People Bashing Petsmart

[VoodooJoint]

Originally Posted by Popcorn&Caramel

I think that people are being a bit prejudiced agaisnt pet stores, finding all the horrible things petsmart may have done assuming all of that is true. My guinea pigs from petsmart weren't sick, didn't have URI, and didn't die on their first day home..

Really? I guess we are being asked to assume that you are telling the truth about having healthy guinea pigs from Petsmart. Are you telling the truth or lying? I don't know for certain so should I assume you are lying just like you are assuming all of the people that made those sick animal posts are lying?

Why would they, or you, lie about such things?

[rabbitsncavyluv]

Even if you got lucky and your guinea pigs were healthy and correctly sexed, three shelter pigs were euthanized because you bought instead of adopting.

Even if you didn't know better, that is the sad truth.

But it's still early either way. Most of the times they are inbred and they don't show their poor genes til later on, when the heart and teeth issues start to show up.

It's a fact that there is a pet overpopulation problem and that Petsmart supports breeding mills. You can't be 'prejudiced' against animal suffering.

[auburnmare5]

I don't thin you shoudl take the posts personally. I am glad you are going to work at a shelter.

[Henle15]

Would you like to talk to the numerous people that have emailed or called me rescue because they bought a pig and it was sick. Or maybe the ones that bought 2 males and guess what...1 was a male and 1 was a female...now they have 4 and guess what happens to those 2 that they didn't want. They are surrendered to us. The petstore won't take them even it was their fault for miz-sexing them. You can't blame the people that bought them to sex them properly, they trust the petstore employees that are "trained" and know what they are doing to correctly sex them.

You are extremely lucky that you got a healthy pig from them, it probably just arrived and hadn't been subject to the bad care they give the animals. People that actually care about the animals do not last long at petstores because they step on toes and get warned to back off. I used to work at petco and tried to change the way they took care of animals. It doesn't work!!

Plus the way I see they get those animals is heatbreaking. They get them from mills and they sometimes get transported with no food, water, definitely no hay, and are housed in tupperware containers with 3-4 pigs in a container. Its horrible, if we as employees say anything to the "breeders" we get in trouble. I have 2 memories that stick out out of hundreds that I will never forget while working at petco

1. The guy that delivered the animals routinely would tell us to hurry up because the pigs chewed through their water line and hadn't had water for at least 2-3 days. Also he would always say that the AC was not working in the trailer and 1 or 2 of them had died on the way there.

2. We had a delivery that had one pig that had a club foot so the manager was going to have them take it back as they could not sell it. I happened to be working at that time and said I would take it (because I knew what happens to the ones that are given back). The guy plainly admits and states the following words " good, because otherwise we were going to have to take it out to the trailer and get rid of it because we don't have a use for it". That is about the moment that I really decided that I would start my own rescue and start boycotting petstores. They are horrible from the coroporate headquarters all the way down the chain to the employees. Not all of them are bad but the majority of them are. I would rather people buy from breeders that take care of them (few and far between also though). Please make adoption your only option from now on. I am rescuing 9 piggies from a kill shelter this weekend. I would bet they are from a petstore and the people bought them on impulse and weren't screened properly.

[crazywiggy]

Popcorn and caramel:

Of course the people on this forum are prejucied against pet stores that sell animals!
This is a welfare and rescue orientated site. Stores like Petsmart don't care about animal welfare - actually promote poor welfare - and cause animals to end up in rescue.

I would like to comment on some of the points you made...

Petsmart encourages breeding guinea pigs. It ends there.

Firstly, not all breeders are equal. A tiny minority actually try to breed to improve health etc. Some actually care what happens to teh animals they breed.

Petsmart and all other petstores encourage not JUST breeding - but the WORST types of breeding, BYBs and mills! (The few caring and/or responsible breeders only sell direct - never through stores).

By having cute baby animals in the store, available for any idiot with the cash to purchase, these stores encourage impulse buying. Impulse buyers are the most likely to neglect / dump / euthanise and animal when they get bored or it becomes too much trouble.

Not taking proper care of the animals is the employees fault, not the company. Their food and hay is fine.

Sorry - company policy would cover this if they actually cared.

The management could make it compulsory that social species are housed in same sex groups, solitary animals alone. They could make it compulsory to feed only quality diet, and appropriate veggies. They could make it compulsory to house animals in large enough (and suitable!) cages with the proper enrichment.
They don't. Why not??? Money! They do not care about animal welfare, they care about profits.

