About Pet Stores

[CavySpirit]

What's so bad about pet stores?
Pet stores sell sick animals, support mill breeding, promote impulse buying, and make the work of rescues that much harder.

There are no rescues or shelters near me!

You can be sure that where there are pet stores selling guinea pigs, there are guinea pigs in need of new homes.

• Check PetFinder
• Check the Cavy Classifieds
• Check Craigslist
• Call your town's animal control department. You can always find out who or where that is by calling your local police station. You never know. Your local shelter may have a ton of guinea pigs that they never advertise. If they SAY they don't take guinea pigs, that means they take them and they put them down right away because they don't think they can get them adopted out or don't have the knowledge, desire or resources to keep them until they can get them adopted out. Tell them you want to adopt one. Get them to put your name on a list to call you next time one or more come in.
• A dog, cat, or rabbit rescue may have started rescuing guinea pigs on the side.
• Check your local Freecycle
• You can also check the classified section of your local paper.
• Call ALL your local vet offices. Let them know you are looking. They frequently hear of situations, such as accidental pregnancies and people looking to rehome their pets. Most decent vet offices have a bulletin board where people can post their lost pets or pets needing new homes.
• Check other forum's adoption sections.
• Put your ad in your local paper saying you are looking to ADOPT some guinea pigs from a non-breeding home.
• Kids in school? Ask around about classroom pets. Teachers are always messing up with pets. Many try to rehome. Offer to adopt them and give them a good stable home.

There are many ways to get guinea pigs that need a good home without supporting breeders.

But the rescue won't adopt to me!
First, find out why the rescue turned you down. Rescues have the requirements they do for a reason. Every rescued pig represents a rescuer's commitment of time, money, and commitment. They want to make sure that the pig goes to a home where

• he or she is treated right, and
• he or she won't be in need of rescue again

If you think a rescue's requirements are ridiculous, look at it from the rescuer's point of view. An adopter who isn't willing to provide a large enough indoor cage, more than $50 in vet care, or good quality hay and pellets and veggies, isn't likely to give the pig the level of care the rescuer would like.
Other requirements may have to do with the location and trends in pig-dumping. If the rescue takes in a lot of former classroom pets, it probably won't adopt to teachers wanting a clasroom pet. If the rescue finds that people with small children are more likely to dump their pigs, they are less likely to want to adopt to people who want starter pets for their small children.
If you're turned down by a rescue, quell the impulse to rush out to the pet store. If you can't provide what the rescue asks, will you be able to provide it to a pet store pig? Is it fair to get an animal that needs what you aren't able or aren't willing to provide?

But my local Pet____ has

• clean cages
• healthy looking pigs
• a health guarantee
• CareFresh
• animals separated by sex
• signs to "think adoption first"
• hay and vegetables for their guinea pigs!

They're one of the "good" stores, right?
You only see the animals for sale. You don't see where they came from. They could come from a mill; they could come from a backyard breeder; they could be bred in tiny cages in the back room. However, you can be sure that they're being bred by someone for money, and buying them will encourage more breeding, while guinea pigs in rescues and shelters die for lack of homes.

You also don't know how healthy the animals really are. A guinea pig in the beginning stages of a nasty URI (very common in pet store pigs) will not look visibly sick. A raging mite infestation may not have caused hair loss yet. A genetic predisposition to seizures or lymphoma could kill pigs at a few months old, long after they've been bought and taken away. That cute little sow in the cage full of sows at the female-only store may have been housed with her brother for her first heat, the day before being brought to the store. You simply can't tell. But there are many accounts of pet store pigs being sick, pregnant, infested with mites, or prone to sudden death. Do you really want to take the chance? Are you prepared to take the pig to the vet and treat the URI, treat the mites, or take care of babies? Are you prepared to lose a sow in pregnancy or delivery? Are you prepared to take care of a lethal pup? Are you prepared to watch a pig drop dead because the mill didn't care that all their pigs had epilepsy, and continued to breed the pigs that carried it?

I was at my local pet store and I saw this

• cute and/or
• mistreated and/or
• sick and/or
• pregnant pig

and I just HAD to rescue her!
If you paid the store for her, you supported the store and the breeders that supply them. This is a harsh truth that many people don't want to accept. If you act out of generosity and caring, you don't want to think that you could be contributing to the problem.

If you're prone to wanting to 'rescue' pigs from pet stores, there are ways to do it. If the conditions of the store as a whole are terrible, TAKE PICTURES! Then call Animal Control, the Humane Society, and/or your local SPCA. They may be able to close down the store. Your pictures will help them greatly. You can also register a complaint with your local Better Business Bureau about them.

If there's just one animal that is visibly sick or pregnant, you may be able to sweet-talk the owner or manager into treating them or giving them to you for free. Be sure to stress that if they knowingly sell the sick or pregnant animal, they could be liable for vet bills. However, this may backfire, and they may take the pig in the back and kill them, not always in a humane way. Either way, they may well just order more pigs from the breeder to fill the empty spaces.

The BEST thing to do is educate people. If everyone knows why buying from pet stores is bad, the store will go out of business.

Well, I go to the pet store but I only buy supplies there.
The fact is, animals don't provide a profit for pet stores. The cost of buying them from the breeder, feeding them, housing them, and absorbing the cost of animals that die adds up to more than the purchase price of the animal. The store makes its money on supplies. They use the guinea pigs to lure you in, and sell you a tiny pet store cage, junky pellets, substandard hay, and crappy bedding to go along with the pigs. Those items do not need to be fed or housed, so the pet store makes a tidy profit on them. If you don't buy animals at the pet store, but shop there for supplies, you're still lining their pockets.

But where can I get food and bedding if not a pet store?!
There are many options nowadays. There are some pet supplies stores that do not sell animals (many have an adoption space for a local rescue or shelter, even) and these are great places to buy supplies. Local feed stores may also carry quality food like Oxbow hay and pellets. Your vet may also have a selection of food and bedding for sale. Even stores like Target may carry acceptable food or bedding without carrying animas.

There are also many websites you can order from:
US:

• KM's Hayloft: delicious timothy, bluegrass/orchard grass, and alfalfa hays and pellets (Washington State)
• Oxbow: quality hays and pellets direct from the source (Nebraska)
• American Pet Diner (Nevada)
• Farmer Dave (upstate NY)
• The Ferret Store and The Critter Store: All kinds of pet supplies
• PetFoodDirect: Bedding, food, and other supplies (East Coast)