Dead Rat and Empty Bowls: Vladivostok Pet Shop Accused of Cruelty

Residents of Vladivostok were outraged by the cruel treatment of animals at the Zooferma pet shop. The smell of urine, empty water bowls, and animals that eagerly rush to water as soon as it appears in the cage. This, according to city residents, is what the sales floor of the store on Russkaya Street looked like on 24 January, where people come for pets and supplies for them. People demanded intervention from authorities and the rescue of those who cannot ask for help themselves.

One visitor shared on social media that during her visit, she found exhausted and weakened animals: water bowls empty, no food, and in one of the cages, a dead rat. According to her, the seller at the store located at Russkaya, 57b, st. 7.2, explained the situation by a recent shift change and stated that she had not noticed any problems, despite the obviously poor condition of the animals.

In the end, according to the woman, she herself poured water from a nearby bottle into the water bowls. The animals, the visitor claims, eagerly rushed to drink.

After this incident, social media and review services in Vladivostok literally exploded. Residents of Vladivostok massively shared their own experiences of visiting this store. Many comments echoed the same thing: animals are regularly left without water, kept in unsanitary conditions, and look sick.

In reviews on the 2GIS platform, city residents wrote that a similar situation at Zooferma has been observed for more than a month—all summer, animals were literally dying of thirst in the store.

“Yes, we were in this store, the picture is sad. We also asked for water to be poured for the animals. They don«t sell adult rats, they said: »These are ours.« And we really wanted to take them all, they looked so unhappy sitting there. The rats were practically hypnotizing with their gaze, hanging on the bars. Why are they suffering there?” wrote city resident Victoria.

Other visitors in the comments did not hold back their emotions.

“I wish the sellers and store owners to live in the same conditions in which they keep the animals!” wrote user September.

“Green bottles. Can«t they be washed? I hope the store owner also eats once a week and drinks water once every three days. And all from dirty dishes,” Nicholas expressed even more harshly.

Some reviews take the form of direct demands for police intervention. For example, city resident Vera Allex directly threatened the owners with intervention from controlling authorities and vigilantism if they did not improve the conditions for the animals.

“They are killing and torturing animals here! If you do not tidy up all the animal cages today, on Monday I will come with the authorities. I will personally come every week and check the order in your store until you are closed. If you can«t maintain order and run a business—close! Or we will close you ourselves,” wrote Vera Allex.

A more detailed study of the issue revealed an even more shocking picture. “A slaughterhouse disguised as a pet store,” as city residents called Zooferma, has been abusing its charges for at least 5 years.

Thus, on 8 June 2025, user Annette Grishina wrote about green water in the water bowls, unsanitary conditions, and a rat that gave birth to babies without access to water. Separately, she mentioned a sharp smell of urine in the room and the inaction of the staff.

“Deal with sanitation in the store. The animals are just pitiful: they want to drink, but they have no water. Not even that—it«s all green already in the water bowl. A rat gave birth there, and there»s nothing to drink, how can she feed her babies? I won«t even mention the smell in the room. How do you like breathing this urine? The seller himself is sitting on his phone, doing nothing. Pouring water is a matter of five minutes. At least clean water,” the girl addressed the store owners on the 2GIS platform.

No less alarming are the reviews from customers who purchased animals from the store. In June 2024, Vladivostok resident Dmitry Pozdnyakov reported that a supposedly three-month-old rat turned out to be 2 years old. According to the man, the sellers simply pawned off a seriously ill animal with serious pathologies on him, which had to be euthanized a few months later.

“We bought a rat a couple of months ago. They said she was about three months old. Today we euthanized her. It turned out she was about two years old: confirmed in different vet clinics. A bunch of tumors in the liver, lungs with water. In short, an old animal. Moreover, as the doctor said, we were sold an already sick animal. The child is crying, she got attached to the animal,” wrote Dmitry.

A similar story was described by user Elizabeth69. In early November 2023, she purchased a rat that was constantly ill and died two months later. The woman claims that the rat pups in the store were kept on unsuitable sawdust and suffered from allergies.

“The little rat pups at the time of purchase lived in not very good conditions—on sawdust, with sticky eyes from allergies. The consultant said that corn litter wasn«t delivered, although it was available for sale. The rat was twice seen by a ratologist, with wheezing and an ear injury. It was initially quite sickly,” Elizabeth told her story.

In December 2022, a buyer reported the death of a guinea pig after six days, and before that—parasite infection of another animal purchased from the same pet store.

Complaints have stretched for years. Both in 2026 and five years ago, customers wrote about stench, a half-empty store, and «disgusting conditions,» pointing out unreliable information about animals from sales consultants and outright deception. At the same time, as users noted, the business owners or representatives of Zooferma did not react to criticism at all.

The only case of an official response from the store was recorded in 2021. Then, after a complaint about incorrectly identified sex of a budgerigar, a representative of Zooferma asked the buyer to provide a purchase receipt, stating that they have «competent sellers and could not slip a girl [instead of a boy parrot].»

On 25 January, dozens of Vladivostok residents again left angry reviews on all possible platforms and even filed complaints with law enforcement agencies. They received no response from either the sellers or the store representatives.

At the time of publication preparation, the store was closed. A journalist from VLADIVOSTOK1.RU tried several times to contact the owners of Zooferma, but calls were first dropped, and then the phone was turned off.

The editorial office also passed on information about possible violations at the Zooferma pet shop in Vladivostok to the police with a request to conduct an inspection.