As for the staff.... why not make it company policy that all staff involved in the care and sale of animals must undergo proper training? Instead, they place the lives (present and future) of sentient animals in the hands of people who know nothing about them.
Why??? Too expensive to train them up!

My guinea pigs from petsmart weren't sick, didn't have URI, and didn't die on their first day home..

As others have said - this was luck!

Many, many people who have purchased animals from stores - including the big chains like petsmart and petco as well as "mom and pop" stores - have had animals turn out to be mis-sexed, pregnant, or sick. Many people HAVE had animals die within a matter of days.

If these stores used RESPONSIBLE breeders, and gave their animals PROPER care, this would NEVER happen.

Look at these incredibly common problems individually:

Mis-sexing....
An experienced, well trained person should have little difficulty in sexing the animals they work with. So to start - a reasonable breeder should be able to correctly sex their animals before they even send them to the store - transported separately of course. Then, the person responsible for taking in the delivery in the pet store should be able to double check - and house the animals correctly according to sex.

The fact that animals are mis-sexed so frequently indicates that neither the breeders, nor the store staff, are competant at their jobs.
And of course, it can also come down to money. Have you ever wondered why even the stores that have a vet clinic ON SITE will not guarantee the sex of their animals???

Pregnancy....
Animals from petstores turn out to be pregnant for one of two reasons. Either they were not correctly sexed (and so housed with the opposite sex) or they were separated too late.
This indicates that either (as above) breeders and store staff are incopentant at sexing, or that they do not even know the basics (i.e. age at which the animals can reproduce).

This is basic textbook. How hard can it be for ONE single person at Petsmart to find out the correct ages animals should be separated, and implement this across its stores?

Sickness....

Many animals can carry diseases for some time before showing symptoms - this is why quarantine is so important. Stores don't want to quarantine new animals, because they want them on the shelves while they are still young and cute!
Many symptoms are easily recognised if you know what to look for. Store staff don't. They don't realise an animal is sick because they nothing about that animal!
If they find a sick animal they should get it diagnosed and treated by a vet. If necessary (eg infectious disease) that animal should be quarantined, and all other animals vet checked just in case. They don't. Most stores do not bother to get vet treatment for sick animals, or quarantine them.
So diseases spread like wildfire, infecting all animals in the store, including the next batch that comes in.
Add to this the fact they get their animals in from crap breeders, so many come in sick or with hereditary disorders or deformities. And the fact that they give the animals poor care (crap food, toxic bedding, unsuitable cages etc). The chances of getting a completely healthy animal are very slim.

So, to conclude:

1) The management of these stores are ENTIRELY responsible - for their staff, the way their animals are kept, what their breeders are like etc.

2) These people CHOOSE to cut costs, and cut corners, in order to maximise profits at the cost of animal life and welfare.

3) Anyone with an ounce of compassion would be disgusted at the idea of supporting, funding and encouraging this!

4) Even if a store was fantastic - fully trained staff, high standards of care, etc - they still CAUSE overpopulation, they still CAUSE impulse buying, and they still CAUSE animals to die!

On a personal note I was not so lucky - my previous two pigs were store bought. Both were riddled with mites. The first died at only 2 years old - less than half his natural lifespan - due to a tumour in his throat. The other died a few weeks later.
My store bought rabbit was half wild from never being handled, and only lived to about 2-3 years old.
Seriously - you were the lucky one. Don't expect such good luck if you purchse a petstore animal again.

[Popcorn&Caramel]

Maybe petsmart doesn't care about the animals but that doesn't mean they're all greedy cheaters taking horrible care of all animals encouraging cruelty and selling worthless products for top profit..
I would have bought from a shelter the first time if I knew about them but I think It's a bit much to not even go into a petstore. Whether you purchase guinea pigs from petsmart or not they'll keep buying from breeders as long as they make a profit. Only if they hardly got any sales at all they would stop, and there isn't much chance of that. If you buy a pet store pig, sure you might be encouraging them to buy another guinea pig from a breeder, but it's made up by giving a guinea pig a good home rather then the horribly mis-treating at the petstore.
On the other hand, the guinea pigs that won't get adopted at the shelter that you could have got will still have good care. I'm not saying to buy from petstores, but after the word pet store you start looking for everything bad in it.

You are extremely lucky that you got a healthy pig from them, it probably just arrived and hadn't been subject to the bad care they give the animals.

Actually they had been there for 3 months..

