreement for future meet and greets..
However, about a half hour later, Linda received the below email from Gina L Ewert terminating GFNJ's involvement with PetSmart.
GFNJ has had a long relationship with PetSmart, but recently they have been pushing for identifying information about our adopters. We were asked to leave 2 stores (Manalapan and Rockaway) as we do not do 'on-site' adoptions. Many of us have been holding Meet & Greets for 15 years in various PetSmart stores. Many of us do our pet supply shopping in PetSmarts when we do our M&Gs.
The email addresses for the PetSmart contacts are below - you might feel inclined to send them an email letting them know how you feel. It might also be a good idea to do your pet food/supply shopping in a more 'GFNJ friendly' store.
So, now we have some free weekends, but hopefully, not for long. We can use everyone's help in coming up with places that could host alternative Meet & Greets - Petco, Cutters Mills, smaller pet stores, Home Depot, Costco, malls, bookstores - be imaginative!
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 5:39 PM
Subject: Termination of partner #0848; Greyhound Friends, Inc.
Linda, based on your phone call with Anita Garcia this afternoon, due to recent customer service/conduct issues at a store location, effective immediately, Greyhound Friends, Inc. (#848), is terminated from the PetSmart Charities In-Store Adoption Program. This means your organization is no longer welcome to conduct meet and greets or facilitate adoptions at any store location, nor receive funding through the PetSmart Charities adoption rewards program. A letter will be mailed indicating your organization’s termination from the program.
· Store locations have been instructed to contact and cancel any further scheduled events.
· If partner representatives are unaware of the situation, the location managers have been instructed to refer them to their organization’s president.
· If any chapter wants to reapply for partnership, they will be invited to complete the online adoption partner webinar at petsmart.com and proceed with the approval steps as described on the site.
This termination does not mean your organization cannot utilize PetSmart Charities free educational webinars available on our website or request funding through PetSmart Charities grants programs. PetSmart Charities is a multi-faceted organization with the vision of finding a lifelong, loving home for every pet. We hope we would be able to assist you through other means, regardless of your organization’s status in our In-Store Adoption Program.
Thank you for you work on behalf of the homeless pets in your community,
Gina Ewert
Program Manager; In-Store Adoptions
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