Pet stores that sell animals perpetuate problems….

[EveryPossibleWorld]

Haven’t posted in a while as I was insanely busy with law school finals. With that unpleasantness temporarily conquered I have found time to once again procrastinate via binky bunny forums (hip, hip HOORAY!!)…

Anywho…. I am posting mainly to gripe about pet stores that sell animals and the way in which they perpetuate animal cruelty through their complete and utter lack of knowledge compounded with a lack of desire to adequately educate themselves and their customers on how to properly care for their pets.

I go to a local Petland approx.. once a week to pet the poor bunnies which they keep in an open top enclosure covered in woodchips (no litter boxe[s]) and rabbit poop. The bunnies are only offered pellets, 1 water bottle and absolutely NO hay. In speaking to (i.e. kindly and non-confrontationally attempting to educate) an employee of the pet store one day I was shocked to learn how amazed the employee was at how “quickly” the rabbits scarfed down hay they randomly offered one day. I explained to her that timothy hay is an essential part of EVERY rabbit’s diet, etc… I have a feeling my advice fell (and continues to fall) on deaf ears. How frustrating.

 

This ranting post has stemmed from an experience I had today. Upon petting one of the new (poor) bunnies I noticed a rather large/deep wound on a young rabbit’s back. I couldn’t tell if it was from a bite, etc… but it looked sore and painful. I pointed this out the clerk and she merely took the rabbit in the back and told me she put Neosporin on it. Now, I am not a vet but had this been Ringo (my baby) I surely would have sought medical attention, etc…

 

Argh! I cannot express how irritated I am with pet stores that sell animals of any kind! They clearly do not care about animals and are merely concerned with making a buck. They do not truly profit from the $19.99 they receive from the sale of rabbits (among other animals). They make their buck when people come back and buy their supplies. The poor rabbits (and other animals) are merely a means to a very selfish end. There are beautiful souled animals of all sorts being euthanized in shelters each and every day. Meanwhile, money hungry pet stores perpetuate this unfortunate cycle of euthanasia twofold. 1) They offer animals up for sale to anyone with a crisp twenty dollar bill. These animals are surely the ones who end up in shelters. And, 2) they offer up these poor souls without even the slightest attempt to properly educate their employees/customers on how to properly care and enjoy their new pets. This lack of education no doubts play a vital role in misunderstood pets landing in shelters.

 

I have 2 ½ years until I will be a practicing attorney and you better believe I WILL do something about this unfortunate cycle. Geesh, I really think pet stores have moved to the top of my “people/things to sue” list now, knocking factory farming down to number 2. And I absolutely HATE factory farming!

Sorry for the rambling posts. But, being interested (scratch that – PASSIONATE) about animal law, sometimes I just want to gripe to an audience who I do not have to initially explain the inherent value of animals to.

 

I am temporarily stepping down from my soapbox. Thank you.

[angie-la]

how terrible! I agree with you 100%. my old roomie got her bunny at a local petshop because she couldn’t stand seeing them the way they were. they were also kept in an open top box with WIRE floors, they were all thrown in together and I don’t remember seeing hay put out for them either. there were no cushions or anything for them to be comfortable. you could tell they were terrified and traumatized, and her bun took a long time to recover from that environment. I’m glad there are people like you that can help these poor animals find a better habitat and put an end to this crap.

[Beka27]

I certainly hear you and I agree. Petstores MUST keep their pet overhead very, very low in order to make the most profit, this results in the animals being fed the cheapest possible diet, housed in the cheapest litter, no “extras” like hay or vet care… My best advice is to not purchase animals from a petstore. It is not “rescuing”, it is PERPETUATING.. And the petstore will fill the spot as soon as it can. Unfortunately, the bunnies there probably will suffer, but sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture, NOT the individual rabbit. We CANNOT save them all. The fewer bunnies a petstore sells, the less supply money it will make, and the less likely it will be to continue filling the cages.

And if for some reason you absolutely HAVE TO purchase a bun from a petstore, do not buy a single supply from them. When they try to sell you a cage and food, etc… tell them point blank that you will purchase your supplies at a pet supply ONLY store or at reputable online retailers. Maybe they can have your $20, but they cannot have your THOUSANDS over the life of the animal.

