Posititve side

[Leea83]

I know my opinion won't be welcomed on here I'm sure, however, I would like to talk about how some pet stores are good.

The PetSmart near me is where I got my skinny pigs. Both boys came in excellent condition, very healthy, from clean cages and I was sent home with the remainder of the fruit and veggies they had been given that day.
Charley was seen as a "rescue" because he wasn't wanted and was placed in a special area with the other "rescue" types.

The Super Pet where I got my male and female guinea pigs were also wonderful. Neither had health issues and our sow was NOT pregnant and of course both males and females were seperated.

Both pet stores gave wonderful advice about what they needed care wise, I already knew most of it from books, but I learned a few things that has been confirmed on boards. Of course, the piggies were not mixed with rabbits either.

So there you go, there is the other side of pet stores, not all are bad

[RufussMom]

wow, I wish my petsmart was like that. I have never seen them sell skinny pigs! I am glad that there are some places in this world that are knowledgable and caring. Though that store still supports the whole petsmart company where some stores are aweful...

[Biscuit]

It's not that your opinion isn't welcome here, it's just that it is entirely ill educated as to the main problem with pet stores. I used to feel sort of the same way, my main outrage was the care of pets and I was thrilled to see a pet store take care of them well. I simply didn't really understand where pet stores get their critters, and the variety of ways this contributes to overpopulation.

While many pet stores have poor conditions, the primary problem with them is that they contribute to overpopulation by selling pets as a product, encouraging impulse buys, buying from breeders, and so on.

If you do a search of The Kitchen forum itself for "good pet store", you'll find a thousand threads where this is discussed.

You might really find that you change your mind if you read over the threads here where this has been debated in the past.

[VoodooJoint]

I suggest you spend less time being naive and more time educating yourself Leea83.

Of course a petstore can have healthy animals and give good advice. That's how they ALL should be if they are going to sell animals.

That doesn't change what goes on behind the scenes. By buying and supporting a petstore you;

-supported the animal mill where your pigs came from. A mill that probably doesn't care for the animals well, denies them medical attention when they need it because it would cut into their profits, over breeds their animals until they are worn out and then dump them at the nearest shelter, rescue or simply outright kills them, doesn't care a whit about what happens to the animals they create since they sell them to a petstore for anyone, even reptile feeders, can buy them.

-helped add to the animal overpopulation problem by rewarding petstores AND the breeders in their actions.

-by buying a skinny you also helped encourage the breeding of this genetic anomaly which should be allowed to gracefully die out. Skinny pigs and Baldwins are highly prone to heart conditions, skin infections and disorders, cancer and a myriad of other issues. Your pet is likely to die early (and unpleasantly) and meanwhile cost you a small fortune in vet bills. I hope you have a lot of money.

-killed a guinea pig sitting in a shelter. Yup, you certainly did. You see you could have sought out an animal at a shelter or rescue and opened up space for another animal to be rescued but instead you had to buy one which caused the animal you DIDN'T adopt to get killed because it's time is up and the shelter needs the cage space. Watch this and find out PETA TV:Buy One, Get One Killed

I HIGHLY suggest you take the time to read over this site and learn about the TRUE horrors you support when you buy anything at a store that sells animals.

Since there are already so many other threads about this very same subject I'm closing it unless another mod sees the need to have it opened again.

[CavySpirit]

Sorry, VJ. I'm reopening this thread because of the personal email I received from her. Not only does she think 'some' pet stores are good, she takes issue with my Kids and Cavies page on CavySpirit.

[CF#5]

I suspect her issues go well beyond her objections to your web pages.

[Susan9608]

So there you go, there is the other side of pet stores, not all are bad

<snicker> Not all slave owners were that bad, either ...

[VoodooJoint]

I have no problem with it being reopened. I just wasn't certain if anyone wanted to have the same-old debate. If all y'all do then YEEE-HAW, let the debating begin.

[Jennicat]

Well obviously there's nothing wrong with a company that buys their animals from a mill who has minimum wage, not veterinary personnel neutering their animals, force breeds the animals when they resist, and stomps escapees to death on the floor.

