Don't be afraid to speak. Tell the manager, "hey, dude, that bird's been sick for __ days, nobody in this pet store seems to care about pets. Should I be worried?" I've read somewhere they can't legally sell the bird sick, and if it comes up sick within like 3 weeks of buying it, they have to pay the vet bills.
But don't feel bad if you don't buy the bird, really it represents nearly all of the animals in petstores today. That's part of how they get their business, guilt tripping you into it. It's sick irony, they use the animals to protect themselves. I'm sure people bigger and more important have filed some lawsuits against how the petstores treat their animals.
My voice is only one of thousands on this website, and nearly all have faced the same delimma. Perhaps someone smarter could find a loophole in one of the petstore's rules, perhaps something that says all pets in the store must be able to be inspected by a vet, treated by the same vet, and the bills be paid by the petstore. If I could find something like that, I'd be in every pet store in the country pointing out sick animals.  |