Fuck where to start with this one.

I’ll preface this whole thing with a few short hand facts before getting into the “meat” of it.

We are a small family owned business , not corporate , every member of our team excluding maybe 2 of the jnrs is in same way disabled be it a born disability or an aquiered one.

We do out very best every goddamn day of the week to make sure all of our customers are
- treated with respect
-made to feel safe and secure in asking all and any questions that they have
- feel welcomed on every visit and inspired to keep sharing their pet journeys with us , the bad as well as the good.
- make sure that our animals are safe , cared for and are comfortable and NOT UNDER STRESS.
-make sure the store is as safe as possible for both staff , customers and livestock.


Now with that out of the way lets get into last sunday

We are a small team and sometimes we have to juggle the customer load , we each have different experience lvs on different topics and want to make sure our customers are getting the right advice and some times this means swapping out.
There are also times where there are more people in the store than can be served at once so we do our bets to check on everyone and serve them based on how ready they are , some people just want to look and thats ok thats why we ask them.

Some people also require a lot of attention and in these cases we may ask patrons to either wait or seek out another team member as we cannot serve 2 patrons at once.



On the day inquisition we were in a situation where staff had to do a bit of this juggling and swapping , there were twice as many customers on the floor as there were staff at the time.
One guy , a regular who just wanted to hang out and hold some of the critters happened to be in at the exact time as our karren.

Karren overheard half an interction as the staff member she was being served by who was already elbow deep catching fish for her asked the guy wanting to hold animals to “please wait , im a little busy right now”

The guy , and ill make this clear he comes in alot but nevery buys anything he just likes to visit.
Then went to the next team member who was also elbo deep with a tricky customer also told him to please be patient some one will be with him soon can you wait.

Perhaps the karen had seen this exchange also? .

The guy finally lands on a team member who is free and dose give him the one on one time that he needed , sitting with him for a good 20 odd minutes with the animals and engaging in friendly conversation with the individual.


Its by sheer luck that both the karen and the gentleman end up leaving the store at the same time where they have a conversation in the carpark, the context of that part i have no insights on.

Shortly after the car park exchange we receive a scathing review on our business FB page
Demanding that we change our ways as we were “rude and dismissive” of the special needs customer and that we should “set a better example” of the disabled comunity by putting this guy on as a volunteer for a few hrs a week.

Her language was very albeit and when we tried to tell her “hey our whole team is disabled”
She doubbled down.

Seeing this review the next day really upset both myself and my team as she used very vague language to describe the encounter , at first none of us could pin down what the review was even about and we all spent a good bit of the next 3 days trying to make sense of it.

Did one of us misstep? Who was the victim here ? what time did this even happen!?

Several of us have anxiety disorders and depression ontop of our nuro spicy disorders so this review with next to no actual context points was very upsetting. It took quite a bit of detective work on our end to comb back over the security footage , cross referencing with sales receipts etc for us to work out the facts about the WHAT/WHERE/WHEN of what went down. *(details above)


Finally with the actual evidence in front of me we could put it to rest.
Our staff were respectful and followed procedures accordingly with customer service , safety etc. we could all finally breathe a sigh of relief that each one of us was not the person she was targeting in her vague review "young staff” describes the whole shift bar myself.


But the damage has been done at this point , reaching out to her with the facts she refused to listen and continue her tirade publicly slandering us for being “ablestic”
It frustrates me that this person will never feel any remorse for the damages that she has caused the business itself and the emotional harm she's caused to several innocent disabled peoples because she felt the need to “white knight” for some one she didn’t know , and only half saw what went down.

Typically we take a turn the other cheek to these kinds of reviews but this one irks me on a personal level as an autistic person.


Every day we are expected to expose our selves to numerous triggers,
Bright lights, lound noises , HORROBLE HORROBLE odours *(customers)
And still serve people with a smile taking the time to help them despite our own discomforts.

We do our best to make sure any accommodations our staff might need are being met but we are not a day-care center , and we do not do “slave labour” any one who picks up a broom, cleans cages , feeds animals , works the till we are all on the pay roll.

Liability and safety laws also play a part but the thing that most grinds my gears is the sheer audacity of this woman to declare so loudly and proudly that WE* are setting a negative stereotype for the disabled community by how this gentleman was treated during a busy time in the store.

WE ARE THE DISABLED COMMUNITY.

There was no attempt by this woman to contact the management privately either , no phone call, no email no PM on face book just straight into publicly viewable negative review.

The worst part is that we have to serve this “upstanding” member of the community going forward as though NOTHING has happened.


I sincerely hope that carma catches up to this person for christmas considering that she nearly sent 3 different people to therapy for something that they didn’t do due to her vague posting about something that didn’t happen.