Pet Stores I sorry but I DISAGREE with most people on this site.

[Collie 99]

I don't support ALL Petstores, because I do know that there are some that are horrid places.

 

[Cavalicious]

Okay, so you disagree with the stance of this website. Your claim is that not all pet stores are bad because your father is the assistant manager of one. Care to provide proof in pictures of the general area where they live, the back rooms? Do you care to film what you see when your local breeder comes by and drops off the guinea pigs? Would you be able to do all this without bureaucratic red tape and without letting The Powers That Be know about it ahead of time (and so they can't clean up and make it artificially pleasing for the camera)?

If this is such a great place for your father to work, there should be nothing to hide. Until then, it's very hard to take anything you're providing very seriously. If you haven't already noticed, the anti-pet store/anti-breeding stance runs the gamut from moderate to zero tolerance policy here. Other than giving your opinion and stating that you know of exceptions to the rule, I'm not sure what else you're here for. If you expect to change minds, you're going to be in for a surprise. I'm pretty sure everyone has firm opinions. Most people on here are anti-breeding as well. You said that your father's pet store doesn't support mills, but breeders. Well, I think you've lost the 'war' on that here, too.

Do you want to know why I got my two from a rescue? Because I knew they were housed correctly and that the person in charge would 90% more than likely give me a healthy pig. Can't say the same for my local pet store and all I need to see is the aquarium sized cage they live in and the pregnant females sleeping inside a too small hidey.

You cannot police opinions and I doubt you can change anyone's mind. But you could provide real proof of what you say via pictures and video. By the way, if you think some of us are rude, stop to read your original post - which is full of spelling and grammar mistakes, out of breath run ons and inaccurate information. If you're going to crash into a group, please don't be rude as well.

 

[Zuidy]

Please don't be rude when commenting, I am only saying my own opinion, sorry if I am offending some of you.

Nobody is being rude in the slightest. We are correcting false information. It's not that we don't accept people's opinions, but when they are outright appalling, you really cannot tell us not to correct them. Sorry, that's the truth.

You are sorry about offending some of us? No no no. Not one person in this thread has felt even a little bit offended. We feel SORRY for the hundreds upon thousands of Guinea Pigs that are out of a warm, loving home because of the inside of a pet store. Pet store tycoons are in it for the money. If they really cared, they would STOP selling poorly treated animals, and they could continue to make just as much, if not more money just selling products for animals. They need to hear us out on this. I hope we are getting through to you.

If you KNEW that you were going to get "hate mails" and such, why even bring this here, once again? Overnight, this thread got 20+ replies and nearly 1000 views. Obviously people care. OBVIOUSLY. It's the pet stores that don't.

 

[pinky]

The point is, this site is a pro rescue and anti breeding site. There are plenty of sites that support breeding so it would make more sense to join one of those.

 

[Cavalicious]

Actually, I am a teensy bit offended that someone would come on here and accuse me of getting my opinions via a third party, not by doing my own research or coming into contact with abuses, and that I don't have my own mind. That is rude. The messenger is just as important as the message.

 

[Crystalkate]

I personally come on here to share and read stories of gp owned by people who have the same views as I do. I love it! If you have different views than what this forum is built upon, keep them to yourself! No one is making you get on this website, and absolutely no one is making you have the same views as we do on this forum. You could at least use this place as a good source of knowledge on how to raise your pig correctly, and to the best that you can. This is just ridiculous. You are intentionally trying to start drama. If you don't believe in something, don't join a forum. Find a forum that has the same views as you do, there are many of them out there. Don't try to make us, or try to sway the way we believe, it's simply not going to happen. Didn't your mom ever teach you "if you don't have something nice to say, then don't say it at all"? That works the same way in this situation. If you were a mature person, you would have never started this mess. You would have respected other's views, and used other's knowledge of gp to your advantage.

 

[Dee_E]

@Collie 99 , one thing I see about this entire thread is it appears to be the only thread you have posted in. No contribution in any other thread. Why?

You say you didn't post here to cause contention but I see otherwise.

The way I see it, is it is easier to buy a pet from a pet store. You go in, you pick and you pay, you take home. Rescues take a tad more effort which quite a few don't want to take.

