Was It Adoption Or Just Breeder Support?

[dextersmycutegp]

I got Holly from a petstore, I know now I shouldn't have. Now that I know more of Holly's story, I wonder if I really supported a breeding operation or a rescue in disguse as a petstore. Evidentally this is what happened:
A lady calls this petstore (without guinea pigs) says she has 4 guinea pigs to get rid of, 3 boys, 1 girl (Holly), 5 months old. Dolly, the petstore owner, agrees to take the pigs. She has them for 1 month, all together, (the lady told her the boys couldn't impregnate Holly until they were 6 months old). A week before I happen to buy Holly, she is seperated from the boys, pregnant. I come in, thinking she hasn't been near the boys for a long time (I didn't ask), I buy Holly. She gives birth one month later. This petshop never gets pigs unless people dump them there.

I know now I should have just waited and gotten Smores a friend from the humane society. I just wonder did I actually support a breeder? What do you think?

[Percy's Mom]

Does the store sell any animals at all? How often do they have pigs? It could be one of two situations the way I see it. Either this was a rare thing and the ignorant woman really did just want to get rid of her accidental pigs, or if the pet store has "dump offs" pretty often, they might have people in the community that breed for them.

[dextersmycutegp]

She does sell other animals(rescue kittens, rescue puppies, gerbils, parakeets, mice, and hamsters), I don't know how she gets them. The last time I went to see her, to tell her my story about Holly being pregnant, she didn't have any guinea pigs and she hadn't had any for a month. She also seemed really horrified that Holly had been pregnant, and she said she seperated them as soon as she found out that they could get each other pregnant at "6 months".
I also told her about how boy guinea pigs can get girl guinea pigs pregnant at 3 weeks old and other care related sorta stuff. She seemed really open to all that, and she even remembered Holly and told me about the babies dad.

[Percy's Mom]

Being that she sells other animals, I'd be inclined to say that it's supporting a breeder. It might not be supporting guinea pig breeding, but if she constantly has the other small animals and birds, then she is going through a breeder somewhere or perhaps breeds them herself and the money from any sales in the shop goes to fund that.

[Susan9608]

Since she's got other animals that she's selling, I think of it as a breeding operation.

[C&K]

I don't know, call me clueless... I think that some important info is missing, such as, did she pay the dumper money for the pigs? And just how does she aquire all her other livestalk?

I think it is good that she charged some sort of fee, it avoids the problem of snake food, it would be nice though if that was donate in turn to an SPCA or rescue, still, the world is not perfect.

If she seemed truely horrified about Holly's "condition" well then, maybe she just did not know better and it is all unfortunate.

I have heard of stores though that deliberatly impregnate their female stock so that customers in turn, dump the litters of unwanted babies on them. (how evil is that? Some 6 year old child gets to watch her beloved pet either die in giving birth or watch babies die, bound to happen with this sort of practice) I am unconvinced that this is not what is going on, but usually the petstore owners are very defensive and don't play dumb.

"Sigh", ultimately I think what is done is done, do what you can to educate the store owner, and "adopt" in the future from the SPCA.

[dextersmycutegp]

She had no idea that Holly could have been pregnant. She just believed what the lady (who dumped Holly and her brothers) told her about guinea pigs. I'm pretty sure she didn't pay anything for Holly and her brothers.
I definately will adopt from now on though. It makes me so sad that there are 10 wonderful guinea pigs looking for homes at my humane society, and I can't save one of them because I already have as many as I can care for with school, work and all that.