[MayaConsuelo]

Good point. I know my rabbit came from a petstore, I adopted him from a person who was unable to care for him anymore, but she told me she bought him as a baby at a petstore. I’m not sure which one, I’ve never seen rabbits at any petstore in Chicago, but maybe she was in the suburbs when she bought him.
I don’t shop at the big pet stores, they’re a complete ripoff (a big bag of Carefresh Natural costs $32 at Petsmart in Chicago – NO KIDDING) and only buy my cat food and rabbit bedding at the discount pet store (Pet Supplies Plus) which is a chain but only local I believe… They have almost no animals, just a few hamsters and fish. Of course it’s just as bad to use a hamster as a “starter” pet which your child can ignore until it accidentally starves to death… don’t get me started.
Now that I found a local source for cheap hay, and have plenty of cheap veggie options (spoilage from the co-op, my friends’ gardens, etc.) keeping a rabbit is not that expensive. I’m going to look into buying woodstove pellets for litter, you can’t find them in Chicago but I’m going to Wisconsin next week and I can find them there. You’re right, you don’t need to buy anything at big pet stores. Especially with online shopping these days.

[Helenor]

I have seen some pretty bad pet stores, but I have also worked at a Petsmart that truly cared about their animals. Yes, they needed to make a profit off of selling animals and supplies, but our animals’ welfare always came first. Whenever we had a sick animal, we took it to the sick room to be treated. They were always seen by the Banfield vets, who left us instructions on how much to medicate and how often. Whenever someone bought an animal from us, we always gave out caresheets and websites for more information. I agree that most pet stores such and many of the employees don’t care. I just think that store I worked at had many animal lovers (I believe all of them had many different pets themselves).

[MayaConsuelo]

Helenor you make a good point, it probably depends on the store. Regardless of that, big chains shouldn’t sell animals that will end up in shelters… I know a couple of the big chains stopped selling rabbits, it was discussed here earlier. Not sure if Petsmart was one of them, but I’ve never seen a rabbit at Petsmart in the city… I’ve also never seen a really neglected or sick animal in a big petstore here, but that’s probably because of the size of the store… even if a lot of employees are apathetic, they usually have clinics and/or groomers onsite, so there are animal lovers in the store on a daily basis.
I just recalled that my friend bought a dog from a small and very sketchy petstore here in Chicago – there are tiny stores here that sell clothes, furniture AND pets… which is terrible, because then you know they’re coming from a puppy mill… he bought his dog who was underweight, sickly and had bugs… yes he saved her life, but then they just pop another puppy in the cage to fill the space… it’s terrible. He knew it wasn’t necessarily the best choice to make but he felt like he couldn’t leave her, actually wasn’t looking for a dog but saw her, then came back the next day to get her. Lucky dog. But shame on the people who profit from this.

[Helenor]

The Petsmart I worked at actually has rabbits not for sale, but for adoption. They work with a local rabbit rescue here so that they can be seen by people in the store so they might get adopted. They have habitats they live in near the kitty adoption center. Lago’s last bond buddy, Bear was from that rescue. Unfortunately he had congenital problems and died a week after I adopted him (he had liver torsion).

[Monkeybun]

the PetCo I go to has rabbits, but from the humane society. You can’t just buy it on the spot, you need to apply to adopt them.

[Lintini]

Your words and thoughts are why I quit working at Petco.

[Beka27]

Petstores having rabbits for adoption are a newer development, within the past few years. As long as they are receiving adequate care and a good diet, I am okay with that. Probably many of our rabbits came from petstores initially because people either purchase them on impulse (“So cute! I know nothing about rabbits, but I’m going to buy her!”) or they don’t know that they have other options for getting a rabbit (shelters, rescues).

Retail stores are all the same, regardless of what they sell. I work in a national chain baby store and I really don’t do much “selling” in my position, but I have in the past. You can sell a $500 crib… but that’s not good enough. They want you to sell the dresser, changing table, rocker, and bedding too! And then after baby is born, they want mom to come in every week to stock up on shampoo, diapers, and formula. That $500 crib turns into thousands and thousands of dollars. And you better believe, when baby #2 comes around, they want mom to do it all over again.