[ArtisticRainey]

Buying animals is wrong. Period. Profiting from sentient creatures only serves to create animal cruelty and overpopulation. Go to a shelter. We made this problem, and the solution is very easy: stop buying, let the existing animals live out happy lives, and the problem will go away.

Humans do not have the right to own other species, but we do have a responsibility to protect them, considering how much damage we have done to the natural world. If people would take the money they spend on junk at petstores and put it into animal conservation projects, animals would benefit in the long-term.

The issue is not how the animals are kept, it is what they are kept for: profit.

In my opinion.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

No reputable breeder breeds skinnies.

Some people do get "healthy" animals from pet stores (if your pigs are young you won't know if they have genetic issues yet - the skinnies are a genetic mutation and not healthy in their own right). It's a toss us but usually the odds are against you. Either way you are supporting pet mills/ backyard breeders, the pet trade industry, the cycle of abuse-neglect-abandonment and condemning a shelter pet to death by not adopting.

[crazywiggy]

Lee - I'm going to try to explain all the many reasons I stopped using pet stores that sell animals, and why I believe none of them are good. Maybe then you will understand why people on here are so passionate about the issue....

1) Overpopulation.

Many common species of pet animal are overpopulated. This means more animals exist than homes.
When you purchase a "new" animal, ie from breeder or petstore, you create "demand". The petstore buys in a new animal to replace the one it just sold, from a breeder. The breeder therefore breeds more animals, in order to supply the store. More animals are produced. The ONLY reason pet stores sell animals, and breeders breed them, is to make money. If people stopped buying them, they would stop.
So - every time you purchase an animal, you cause more to be bred, which causes more overpopulation.

So what happens to these excess animals?
Many will end up in rescues or shelters - which may be the "kill" or "no-kill" type.
In a kill shelter animals only have a short time to find a new home or they are KILLED, to enable the shelter to take on another unwanted animal.
In a no-kill shelter animals stay until they find homes. This means that the shelter gets full very quickly and is nuable to take in new animals. People trying to get rid of their pets therefore have no-one to dump them on, so they either abandon them into the wild where they are hit by cars, starve to death etc, or they get them put down.

Every time you purchase an animal you do at least three things things:
Condemn another animal to a life as a breednig machnie
Condemn a rescue animal to death by taking away a home
Encourage and fund more breeding, which leads to yet more animals being dumped or killed.

Every time you adopt an unwanted animal you:
Save a life - either the life of that individual anial, or the life of the animal the rescue can now take in.
Do nothing to encourage breeding or overpopulation - in fact you reduce overpopulation.

2) Impulse buying:

Pet stores do not care who buys their animals. They have no interview process, most do not even ask a couple of basic questions. They will sell to anyone with no concern for the animals future welfare.
They actively encourage impulse buying. They WANT people (especially kids) to come into the store, see some cute baby animals, and buy one there and then without any thought.
Impulse buying is a serious problem. Many impulse buyers have no knowledge of how to care for their animals, so the animals suffer. They also have not thought about the time, money or effort involved. As a rseult, impulse buyers are the most likely to neglect their pets and dump or kill them when they get bored.
When you purchase an animal from a store you are telling them that impulse buying is a good thing and makes them a profit.

3) Poor care and advice:

I can't comment on your local store, but very few stores take good care of their animals. They are almost always kept in small cages. The petstore does not want to "waste" money on animals which are so cheap to replace - so they use cheap bedding and food which are bad for them, deny them vet care etc.
You also never see the "back room", where sick animals are taken or where new animals are stored before being put on display. These rooms are often very different to what you see in store - animals crammed in tiny cages and neglected etc.

