Pet Stores.
Posted 11-04-09 at 05:06 pm by SFailed186
I'm sure that we have established long ago that pet store employees are definitely not smart enough to have the jobs that they do, but I have my own tales to tell.
Several months ago, my twin sister and I were looking around at the pet in Jack's Aquarium when I decided to pick up this beautiful guinea pig to give her some loving. (This particular Jack's Aquarium is supposed to have ONLY female pets, period.) Out of curiosity, I decided to sex this piggie. She turned out to be a he, no big surprise there. Then I reached in to pick up this pudgy piggie to sex him. Low and behold, it was a she. And upon further handling, I felt some babies move in her tummy. I placed the poor girl down and notified the manager. He freaked out to say the least. He separated all males and females to prevent more pregnancy. I was there when he did this.
Yesterday, we went to a Petland to kill some time before we had to go to the animal shelter to volunteer. Well, I was horrified to find that rather large rabbits and baby guinea pigs were in the same enclosure! Let me just state, though, that this was by far the largest enclosure for small animals that I have ever seen! It was roughly the size of a 4x4 C&C cage, if not a little bigger. They also were being fed what appeared to be Oxbow pellets and they had a great amount of fresh Timothy Hay and clean water. The cage itself was also clean. In my honest opinion, Petland's are far better than any other pet store, but I now prefer to adopt pets. Anyway, I notified a nearby employee about how rabbits and guinea pigs should not be housed together and she very quickly went to get her manager. I spoke with the manager and she was not aware of the dangers of housing the two different breeds together... She told me that she had no power to change this, as much as she wanted to, but she would keep a closer eye on the animals.
Some pets stores are just awful, but others seem to be improving... Maybe someday we will have passionate people caring for the pets in a way that is not fueled by greed.
Several months ago, my twin sister and I were looking around at the pet in Jack's Aquarium when I decided to pick up this beautiful guinea pig to give her some loving. (This particular Jack's Aquarium is supposed to have ONLY female pets, period.) Out of curiosity, I decided to sex this piggie. She turned out to be a he, no big surprise there. Then I reached in to pick up this pudgy piggie to sex him. Low and behold, it was a she. And upon further handling, I felt some babies move in her tummy. I placed the poor girl down and notified the manager. He freaked out to say the least. He separated all males and females to prevent more pregnancy. I was there when he did this.
Yesterday, we went to a Petland to kill some time before we had to go to the animal shelter to volunteer. Well, I was horrified to find that rather large rabbits and baby guinea pigs were in the same enclosure! Let me just state, though, that this was by far the largest enclosure for small animals that I have ever seen! It was roughly the size of a 4x4 C&C cage, if not a little bigger. They also were being fed what appeared to be Oxbow pellets and they had a great amount of fresh Timothy Hay and clean water. The cage itself was also clean. In my honest opinion, Petland's are far better than any other pet store, but I now prefer to adopt pets. Anyway, I notified a nearby employee about how rabbits and guinea pigs should not be housed together and she very quickly went to get her manager. I spoke with the manager and she was not aware of the dangers of housing the two different breeds together... She told me that she had no power to change this, as much as she wanted to, but she would keep a closer eye on the animals.
Some pets stores are just awful, but others seem to be improving... Maybe someday we will have passionate people caring for the pets in a way that is not fueled by greed.
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Comments
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Wow, at least the managers spoke to you. The pet shops here in sydney take VERY unkindly to friendly advice!
One pet shop proudly stated that they seperate males from females unlike other irresponsible pet shops then shrugged their shoulders when I explained that they were selling pregnant girls, saying they could sell the babies so it was not a problem. Meanwhile the pregnant girls were navigating their way round HUGE bunnies in a tiny cage.
I've had hundreds of rebuttles like that because try as I might I never keep my mouth shut when I see something detrimental to an animals health.
The Australian pet industry has been an eye opener for me because where I grew up in England (in the Dorset countryside) I found the pet shops sold very few if any animals and were relatively knowledgeable about their products.
There's a ban on the sale of cats and dogs in pet shops in the uk and I hope it's implemented here in Australia (there's one MP trying to push a bill through at the moment). Pets should not be disposable commodities. *sigh*Posted 11-04-09 at 08:03 pm by Bamysmum
