Animals & Things

Pathetic how this place is kept and how they take care of the animals. I hope the owner rots in hell.

This place absolutely broke my heart every time I walked in. Although it was clean, you could tell the animals (especially the puppies) were not living comfortably and had probably rarely even left their tiny boxlike cages (I only ever saw once an employee take a puppy out of its cage to get checked by a vet). The local vet, by the way, used for checking the animals, Dr. Anant V. Joshi, has received some terrible reviews, and probably should not be caring for animals. You can also immediately tell the animals are probably all from puppy and kitten mills. I, unfortunately (although I love her very, very much), did buy my cat from this place, 3 years ago, and she was sold to me with a clean bill of health checked over by Dr. Joshi. One week later, after taking her to another vet, she was diagnosed with ringworm. Although it was my fault for not recognizing an unhealthy cat and and baldlike patches on her face from the start, I am very happy I bought her when I did. Who knows when or even if Animals & Things would have treated her. I also don’t know about how the rest of the cats were handled or if even treated, since ringworm is an extremely contagious disease and many were sharing the same cage.^That is my little cat story about the place.
ANYWAY I AM EXTREMELY HAPPY TO REPORT THE PLACE HAS SHUT DOWN. IT HAS BEEN SOLD TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO WILL BE TEARING DOWN THE BUILDING AND RENOVATING IT. IT WILL NOT BE MADE INTO ANOTHER PET STORE. HOORAY FOR ONE LESS PET STORE AND FOR ONE LESS BUSINESS A PUPPY/​KITTEN MILL CAN SELL TO.
I have no idea where the animals that were left have gone to though, hopefully (praying) they have not been sent back to the disgusting mills.

Please don’t go here. It’s very depressing. I wish I could buy all the animals just so I can get them out of there. They are neglected, caged for weeks, and sickly. The smell is terrible. I cant tell you how many people that I know that bought sick animals from there. Please DO NOT support this business. They are UNETHICAL and abuse these poor animals.
Please, if you love animals — call the ASPCA and get this place shut down!
Here’s the # 800−582−5979 or you can email a complaint on their website at
.

Please if you love animals call the ASPCA and get this place shut down!
Here’s the # 800−582−5979 or you can email a complaint on their website at
.
This store is not treating their animals properly. The fish tanks are very dirty and there are plenty of dead fish. The dogs are no longer puppies but older dogs that are in small cages. They are selling street cats for $ 150 a piece and have a sign up asking people to drop off kittens which they in turn will sell! The Persian cats are almost a year old in cramped cages with no room for exercise. The rodent, rabbit, ferret, hamster and bird cages are filthy. They should be cited for gross negligence!
Please if you are an animal lover you cannot stand by and let this cruelty take place.

This store gave us nightmares. Seriously dirty and smelly. We came in looking for pond fish and left wanting to call animal control. When you think puppy mill think this place. Sad looking dogs and cats behind bars everywhere. I saw the saddest looking cats being sold for $ 1,000 each. I wish I could rescue them all. We wanted to shop at the locally owned store but will skip this in favor of Petco. Never again.

They don’t deserve 1 star.
This place is a disgusting hellhole full of dead and dying animals. I have not written a bad review for any other pet shop, but this place is nasty.
Two employees told me that the owner doesn’t care because he can’t sell the building. They found an adult cat (young) out near the back door in a carrier, and they sold it as a kitten. The employee told me it was afraid of ppl and they had it in a cage with nowhere to hide.
The rats all have respiratory infections. The small animals are kept disgusting in small glass tanks. If you hate animals, this is the place to go see them suffer.
Their food has been stale and full of moths because I guess it doesn’t get sold fast enough.
They sell bad brands of ferret, hedgehog, and hamster foods. They charge the cost of a good food for a crap food.
They used to have decent-​priced cages but then they started charging more and getting craptastic cages. I really hate this place. It was better about 10 years ago but it’s gone down the tubes.
They also ordered a nautilus even though they don’t survive well in captivity. I saw a dead, melting anemone and the fish guy netted it out only after we begged him to bc it would poison the system. The store was empty but he was just sitting around. It smelled like a stinky fish market. They let their chameleons dry out and die even though we begged them to water them. This place is so disgusting it makes me want to cry. I don’t know who they are paying off because they should have been shut down a long time ago.
The puppies are in tiny cages and don’t get a walk, plus they sit on their own turds and don’t get cleaned.