[bunnytowne]

The petsupermarket in  palm bay  have employees who care and are educated about the pets they sell.   The employees will ask what do you know about keeping this animal as a pet           if you don’t know much they educate you on their needs etc.    There was one employee who refused to sell an animal to a family with a bunch of out of control kids.   The girl lied said the rabbit was taken and took her to the back of the store for employees only til they left.

However the petsupermarket in another city  lie and say they take the rabbits to the vet.  I know better.  She trimmed its nails after I called and volunteered to trim them for her.   I went back a week later and the nails were trimmed but the matts in the hair were still there.   You can’t tell me that rabbit was taken to a vet.      I think it was the store mgr at that        She doesn’t know anything about rabbits.   Tried to tell me Lionheads are 8-10 lbs.   pffft.   Why do they have stupid people running a pet store.   I would love to know

[Lintini]

The manager that was being trained at my petco store knew nothing about animals. She didn’t even own any. She tried to take home one of the baby ball pythons that weren’t eating and then when she didn’t know what to do because it still wasn’t eating, I had to force feed it thawed out pinky mice…… I don’t understand why she would want to manage a petstore when you don’t own pets. Ugh that was gross too.

[Helenor]

Ugh, the Petco here made me so angry before. I remember walking by the fish sink area and seeing water running over guppies in a container in the sink. They were falling out into the sink until I called an employee over and started scooping the guppies that didn’t already fall down the drain into another container. Apparently one of the other employees forgot about them and left them there.

[LoveChaCha]

I don’t even shop at Petco. The store stinks terribly. 😐 Their rabbits are kept in glass cages with a top with holes. It is sad. The rabbits have way too many pellets. They seem depressed. The rabbits are up for adoption, but I highly doubt the workers care about them.

I forgot the reason why Petsmart stopped selling rabbits.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I am with you, EveryPossibleWord. I am 100% anti-petstore. I think the best thing to do is DON”T SHOP THERE! And let them know via e-mail or letter that as long as they sell pets you won’t shop there and will inform everyone you know to not shop there.  If you have a problem with a certain pet store in your area, start a Facebook group and invite others to join.

We have 2 Pets Unlimited Stores in my area and I’ve heard some awful stories. I actually got Olivia from one of the locations after my non-pet selling supply store ran out of hay and I had no choice. I saw her in a tiny glass case, she could hardly even stretch out, very overweight and a terrible eye infection. I went home, thought about it then went back “told them I want her but since I will have to bring her to the vet for her eye infection, I’ll only pay $10.00”. What a little joy she turned out to be. I haven’t been back there since but a friend’s little boy went in the same store not long after and was petting a bunch of baby bunnies and was horrified to discover that 2 of them were dead! Pet stores also keep puppy mills running (as well as kitten mills and bunny mills) so if you support one, you support the other.

I find it terribly upsetting that animals are displayed like merchandise and that they actually go “on sale” sometimes. What’s worse is that you know they are not seeing the vet when they are sick or injured. If they charge $30.00 for a bunny they are certainly not going to spend more than that on vet fees. I wonder if they are even humanely euthanized if it becomes necessary as that requires a vet and would cost the store money for a pet they won’t profit from.

I think it’s great that you plan on helping animals in pet stores when you become a lawyer. They certainly need all the help they can get.

A great (but disturbing) site which has lots of ways you can help is : petstorecruelty.com

[Beka27]

Fortunately, with the “world wide web”, we don’t even have to step foot in petstores anymore. I used to purchase my Oxbow pellets at PetSmart, but 9 times out of 10, they’d be out of stock. Turns out, my local store only got… maybe… a half dozen bags a week (I never bought less than 3 bags myself), so I’m sure others were doing the same. After several times of going in there and seeing they were completely out til next week, I got fed up and switched all my business to online. With sites like Drs. Foster & Smith (with a flat shipping rate AND cheaper prices), I am actually spending much, much less.

[Author]

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