Bellevue PetSmart Employees Plead Guilty To Animal Cruelty

BELLEVUE, TN -- Three Bellevue PetSmart managers pleaded guilty to animal cruelty Tuesday and were sentenced to 20 hours of community service and ordered to pay the veterinary bills for the animals seized by Metro Animal Care and Control during a March 29 raid.

Store leader Greg Gordon, 31, assistant store leader Kristopher Stengel, 39, and customer engagement leader Tonya Smith, 39, were cited April 13, two weeks after the store was raided by Metro Animal Care and Control officials, Metro Police and investigators from the district-attorney's office as part of an investigation prompted by employee tips and a video produced by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

(For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Middle Tennessee Patch morning newsletter.)

MACC seized six animals - hamsters, mice and guinea pigs - and requested veterinary records and animal-care policies from the Sawyer Brown Road store during the March 29 raid. Those animals are in much better health. One hamster, which vets initially thought might go blind, has already been adopted and the other animals are ready to find forever homes, MACC says.

Though its video allegedly showed animals from PetSmarts nationwide, PETA said it provided authorities with photos and video of neglected animals specifically at the Bellevue location and praised Nashville authorities for quick action.

A PetSmart employee passed information to PETA, saying that a guinea pig contracted multiple illnesses, including infections that spread to its heart and brain. A mouse died at the store a month after contracting what was apparently a respiratory infection and eye irritation. PETA also said more than 200 dead fish were collected from tanks in a single day at the Bellevue store.

PETA said managers at the Bellevue store were "observed repeatedly refusing to provide sick, injured and dying animals with veterinary care in order to 'keep costs down' so they would receive bonuses." The organization said a supervisor ordered staff not to tell customers that PetSmart buys animals from a Georgia company put on probation by that state's agriculture department following a PETA investigation in 2010.

In a statement sent to WKRN, PetSmart said "it stands by" its employees' decision to plead guilty, but then slammed PETA, citing a recently filed lawsuit against a "paid operative" in Florida.

PetSmart stands by our Nashville associates who have made the personal decision to take a standard conditional plea deal to avoid a long, drawn out legal process. We continue to believe these associates have not committed any wrongdoing and that these charges are a direct result of PETA’s systematic and unethical tactics. Our pet care practices continue to be the standard of excellence in the industry and we will continue to defend against PETA’s ongoing clandestine operations as they attempt to disparage our associates and company. We look forward to engaging directly with PETA in our lawsuit against their paid operative in Florida which will once again expose them as disingenuous actors who withheld critical medical care from animals to manufacture evidence against PetSmart.

Photo of PetSmart by J.R. Lind, Patch staff; mugshots via Metro Nashville Police Department