Advice on advocacy

[jerseygirl]

I’ll be swinging by a feed store today that has been advertising that it will soon be selling baby rabbits and guinea pigs.  I hope they’re not there yet as I don’t think I’d be able to go there otherwise.  I plan to drop in some free booklets that a local lady produces on rabbit care.  Hopefully they’ll  be happy to hand them out to new rabbit owners.

Ideally though, I’d like them not to be selling either of these animals-especially babies.  How can I tactfully broach this subject?  I have some SA rescue statistics I can throw at them but it might be too much all at once.  I visited the store one other time and vaguely recall a conversation between owners and a customer. The owners were expressing surprise at a fact a customer shared about rabbits(a true fact from memory). I don’t remember the details but got an impression the store owners were not really rabbit savvy.  Overall, they are friendly people and run a nice place.  I am going in to get supplies and hopefully have a little positive influence about this issue. Any suggestions how I can do that?

[Monkeybun]

I like the booklet idea. I did that for a petstore here. If you can teach them a bit about bunnies, and how to house and feed them, and maybe direct them to the HRS page, or to here, that would greatly benefit the bunnies.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

It’s all about dollars. And secondly about being calm and well spoken. If they think your a loon (if your raise your voice etc) they will roll their eyes and talk about you on break.

I’d go in and drop the booklets seperately from complaining. So maybe do the booklets first (great idea!) and then I woud go in and ask to speak to the manager. Let him/her know how much you spend on your pets each month, and that you will not spend a cent in their store if they sell rabbits. And that you’d be happy to return and spend all that money if they stop. And mention that you will be sharing that information with like minded pet owners, who will also take their business elsewhere.

Then I would have anyone else you know drop in and do the same, or sign a letter for you to give to the manager. If they think they will lose and not gain profit-they will stop. Remember petsmart? Everyone made a stink and boycotted and they dropped selling neutered baby rabbits

[jerseygirl]

Thanks guys.  K&K, I like how you like to go about things in a grand way. :o) No nonsense.  I certainly understand the concept and believe it can be powerful against big franchises like those pet stores.  At a feed store though,  I’d only be spending less than $10 maybe every 3-5 months so I don’t know how much power I have as a consumer.

Turns out I hadn’t visited this place before. I had it confused with another. Anyway, I went this arvo (Fri) and left the booklets. The woman there was familiar with them and had run out so she was happy to take mine & now knows how to get hold of them. She was very nice and open to talking about rabbits. I didn’t even need to initiate the conversation – she did! It turns out this lady used to work in a vet clinic and knew it was hard to find vets who did spays so I left my vets name as one to recommend to people.

So a few small things but I feel happy to return there and who knows, next time I might be able to do a little more.

There were rabbits and piggies there. I survived! They were housed adequetely and appeared in good condition from the quick look I could take. There was a REW mum and a bunch of very healthy looking kits. And tucked away was a lil grey and white mini rex, 8 months old.  Sooo sweet, he came right up to say hello but then acted all shy. He had alot of room to move. I asked where he came from. The woman said her sister (I think it was) had him and decided to get another rabbit and just put them in together. Another unneutered male that was bigger. The bigger one attacked and this lil one got an ear injury. So she ended up taking him. He was cute cute cute!
 

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