I visit this store regularly to buy ferret food. I can say they are very well stocked with everything I need for my ferrets when Pet Smart next door is never fully stocked with anything. plus they are a bit cheaper than Pet Smart. Thats pretty much where the good praise ends.
Their store is FILTHY. the ferret enclosure is disgusting. It doesnt get cleaned regularly at all. We wre in there just this week looking at the ferrets and instead of CLEANING the enclosure, they decided to put a huge sticky fly trap on top of the cate in plan view to catch the flies instead of cleaning the cage to get rid of them. I can just imagine the amount of maggots that are probably underneath the bedding that these poor animals have to live in there with.
Ferrets arent even supposed to live in an enclosed plexiglass enclosure. they are supposed to be in an open air CAGE so as to not develop lung issues etc.
They puppies are cute, but their enclosures are small little cages with wired bottoms and these poor puppies live on that for months at a time sometimes. Once in a while some of them may have an old rag in there to lay on. The cages are dirty, the animals look so horribly uncomfortable. Some of them look so dirty and raggedy. Its heart breaking.
I just wish they would clean up their act. they could be a really GREAT store if they took better care of the animals.

I purchased a Maltese/​Yorkshire Terrier mix from Animals and Things in August of 2011. In April of 2013 my dog was diagnosed with bilateral luxating patellas. It is a hereditary disorder, generally the result of poor breeding. The surgery to correct the issue will run around $ 5000. This is fully my fault for purchasing a puppy from a store as opposed to a reputable breeder.

This place made me so sad: P
I haven’t been to Animals & Things in quite some time, I want to say almost a decade or so, that being said, I was excited to visit again. I’m getting into the hobby of fishkeeping, and while I wasn’t ready to purchase a tank yet, I wanted to satisfy my urge of seeing cute lil’ fish boos swimming around and fantasize about my own future tank.
Well upon entrance, you can’t help but notice the odor, and yeah, I get it, it’s a pet store, and not a Petco or PetSmart. Still, I was able to ignore it and continue. Lots of cute puppies to look at, but somehow, the area they’re caged in just didn’t look comfy at all. Definitely dingy.
The fish section was quite large, tons of fresh and marine fish, but many of the tanks were super dirty on the outside! Like, I couldn’t even see in some. I can only imagine what’s going on on the inside. This area had an odor as well, probably from all the yuck factor building up on the tanks. The fish themselves looked healthy for the most part, I did see a few laying on the bottom of the tank (and no, they weren’t bottom dwellers, I know what I’m talking about) and some not swimming enthusiastically at all.
The betta fish section was the saddest of them all! None of them were swimming, just floating in the tiny, unfiltered bowls they’re trapped in, all placed on shelves as if they were cans of food and not living, breathing fish. Some of them looked dead!
I can’t get down with this place at all. I dig mom and pop shops but if you’re gonna keep it looking and smelling like a pigpen, it really loses its appeal. I feel bad for the animals housed here. I’ll shop at the PetSmart any day over this junkheap.

I tend to avoid this store because the smell is overpowering and the obvious neglect of the animals is heartbreaking, but occasionally I buy my dog’s food here because it isn’t sold at the nearby Petsmart.
After my recent experience, I will never step foot in this store again.
Against my better judgment, I opted to stop here and get a betta for my daughter for her birthday. Petsmart had sold out and it was Christmas Eve, so I wanted to get this fish without excessive driving around. The store was in the usual unkempt condition, but was stocked with several fish. The bettas looked ok, so I went ahead and bought one. I asked about their return/​guarantee policy, and was told it was a paltry 48 hours. I also asked if I could have one of those little plastic containers that bettas tend to come in, and was told no. Feeling apprehensive, I still went ahead and bought my daughter her beloved «Gilbert».
One week later, the fish is dead. There were no signs of disease or any problems, either. I am not even bothering to contact the store because I know the attitude that I will encounter, and that I’m not eligible for any refund or replacement. My daughter is sad and keeps asking why her fish died so quickly, and was it something she did (no, it wasn’t, in case anyone wants to go there), so we’re off to another place to replace her little pet.
I should have known better, so it’s partially my fault, but now I know. No more Animals & Things for dog food, dog treats, fish, or anything else.

