CORNWALL, Ontario – A protest calling for the closure of the Gveah Pet Store was held outside the Cornwall Square Saturday.
Years of allegations, both online and offline, boiled to the surface as over a dozen people rallied near Horovitz Park, escaping cold winds in a city transit bus shelter, across from the downtown shopping centre’s parking lot.
Some protesters standing on the side of Sydney Street waved placards reading slogans such as “Animals Suffer For Greed & Profit!” “SHUT IT DOWN,” and “Honk if you love pussy cats!”
“Everyone has been scared to say something, and I think we need people to stand up,” said Samantha Patenaude, who co-organized the protest rally with Katherine Reddon and another Cornwall woman who was unable to attend.
Patenaude and Reddon say they want the SD&G SPCA to step in and shut down the store.
“Pets dying is not a part of the business,” said Gary Kharmandarian, owner of the Gveah Pet Store and the neighbouring Cornwall Square Shoe Repair & Cordonnerie, since 1995.
On Saturday (Jan. 23), pet store patron Eric Sypes was picking up food for the lizards he previously purchased there. A few days earlier he purchased a kitten for $60 at the store for his child.
“I’d love to see them (protesters). I have a few things to say,” said Sypes, noting that the rally got off to a late start. “All my animals are perfectly healthy. If there was such a problem I wouldn’t buy from here. People need to take their animals to the vet after.”
The group of protesters noted that store signage barring cameras and cell phones is “suspicious.”
“Can you imagine you’re in a cage and people come snapping their cameras in your face? I don’t want my animals to be stressed,” said Kharmandarian. “If you want to go to the zoo, go!”
He says there’s been a local campaign of harassment since he re-opened the pet shop about two and a half years ago.
Protesters Leah Fitzpatrick and Monique Brunet said that isn’t the case.
Fitpatrick says she purchased an eight-week old kitten and pet food from the store around Christmas. But after a visit to the veterinarian four days later for shots, she was told the new pet was actually barely a month old and needed to be put on food replacement formula.
Fitzpatrick attempted to return the food she was allegedly encouraged to buy back to the store, but to no avail.
“He actually kicked me out of the store, because I was being negative. I didn’t see the 48-hour return policy sign above the cash register at first, but he could’ve offered an exchange on the food, something to sympathize,” said Fitzpatrick. “And why did he tell me the cat was eight weeks old, when she fit in the palm of my hand?”
Fitzpatrick says the kitten died 12 days after she was purchased.
Reddon questioned why the store has a strict two-day return policy, when other establishments offer up to 15 days.
Meanwhile, Brunet said her daughter recently purchased two kittens from the store, and one passed away shortly after. The family’s beloved five-year-old cat also suddenly died a short time later. One kitten is still alive and well.
“One kitten came with fleas, worms and a virus, but we paid for the vet,” said Brunet. “I’m very upset and want them closed down, because these animals don’t deserve this.”
The protest and the allegations of neglect both originated from social media.
In March 2014, a Facebook page was created named ‘Boycott “The Pet Store” at the Cornwall Square shopping center.’
Numerous wall posts from the page’s 1,800-plus followers allege animals, including dogs, cats, and guinea pigs, have been grossly mistreated and left in unsanitary living conditions.
On Jan. 15, a Facebook user posted that the kitten she purchased from the mall store died shortly after on Christmas night.
The post ended with: “I visited the owner on Boxing Day and he refused to give me my $60.00 back and blamed me for her death, saying she must’ve gotten a disease or something on my way home from the pet store and basically laughed in my face. I advise everyone to boycott this location, horrible people and customer service.”
Sypes says the Faceook page administrator is constantly deleting favourable reviews posted by him and others.
“All the positive comments gets deleted,” he said. “People who haven’t even been in the store are judging him. That’s not fair. One reason this all started is that people are jealous. The prices are cheaper than other pet stores. He gives deals.”
“We are responsible for animals for 48 hours and there’s no cash refund, as it says on the sign,” said Kharmandarian. “If you come 10 days after to return a sick cat, where have you been all this time? Of course I’m going to be aggressive. I’m a hard-working guy. I’m here every morning cleaning up my store.”
An online petition was started under the named Melissa Poncia, calling for the shop’s closure. The petition reached 2,557 signatures before it was closed. The first line of the description reads: “There have been countless cases of sick, dying and/or mistreated animals bought from this pet store in particular.”
Another petition was created on change.org, also calling for authorities to shut down the shop. The petition has reached 1,779 signatures.
“Everyone walks in the store and they love it. I can give you 50 numbers,” said Kharmandarian. “But if you come in, and the hamster’s sleeping, and you think it’s dead so you knock on the window…I will ask, ‘Can I help you?’ Because you’re only here to start a problem.
“It’s not an attitude. I’m a tough love guy.”
