Pet Stores: Pet Stores...How to make them review owners..

[TwilightStar]

Ok, I do not support pet stores.
However, they don't seem to be going away right now.

I was on another fourm and read about a guy who bragged about bashing his guinea pig's head into a wall.
And I've never been...so mad in my life..

I just want to know, that while we want pet stores to sell animals to disappear, is there anything we can do now to have them HAVE to do some sort of backround check on the animals they sell?

I don't want pet stores to continue existing but, there's just so many people who abuse and hurt the animals they buy...is there a way to make them have to check back rounds first?

I'm sorry if this isn't in the right place, I'm just extremely upset at the moment..

[Paula]

A background check is an expensive endeavor, generally a lot more than the value of the animal being sold. I think it's terribly unlikely you'd ever be able to find a pet store owner (large corporation or mom 'n pop) that would ever even consider putting up the money - not to mention time - do do something like that.

In any case, if there were a way to require background checks, it would do nothing to address the underlying cause of the problem - selling living, breathing, thinking, feeling animals as merchandise that's disposable and replaceable.

[TwilightStar]

Hm I was just wondering if there could be a law passed...I guess.
I don't know.
It just made me upset that people would brag about hurting animals, when they shouldn't be aloud to own one in the first place.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

Pet stores that sell animals usually only care about profit, not animal welfare. Otherwise they wouldn't be buying from breeding mills and backyard breeders.

[TwilightStar]

But could a law force them to?

I guess I'm being stupid right now, I just feel so really upset. I apologize.

[Paula]

If an effort were going to be made to pass a law, I'd say the focus should be to prevent pet stores from selling the animals in the first place, not on forcing background checks to be conducted on those wanting to buy the animals.

People that mean to harm animals are generally going to find a way to do so with or without being able to buy an animal from a pet store, and arguably are less likely to pay money for an animal to begin with.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

The pet trade industry fights really hard to prevent any such legislation. They have lots of money and lobbyists unfortunately.

Shaming them and boycotting them is a start to stopping the abuse though.

[wonderwhiskers]

Its unlikely, but really the only thing in our power is to put pressure on the goverment to enforce a law with guidelines on requirements new owners have to meet. It would be really expensive for the goverment to do this, but it should still be done, I'm sure most people would agree! Even if there not crazy about animals like us!
The best way to do this is a petition, and get as many people involved as possible! Talk about it as much we can .. internet, in person and perhaps even getting papers to tell the story of the abused and neglected animals sold by petstores.

This is a huge problem, and wont go away overnight. We just should all try to do our little part, and hopefully bit by bit things will change.