I have been shopping here on and off fro years. I recently decided to stop in and i ended picking up some fresh water shrimp. I spent good money there only to have almost all the shrimp die off in the first week. I decided i was stuck now because you need a group of these guys to make it work so i tried my luck and bought a few more against my better judgement only to have them die off again. When i approached the manager he couldnt care less. There was a bunch of babies in the one tank so i thought maybe they were healthier he can give them to me at a cheaper rate because they were babies. He made me wait to talk to him for twenty minutes while he sat there talking with other employees about nonsense only to say sorry if its in the tank its $ 5. The quality of fish is horrible and I should have known better to waste my money there. Do not waste your time.

Recently visited with a friend in search of a new pet. If it was just a place to buy supplies and accessories, it might be a perfectly fine location. However, there are entirely too many animals packed into a cramped, dirty space with stale air. I’d much rather go across the street to the Petsmart in the same lot for supplies and drive a little farther to find a pet supplier that provides the animals with open space, clean cages, and knowledgeable employees to handle them.
Edited to add — you know, there’s a reason that so many sources tell you to adopt directly from shelters or breeders. I should’ve taken their advice and I should’ve taken my own. Not two weeks ago, I purchased two guinea pigs from Animals & Things. Yesterday, I discovered that one of the guinea pigs has ringworm. According to the vet, ringworm appears in young guinea pigs because of stressful living conditions (e.g.; overcrowding, high humidity, poor sanitation, malnutrition). Awesome. I only have myself to blame. Please do not make the same mistake as me!

i have been in this pet store it is big as i read in the comments, but it is not filthy, in fact it is very clean. the humane society or the so called aspca, especially in jersey, forget it they are filthy and discusting, and yeah i went to one to adopt a cat, me and my wife did not, it smelled atrocious and animals were not being taken care of, who can i report them to. the people that work at animal and things are really friendly and helpful and it is not dirty as i have read in the reviews i did buy a kitten and it was in a clean and habitable enviorment, it is in healthy shape, as were the other animals that were there. and yeah i’m from new york and my vet is in scarsdale, and yeah i’m in the medical profession as well. please don’t lie. you people are probably going to the boutiques of pet stores in jersey where they charge and arm and a leg for a pet and they cater to obnoxious people. jersey did one horrible thing to animals and things when they built that road not to long ago, they ruined there business. but it is still a fun place to go to even after that horrible road secluded them from those big stores around
and my wife are really happy that we bought that kitten, it has been our best moment for this christmas 2011. thank you animals and things.

They get a one star for the size for this place but that’s all they will get.
I was excited to go into this place after someone recommended that I go to check out their large selection of fish tanks. The moment you walk into this place, wait. sorry. from the parking lots, this smells like $h!t!
You walk in and it’s a huge pet store that you can practically find everything in there. I found large selection of inventory for anyone who owns a fish and you can find large fish tanks over 100 gallons.
The large problem that I have is that when you go to the live stock area, it has a really bad smell even on the fish aisle. I saw a large pond of Koi and they told me that they would take my koi so they can re-​sell it (of course, they wouldn’t pay me. i would just give him away if i had no space on my tank). This place takes anyone’s pets (which btw I saw someone bring their stinky bird to the store) and that’s probably why you get a lot of sick pets based on bad reviews I’ve read on Unilocal and other websites.
The checkout was another bad experience for me. I had 2 coupons (20% off one item and $ 5 off for $ 25 purchase). I told her in advance that I had these two coupons and when she gave me the final price, I knew she didn’t discount the coupons as I had wanted. I asked her if she discounted 20% the most expensive item which was fish filter for $ 79.99 and no, she discounted for the fish net which was $ 5. I’m like. WHY would i waste that discount on a fish net. Their register system is not like any regular store (like Bed Bad and Beyond) where you can choose which item to apply the coupon. NOW WHAT? CANCEL the entire order and I had to separate my stuff so I can properly use the coupon, another 5 mins I had to be in this stinky room and I’m holding up the line because it’s the ONLY cash register opened on Saturday thanksgiving weekend!
As we are walking out the store, the store manager hovered over to the cash register lady and saw that total amount of $ 25 (which she didn’t know that was for the second transaction I did to get the $ 5 off $ 25) and she saw our fish filter and told us…
«WAIT a second. did he pay for that because that filter is not worth $ 25». The girl answers, «yes they paid already». She didn’t trust her so checked out the system herself and then left us go. (WOW. can you believe that?!)
I also bought gravels but then I decided to return after find the right one that I wanted at «PetSmart» which is down the street. I went back to this store 10mins later to do the return and boy that was another hassle!!! I just wanted to get out of this stinky place.

