Hello New member

[Katie]

Some people feed larger snakes rabbits and guinea pigs.

That would be the 1/100 (your neighbor). Most people don't. It's just too hard for them to digest in captivity.

[mncavylover]

Yes, but people still do it.

How about you wait and see when the babies are born, and them adopt?

[critterlover]

I have a feeling wether i buy that store piggy or not Piggy #2 is going to be born and either bought or fed to a snake.

Actually, piggy#2 would NOT be bought. Piggy#2 would not have to be born because Piggy#1 would be bought instead. That's my point.

As for snakes, first of all, how many people have snakes and how many of them feed them guinea pigs? That's just a diversion from the real issue.

Katie explained things very well in her posts. It costs breeders money to breed. Why would they continue breeding the same amount of pigs if
they had no buyer? It's supply and demand.

What if the petstores phone the breeder and say, I don't need any pigs this month, thank you, my cages are already full of guinea pigs which nobody wants to buy. What would a breeder do, if they had, say 1000s of pigs that
nobody wanted to buy. What would they just breed continuously until
their whole house was filled with pigs? No, what would happen is their food bills would be huge and they wouldn't be able to pay their credit card bills and there would be pigs in the bathtub and kitchen sink and there would be poop everywhere and they would start to go crazy and say I must separate the males from the females! And maybe the breeder had several customers that buy pigs for their snakes, but selling 3 or 4 guinea pigs a month will not solve their problem.

I really wonder about the breeder selling sick and malnourished pigs
with maggots in the bedding. I mean, wouldn't people notice and
not spend their hard-earned money on a guinea pig from him? I guess some people just don't know any better (which is the whole point of this thread).

[Setsuna]

I really understand that i just feel bad for the ones in stores who apparently need to make a sacrifice of themselves to slow the buissness.

[CavySpirit]

Many of the animal shelters have little pet stores/shops on the premises to help make a little money. I strongly suggest shopping at the humane societies. Then you can take a little detour to visit all the very loveable little furries who were already purchased by someone at the pet store and may now get a needle full of poison in their belly for the privilege. Which pig are you going to give a home to? The one on death row or are you going to help put another one on death row? Just like we rescues can't save them all, you can't buy them all. Life is tough. You have to make choices. It's a fact. We feel bad for the ones in the pet store, too. But, what about the ones in the shelter? So, you want to leave those to the rescuers to feel bad for? We pay to help those so that you can feel sorry for the ones in the pet store? Seriously, these are the issues.

If you feel that I am being mean in this reply, so be it. It's difficult getting people to open their eyes when being blind is so much more comfortable. I face the same challenges every day. There are so many things I'd just rather not know about. It does make life easier.

[critterlover]

OK. Well I understand what you're talking about Setsuna. It's not really easy to ignore the suffering of any animal. I can see why you'd see a guinea pig in a pet store and feel compassion for it and want to alleviate it of its suffering. Of course, it's not it's fault that it's where it is. It would be wonderful if we could save them all.

It seems to me that there are 2 types of people in this debate. Those who see individual guinea pigs suffering (petstore and shelter alike) and want to alleviate their suffering. And those people who see the big picture and want to do something to change it for the long term.

Maybe there's a way to do acheive the goals of both groups of people.

Individual petstore pigs *can* be helped if you see them suffering and want to help. Not by buying them, but by many other ways: by educating the petstore management about proper care, by reporting poor conditions to animal control, and by coming back regularly to check that conditions have improved. There are probably many other ways to help petstore pigs without actually buying them and I'm sure some of the very creative people on this forum will come up with dozens of ideas.

[Susan9608]

I think that the suffering of all the pigs, whether they are in a pet store or a shelter, is probably pretty equal. They all have to deal with the stress of high traffic environments, being left alone at night, the noise of other animals, etc. etc.

I guess I can see how people might interpret purchasing a pet from a pet store as rescuing it from that pet store ... however, I see a distinction between the pet store pets and shelter pets. Most shelters have very limited funds and space, and they also have very little control of the intake. They can't put a call out and say, "Hey we have room for 3 more guinea pigs; send me some." So, if they reach the limit of their capacity and more pigs still show up, some tough decisions will have to be made, deciding which guinea pigs live and which will be "put to sleep."

At a pet store, whomever does their "supply" ordering can simply call their distributor and say, "We don't need any more guinea pigs this month, thanks." And <poof> like magic, the status quo is preserved ... no need to make more space or put anyone on death row to make room for the new inmates.

So if everyone stopped buying guinea pigs and adopted them, what would happen to the ones in the pet stores? I strongly suspect that when there is no longer a market for pet store guinea pigs, breeders will not breed them, and (here's the amazing part) those guinea pigs already in existence will go to a shelter, where they can be adopted.

It happened with dogs and cats. I remember a time when every mall had a pet store and in all those pet stores there were puppies and kittens for sale ... but you dont' see that anyone. Enough people said "NO" to that practice. Sure people still breed and sell dogs and cats, but it's a small victory to have them out of the pet stores.

Wouldn't it be a great thing to have that victory for the guinea pigs? To know that they weren't being subjected to the stresses of pet store life anymore? The only way for that to happen is for people to stop buying them ... and for the people running the adoption centers to make adoption as easy as purchasing.

[Sparky]

i dont know if anybody has already posted this, but pet stores dont take sick animals to vets, they usually let them die, they get them so cheap from the breeders that it would be cheaper to replace them than keep them healthy. so yes, nursing them back to health is a kind thing to do, but you shouldnt give it back to the store afterwards, take it to a shelter or give it up for adoption in some way. and i must agree, it may seem like the kindest thing to do, to save a suffering animal, but if pet stores do not make a profit then they will stop manufacturing piggies.

[Susan9608]

If animals in pet stores are sick, injured, or pregnant and if they are sold to customers, then the store is perpetuating fraud on the consumer. Therefore, they should be reported to the Better Business Bureau. The pet store should also be reported to animal control, the local Humane Society or SPCA, PETA, and the Humane Society of the United States.

The way to really influence a company is through their fiscal policy. We need to extend the effort to make it impossible for companies to financially be able to sell living things. And we do that by making sure they are held accountable for the welfare of all the animals in the store.

Please report ill animals to the proper authorities - and don't give them back to the pet stores - they will just be re sold with no consideration given to their illness.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

The problem is sometimes they don't care, do anything or the laws don't cover them i.e. they have food and water so there's nothing we can do. Or the people sent to investigate know little about small animals, so they think it's fine.

The pet industry is a powerful money making one.