If you’ve tried to visit the Drs. Foster & Smith website and found yourself redirected to Petco instead, you’re not imagining things. The brand is gone — but it wasn’t a bankruptcy. It was a corporate acquisition that slowly absorbed and eventually shut down one of the most trusted names in online pet retail.
This article covers exactly what happened: the acquisition timeline, the closure, what it meant for employees, and where customers ended up.
Drs. Foster and Smith No Longer Operates as a Standalone Business
The short answer is yes — Drs. Foster & Smith is effectively out of business as an independent retailer. The site no longer operates under its own brand, and the company no longer functions as a separate entity.
This wasn’t a bankruptcy filing. Petco acquired the company in 2014–2015, and then in early 2019, announced it was permanently closing all Drs. Foster & Smith operations. The main operations officially ceased on February 12, 2019.
The wind-down didn’t happen overnight. According to reporting from Reef Builders and community discussions at the time, the full closure took place over a two-to-four month period. The Business Flick described the process accurately: the brand “effectively went out of business” as Petco completed its integration.
What Drs. Foster and Smith Was Before the Acquisition
To understand why this closure mattered, it helps to know what the company actually was.
Drs. Foster & Smith was founded by veterinarians Race Foster and Marty Smith. It grew into one of the largest veterinary-owned online pet supply companies in the United States. Petco’s own 2014 press release used those exact words to describe it at the time of acquisition.
The business wasn’t just a general pet store. It sold pet supplies, medications, and specialty aquatics products. It ran LiveAquaria.com, a specialized site for live fish and corals that became a trusted source among reef hobbyists. It also operated PetEducation.com, a content site with detailed pet health information written from a veterinary perspective.
The company was based in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where it served as a major local employer. Its vet-backed positioning gave it a loyal customer base that saw it as more trustworthy than generic pet retailers. That reputation took years to build — and it’s a big reason why the closure disappointed so many people.
How Petco Acquired and Then Absorbed the Brand
Petco announced the acquisition in November 2014. The deal closed in early 2015. The stated reason was straightforward: Petco wanted to grow its e-commerce footprint and gain access to veterinary prescription medicine and specialty pet segments.
At the time, Petco publicly committed to keeping Drs. Foster & Smith running as a separate brand. LiveAquaria.com and PetEducation.com were both supposed to continue as distinct properties. Retail Dive reported that the founders, Race Foster and Marty Smith, were expected to stay on after the deal closed.
In practice, things moved differently. Over the following years, products, auto-delivery accounts, prescriptions, and customer data were gradually migrated into Petco’s own platform. The Petco website even hosted a dedicated page explaining what the integration meant for Drs. Foster & Smith customers — covering auto-deliveries, prescriptions, and past orders.
This pattern is common in e-commerce acquisitions. A larger company buys a well-known niche brand to gain customers and capabilities. Initially, the brand stays separate. Then, once the valuable parts have been absorbed, the original operation quietly shuts down.
As for why Petco eventually pulled the plug, no official explanation covered all the factors. But from a business analysis standpoint, a few things likely played a role. There was significant product overlap between Drs. Foster & Smith and Petco.com. Petco was also facing growing competitive pressure from Chewy and Amazon, which pushed the company to consolidate rather than manage two separate e-commerce operations. Streamlining under one brand makes operational sense — even if it costs loyal customers and local jobs.
The 2019 Closure and Its Effect on Employees
When Petco announced the closure in early 2019, it wasn’t just a corporate announcement. For Rhinelander, Wisconsin, it was a real economic hit.
289 employees lost their jobs. According to reporting from Petfood Industry and VIN News, employment was set to end within 60 to 120 days of the announcement. For a mid-sized city like Rhinelander, losing that many jobs from a single employer is significant.
Drs. Foster & Smith had been one of the area’s notable employers for years. Its presence was tied to the local economy in ways that don’t show up in a corporate press release. When it closed, that was gone.
This is a recognizable pattern for anyone who has watched regional businesses get absorbed by national chains. The promises of continuity come first. Then integration happens quietly in the background. Then the local operation closes, and the jobs disappear while the parent company moves on.
It doesn’t mean the acquisition was necessarily the wrong business decision for Petco. But it does illustrate what “acquisition” actually means for the people working at the acquired company — especially when those people aren’t at headquarters.
What Happened to LiveAquaria and PetEducation.com
Not everything shut down at once. LiveAquaria.com continued to operate after the Drs. Foster & Smith closure. Both Reef Builders and Petfood Industry confirmed this at the time. For reef hobbyists and aquarium enthusiasts, this was an important distinction — the general pet retail brand closed, but the specialty aquatics site kept running.
PetEducation.com, the veterinary health content site, was part of what made Drs. Foster & Smith valuable beyond just product sales. Changes to that resource affected customers who relied on it for pet health guidance. The broader point here is that expert-driven content is often one of the most underrated parts of a niche brand — and it’s also one of the first things to get deprioritized after an acquisition.
What Customers Were Told to Do
Petco set up a dedicated page to help former Drs. Foster & Smith customers navigate the transition. It addressed auto-delivery schedules, prescription transfers, and where to find equivalent products on Petco.com.
For most general pet supply needs, Petco became the default destination. The product lines had been integrating for years, so the transition wasn’t a complete product gap — just a brand and experience change.
For aquatics customers, LiveAquaria remained the relevant option. If you were a reef hobbyist ordering live corals or specialty fish through Drs. Foster & Smith, that specific business continued under the LiveAquaria name.
The Broader Business Lesson
The Drs. Foster & Smith story is a useful case study for anyone thinking about what happens to niche brands after acquisition.
The brand had real assets: veterinary credibility, a loyal customer base, specialty product lines, and trusted content. Petco bought it for those assets. But over time, the operational logic of running two separate e-commerce platforms stopped making sense — especially as the pet retail market grew more competitive.
If you’re building a niche business, this story illustrates both sides of the acquisition coin. A strong niche brand can attract major buyers, which can be a positive exit. But it also means the buyer controls what happens next. Brand continuity promises made at acquisition don’t always hold once the integration work is done.
For more practical analysis of how businesses grow, get acquired, and sometimes shut down, Start Business Review covers these kinds of real-world business stories in plain terms.
Where Things Stand Now
Drs. Foster & Smith as a standalone retail operation is closed. It has not been revived under a new name. The website redirects to Petco. The Rhinelander operations are shut down. The 289 employees who worked there have moved on.
LiveAquaria continued operating as a separate specialty brand, though anyone relying on it should verify its current status directly rather than assuming it will remain unchanged indefinitely.
If you were a long-time Drs. Foster & Smith customer, your options now are Petco for general pet supplies, LiveAquaria for specialty aquatics, and a range of other online retailers — including Chewy and Amazon — for the product categories Drs. Foster & Smith once covered.
The brand is gone. What it built still has some presence through the platforms that absorbed it — but the original operation, with its vet-owned identity and Rhinelander roots, is done.
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