"Support" Breeders?

[smoot]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this but I felt this needed to be said.

We talk a lot on this site about not supporting petstores that sell animals. I don't think everone understands what this means. I think some of our younger members may think "support" means to "approve of" what the petstore/breeder is doing. I have seen several posts on several different forums the past few days where a person claims to not support petstores even though they've patronized one.

You don't have to approve of what a petstore or breeder is doing to support it. Supporting in our case means to enable them to continue doing what they're doing. When you buy a pig from a petstore, you're giving them your business. Since the petstore owner made money off of the pig, he'll bring in another (or two) to take it's place. You may think that breeding is cruel and you may hate guinea pig mills, but when you buy a pig you're enabling the store to make money so they'll keep buying pigs from breeders, who keeps breeding because he can make money from it.

I hope that helps a little. Supporting doesn't mean that you approve, it means that you're enabling it to happen.

[cavy-cool-crazy]

Well said, smoot. Hopefully what you've said will clear things up a little with some members/visitors.