Nearly 100 animals died last week at a Johnson City, NY, Petco after flooding filled the store with several feet of water. Outrage over the incident was fanned when the company posted an apology notice on its blog that at first blamed the city for incident for not adequately warning the store about the flood risk.

“We want to stress that this was not carelessness on our associates’ behalf, but a communications lapse from the city to the store in evacuations orders,” said the post, which was written by Petco’s VP of Animal Care and Education. “We are investigating why we did not receive those evacuation orders from the city if this area was known to flood in the past,” it continued. “Had we been aware of potential flooding, we would have removed all of the animals from the store as we do in all other locations.”

While 100 animals died in the flood, at least 100 were able to be rescued by store employees, pressconnects reports.

People flooded the blog post and company Facebook page with angry comments, calling the apology an “insult.” Users called for a Petco boycott, circulated online petitions, and began emailing PETA.

Now that text is no longer on that blog post link. It’s been replaced by new text written by Petco’s CEO. ” Our store in Johnson City is relatively new, we were not operating the last time flooding threatened the community and we misjudged the risk to this location,” he wrote. “We feel terrible that we did not do more to avoid this tragedy, are truly saddened by what has occurred, and accept full responsibility.”

PETCO discovery: Close to 100 animals lost in flood [PressConnects]
Petco Pets Die In Flood [WBNG]
PETCO addresses concerns after flooding [YNN]
Johnson City Update from Petco CEO, Jim Myers [PetcoScoop] (Thanks to all who sent this in!)

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