Even if the store provides care advice when they sell a pet it is often inaccurate. They want you to buy their products and make them a profit - so they tell you whatever they think will get you to part with your cash.
They will not tell you to buy only quality pellets like Oxbow or KMs because they don't stock them - they recommend some cheap, crappy mix full of junk fillers and carcinogenic chemicals. They don't bother to tell you piggies need veg because thy dopn't sell them - instead they fob you off with vit C drops for the water that don't even work. They don't tell you piggies need a lot of space and solid floors etc, because all the cages they sell are totally inadequate and downright dangerous. Most pet stores sell a huge variety of products known to be unhealthy, dangerous and even lethal - simply because people are too ignorant to know better. But hey - if your piggie dies from a broken spine on a petsmart running wheel, you can always go back to petsmart to replace it!

4) Run and staffed by amateurs:

In many other animal based jobs people are required to have appropriate qualifications, and gain vocational ones whilst working there.
Most pet store employees have little or no animal knowledge, experience or qualifications. They believe the incorrect and dangerous advice the management tell them, and pass it on to the customers.

Some of the worst examples of this are in terms of disease and gender....
Disease: most pet store employees do not know the common diseases of their animals and do not recognise the symptoms. This means animals are left suffering and untreated because the staff do not even realise they are sick.
Gender: most pet store staff can't tell one end of the animal from the other, let alone sex them accurately! Even the pet stores that have a vet in the store will not garantee the sex of their animals! I also work with animals - and I had to do a course, and pass an exam, on handling and sexing! As a result, many pet store animals are either sold as the wrong sex, or are housed in the wrong group and get pregnant before they are sold.

5) The breeders:

Good breeders - ie those that are caring and responsible - put a lot of time, money, effort and expertise into their breeding and care of animals. They are very fussy about who buys their animals as they want them to go to good, loving and permanent homes. They ONLY ever sell direct to new owners - who they will vet to ensure they are suitable. They NEVER sell through a third party - like a store.

The only breeders who sell to pet stoers are the ones who do not care about the future welfare of their animals, even if they live or die. This means back-yard breeders, or mills.
Neither type breeds for health or temperament. Neither takes good care of their animals. Neither care where their animals end up. Neither cares about overpopulation, so they churn out animals in huge quantities. Check out PetSmart Cruelty for more info. When you purchase a pet store animal you are telling them that this is fine - even worse, you are paying them to abuse animals like this. It is no different to saying to someone "I'll give you a dollar to torture and kill that animal"!!!

You are incredibly lucky that the animals you have purchased were not sick or pregnant - this is extremely common.

But, in short - even if the store takes great care of the animals it stocks - they are still supporting and funding poor care and advice, treating animals as merchandise, impulse buying, overpopulation, mass breeding and death. I honestly do not see how this can EVER be justified.

[camende]

I just read through the whole Kids and Cavies page...I am not sure how I have missed it in the past. My fiance has 2 kids and when we started adopting piggies, it never occured to me that anybody but ME would be responsible for them...I can't tell you how many people get the lecture from me about guinea pigs and adopting and how buying a pet is a no no. Just about everyone that gets the lecture is shocked to find out how many homeless and abandoned guinea pigs there are out there...

[Leea83]

Well thankfully for me, I don't have to sit here and actually take this crap. I belong to a wonderful board that doesn't discriminate as to where the piggies come from or even those who breed.
They are fully supportive of the fact that I own two wondeful skinny pigs and they think its wonderful.

I did what CavySpirit said I didn't have the backbone for. So there is your proof. I had the backbone and I still do, because one day, I want to own and operate my own pet store

CF#5: Issues? No, I actually don't have any to be honest. However, I do have a hard time listening to all of this and trying to not laugh

Susan: CF thought I had issues...well comparing SLAVERY to petstores... that's just wrong

Crazy: Thank you for being the only one on here who was nice.

See ya!!!!!

[CF#5]

Did she say you don't have the backbone to troll this forum? Because that's all you've done. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

[kathrynj]

Hang on Leea, what exactly are the issues you have with the cavies and kids pages?

We all have a backbone, its how we stand upright and walk.

You want to own a petstore? If you stock animals for sale, I think you have let yourself down as many people will NOT shop in a petstore that sells animals.