Activists Protest Petco for Selling Live Animals

Photos/Videos
(Credit: Direct Action Everywhere)

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

July 18, 2026, San Rafael, CA – As Bay Area cities move to ban the retail sale of animals, dozens of animal rights activists with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) protested today at one of the Bay’s biggest pet retailers: Petco. Activists first protested silently next to the animals on display inside Petco in San Rafael, and then loudly outside the store, urging Petco to end the retail sale of animals at all locations. 

About twenty activists assembled a few stores away from the Petco store and then walked together to the Petco location. Once inside they lined up and silently held their messages. At one point a store employee expressed concern that they were blocking a walkway. They weren't. After walking through several of the large store's aisles, they exited.

Activists, including members of Bay Area rescue organizations, spoke about how rescues are overwhelmed with abandoned animals because stores like Petco sell animals to anyone, without setting expectations for the amount of care the animals require or how much their medical bills could cost. One spoke eloquently about what it must be like for a bird having to spend its entire life confined to a tiny cage.

A woman bystander was inspired to join the protesters holding signs in front of the store. 

Speakers also described how animals routinely die in the pet trade — at industrial breeding mills that stock Petco and other stores, in transit over long distances, and on the shelves at stores. They held bright pink banners reading “The ‘Exotic Pet’ Industry Is Killing Animals” and “Petco Profits, Animals Die.” 

Petco is a leading pet supply company and in 2025 generated a revenue of $6 billion. Most of the animals sold at its stores are poached from their native habitat or are sourced from industrial breeding factories, some of which have been cited by the USDA for federal Animal Welfare Act violations. According to Petco employees across multiple Bay Area locations, many animals bred and shipped to the stores die before reaching store shelves. Survivors often arrive emaciated or sick with infectious diseases, yet corporate policy blocks them from receiving adequate veterinary care. Shipments of sick and emaciated animals have continued even after USDA citations against Petco’s bird and reptile suppliers, employees say. 

Recently, DxE members investigated Petco locations throughout the Bay Area and found sick animals, enclosures with no enrichment, and a hamster repeatedly pacing back and forth, indicating mental distress. Investigations of the San Francisco and San Mateo Petco locations found overly crowded fish tanks with deceased fish and filthy reptile enclosures. Many animals are being sold at a 50% discount, a tactic to get rid of unsold animals that have been at the store for more than 5 months, according to an employee. Petco sells animals to customers without any formal background check or vetting process. 

In May, Albany City Council unanimously voted to draft an ordinance banning the retail sale of live animals, becoming the first city in the Bay Area to do so. Also in May, the San Francisco Commission of Animal Control and Welfare, an advisory body that focuses on local animal issues, unanimously voted in support of a retail animal sale ban within San Francisco proper. The Commission sent their recommendation to the Board of Supervisors and Mayor Daniel Lurie. 

“Birds are complex, sensitive, social beings, and their needs are not considered when they are treated as products,” said Cynthia Bardouka-Large, the co-director of Palomacy, a local pigeon and dove rescue. “People who breed birds, and treat them as disposable, outnumber rescues by a factor of thousands. Meanwhile the rescues, who WILL help you provide the best life available to these birds, are overflowing. Please adopt.”

Local animal advocates plan to continue protesting Petco stores across the Bay Area and urging city leaders to enact bans on the retail sale of animals.