NEW YORK (Reuters) - Petco Animal Supplies Inc, the second-largest U.S. pet retailer, said its stores will carry 30 percent fewer animals overall by the summer, as better customer-tracking systems allow it to devote more space to products.

People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) contended the change was prompted by its probe, which "uncovered abuse and neglect of birds and animals" at one of Petco's suppliers.

Daphna Nachminovitch, vice president of cruelty investigations at the animal rights group, said Petco had agreed to reduce its pet inventory "to better monitor the quality of care animals would get at its facilities," if the group refrained from attacking the retailer in public.

Petco spokesman Kevin Whalen said: "What we had agreed to with PETA was to accelerate this plan, as well as to revamp and upgrade animal supplier certification standards, as a result of what PETA shared with us."

Whalen said the plan was actually based on the results of a market test begun in November 2007, and is partly the result of having more sophisticated customer-tracking systems.
"As we looked at the results over the last three to four months, we decided to extend the program across all stores over the coming months," he said.

Petco is still laying out detailed plans, and will complete the change "probably sometime this summer," Whalen added.