:-(I can’t go in here because it depresses me. I heard it’s gotten a little better, but I will never forget the face of the sick cat staring at me from its tiny cage that it shared with two other cats. they were all adult persians. I am not one of those crazy animal advocates either, so for me to feel bad it had to be bad.

I went back recently and the cages for the birds were brand new and the cages for dogs have been changed but not entirely. Only some parts were changed. I also went to buy some dog food and the cans were stuck together and there were ants all over the bags of food. I give them three stars because they changed the cages

I have been keeping animals since I was young, from dogs to snakes. All which lived happy, healthy lives. After my Iguana of many years passed I decided to look for a slightly more exotic reptile. I had heard from reptile enthusiasts about Animals & Things vast selection of supplies and animals. So in 02, I stopped by. As soon as I walked in I gagged at the odor of feces and urine, but kept on browsing. I saw what would be my next reptile, a yearling Savannah Monitor. At the time they had impressive layouts for the reptile section and I hand picked my lizard of choice. Upon examination the lizard had dark, half shed skin. Rule 1 of selecting a retile is health, but like a dunce I still took the Monitor. At the time most pet stores didn’t carry them, and if they did you paid for the exclusivity. Shortly after the lizards health went downhill, and died several months later. I didn’t know what to think, maybe it was my fault.
Fast forward to 2011, I stopped by to pick up some new equipment for a custom snake enclosure. I was floored that after so many years the store still smelt like a barnyard. And as I looked around, I noticed they moved the reptiles to a cramped, cold room. Then, I saw what no pet store in all my years had ever attempted. They were selling a bootleg Boa Constrictor. It sounds crazy, and I thought it was a myth, but there in front of my eyes was a common Boa Constrictor labeled «Colombian Red Tail Boa $ 99» marked down from $ 170. Doesn’t sound so menacing, but the idea is you take a Boa that looks EXACTLY like the other but costs less than half the price, call it a Red Tail Boa and double your profit. It’s kind of like when Ford switches the emblems on their cars, jack up the prices and call it a Lincoln. I ended up handling it to make sure I was right about what I saw, and when I got my hands on it the poor thing was ICE cold. To top it off, the heat bulb I bought from them burnt out in 10 minutes.
I don’t understand how they are still in business.

DO NOT SHOP — ESP if you are a New Yorker please do not waste your time traveling out to this place from NYC it is not worth it… Majority of the fish are SICK and DEAD in the tanks… just sitting there. The customer service is bad because mostly teenagers work there… They have a BS 2 week return policy which make no sense because you can buy the exact same stuff at petsmart etc and return it within 90 days… Please do not waste your time the management is clueless esp Gordon… I honestly think the owner can no longer manage to run this business because it’s a big dusty dump inside maybe he’s better off selling? either way I feel bad for myself that I shopped there and mostly I feel bad for the small animals esp the mammals because they have more feeling… not cool. If your having problem with them esp for a live pet pls report them to

Worst petstore I have ever been to!
The dogs were filthy, the fish tanks all had «floaters», the rats had massive tumors and needed medical attention and had no right to be on the floor for sale as pets or food, the ferrets had poop all the way up the side of their cage. This place needs to be shut down and fast!