Really? I guess we are being asked to assume that you are telling the truth about having healthy guinea pigs from Petsmart. Are you telling the truth or lying? I don't know for certain so should I assume you are lying just like you are assuming all of the people that made those sick animal posts are lying?

Why would they, or you, lie about such things?

I just said assuming its the truth because I don't know where you found all that. I didn't assume you are lying because i didn't know. When did I say I assume all the sick animal posts are lies? I didn't.

2) These people CHOOSE to cut costs, and cut corners, in order to maximise profits at the cost of animal life and welfare.

Animal life? I've always used petsmart guinea pig food products and yes, they're still alive and well off.

[VoodooJoint]

Originally Posted by Popcorn&Caramel

Whether you purchase guinea pigs from petsmart or not they'll keep buying from breeders as long as they make a profit. Only if they hardly got any sales at all they would stop, and there isn't much chance of that. If you buy a pet store pig, sure you might be encouraging them to buy another guinea pig from a breeder, but it's made up by giving a guinea pig a good home rather then the horribly mis-treating at the petstore.

Wow, did you read what you wrote? Here it is broken down.

-petstores will keep selling animals as long as they make a profit but keep buying animals from them anyway.

Does that make any sense to you? Obviously petstores will never stop selling animals as long as people buy them. Doesn't it make more sense to encourage people NOT to buy them so that change can occur?

How is giving one animal a good home going to make anything better if more animals will be bred to take their place? Will you be buying them as well? and the next? and the next? As long as people buy them the breeders will breed and the stores will sell.

Stop buying them and the store can't sell them (at least not as quickly) thus they order less from the breeder and the breeder breeds less. EVERY time you say "NO" to buying an animal you make a difference. These types of things happen in babysteps not leaps and bounds.

If no one bothered to stand up and say "no" then Petsmart would be selling dogs and cats and large parrots as well. They aren't because enough people made a stink about it. Change does happen but only if you are the change.

[Popcorn&Caramel]

3) Anyone with an ounce of compassion would be disgusted at the idea of supporting, funding and encouraging this!

Just walking in a petsmart store or *gasp* buying something from there doesn't encourage, support and fund all that.

[VoodooJoint]

Originally Posted by Popcorn&Caramel

Just walking in a petsmart store or *gasp* buying something from there doesn't encourage, support and fund all that.

Yes it does.

[Popcorn&Caramel]

No it doesn't. Maybe It gives them a bit of money to keep it going but its not like they'll stop if I dont. How does it encourage or support it?

-petstores will keep selling animals as long as they make a profit but keep buying animals from them anyway.

I did not say that! I even said that I'm not telling you to buy pigs from petsmart. But buying food there or hay isn't so horrible.

[Popcorn&Caramel]

Ok fine Its the worst thing you could possibly do to buy a pig there ( I didn't know about shelters back then) but tell me wwhat is wrong with buying hay or food or anything else there.

[Haley0489]

Originally Posted by Popcorn&Caramel

Ok fine Its the worst thing you could possibly do to buy a pig there ( I didn't know about shelters back then) but tell me wwhat is wrong with buying hay or food or anything else there.

The idea is the money you spend at Petsmart supports their business. If you don't buy supplies etc from there they won't have the money and will have to cut costs which would [hopefully] stop the sale of live animals.

[PrayerWarrior]

Because you're still giving the store money, which keeps them in business. If no one bought anything from them (animals, hay, pellets, toys, etc.), they would go out of business because they wouldn't be making any money.

Petstores don't make their money off of the animals themselves. They make the money off of the cage, food, and toys you buy along with the animal. How could you buying supplies NOT be supporting the petstore? It is. Fact. You're paying money, they get the money, your money helps them stay in business, them staying in business is more pigs that get sick and go to homes that bought them on impulse and know nothing other than what the uneducated employees tell them.

[Ly&Pigs]

Because by buying supplies there, you are condoning the buying of animals from mills, condoning the sales of live animals and perpetuating the cycle instead of boycotting the store and trying to stop the cycle.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

Originally Posted by Popcorn&Caramel

No it doesn't. Maybe It gives them a bit of money to keep it going but its not like they'll stop if I dont. How does it encourage or support it?
I did not say that! I even said that I'm not telling you to buy pigs from petsmart. But buying food there or hay isn't so horrible.

You did say that. She was quoting what you wrote.

And the money goes to the same place, in their pockets. If people boycotted and they saw their sales go down, they would be forced to make changes.