An undercover operation by a PETA employee who got jobs at three PetSmart stores in Arizona, Florida, and Tennessee led to a raid of a PetSmart store in Nashville by authorities in March 2018. Six sick or injured small animals – a guinea pig, mice, and hamsters – were confiscated from the store and sent to a veterinary hospital after video and photos were presented by the PETA operative. Three employees of the Nashville store – the store manager, assistant store manager, and customer engagement manager – pleaded guilty to animal cruelty in June 2018 and were sentenced to 20 hours of community service and ordered to pay the veterinary bills for the animals seized by Nashville animal care and control authorities. In June 2018 PetSmart filed suit against the undercover employee, on the grounds that she failed to disclose on her job application that she was a paid PETA operative, took secret surveillance videos and photos, and withheld medical care from the animals in question, instead filming them to manufacture an exposé. In May 2019 PetSmart added PETA to the lawsuit as a defendant, describing it as a "militant, activist organization" that has "a long history of conducting unlawful, covert operations and infiltrations to eradicate pet ownership".