I would agree that there are a few pet stores that are honorable, but as I have seen they are few and far between. I have seen and read too many horror stories. Some ending in the death of the critter.

Yes, I have bought from pet stores. When I was young and ignorant. I also bought from a pet store 5 years ago. I bought my last rattie from one. After I inspected the place. You could eat off the floor. The critters were housed in good conditions, clean low population cages. NOT aquariums. Well, except for the fish. They are still in business. Would I buy from them again. Most likely not. I would rather get a Piggy from a rescue. But, there again that is me.

Back in the early 80's I worked at a Five and Dime that sold pets. Budgies, Piggies other critters. The manager yelled at me for using 'too much' bedding. I got fired for standing up to him.

About 12 years ago I offered to clean a neighbors horse stalls. She kept them in the stalls in the winter, with very little outside time. Minnesota. I did a good job of cleaning the stalls and got lambasted for using too much bedding costing her too much $$. And she wondered why her horses always ended up with barn cough and thrush.

In short, what matters the most? The critter.

 

[Candi Brown]

Why does it have to be a war I can easily respect her position. She isn't for animal abuse. I adopted my two babies and they are great. And I prefer to adopt mine but I get her point. Sometimes people get so hot headed on here.

 

[Crystalkate]

The WHOLE point here is (which many many have repeated) ... this is a pro-rescue forum. It's purpose is to show people there are many pigs that need a home, and don't have one. There may be good pet stores. But there are already pigs without homes. If you buy a pet store pig, it is replaced with another pig from a breeder. Which in return tells the breeder to create more pigs to meet the demand of them being bought. There are websites out there that don't care if you buy a pig from a store..... but it's simply not this forum. That is all we are saying. No one said ALL pet stores mistreat gp! It is not the point at ALL.

 

[Cavalicious]

There is no 'war' per se; the OP is exaggerating the situation and calling it a war because she doesn't like the reception she's getting. And I believe this thread is pretty level-headed; you have people sticking up for their opinions - if hers is valid, so are ours.

A reasonable person would believe that she is personally offended about the majority opinion on here because her father works for a pet store and perhaps doesn't want him to go out of business because we discourage patronizing pet stores. The problem is that our opinion is an educated one and thus, a minority stance. People who don't know of the many other options out there will buy from a pet store due to ignorance. And if it gives her father a crisis of conscience, that's their business. I don't see the need to hash it out here where she will get little satisfaction.

A cynical person, however, could look at this thread and assume that because this person offers no other participation than posts limited to a contentious attitude as being, well, a troll who wants to start trouble.

 

[pocketmonster]

While my angry opinion isn't going to change anything, can I please say how annoying it is to read a post where EVERY important word is CAPITALIZED for EMPHASIS.
Bold face type can get that across very successfully,
as can italics,
and underlined type.

So, for the love of god, lay of the caps.
Because your POINT will never get ACROSS if you seem like you're SCREAMING in someone's FACE.

 

[Crystalkate]

LOL @pocketmonster I am MOCKING her for CAPITALIZING every other WORD. Just CHILL. FYI There is no difference in bold, or underlining. It's making the same point. You are wanting certain words to STAND out. Now I feel addicted to DOING it, just because YOU pointed it OUT.

 

[KD006]

I know who is not going to be captain of the debate team anytime soon. I am guessing Collie99 is a refrence to birthdate so I will cut a little slack there. I may have missed the memo but I do not recall being asked my take on pet stores, breeders, pet mills or accidental litters. Therefore the opening blanket statment of disagreeing with 'most' of the people on this website is a stretch of the imagination.

The purpose of this web site as I recall was pretty clearly stated during the registration process. It is a site promoting adoption, rescue and re-homeing abandoned cavy's and discourages random breeding and pet shop purchaces in favor of adoption of abandoned pigs. It also encourages education in cavy health, housing, behaviour and nutrition. I realy see no bias in that and often guests (oh yes right we are all guests of Teresa here who started and maintains the website along with the moderators) are refered to guinealinx and other sites for information, seems pretty open minded to me.

Looking at collie99's posts it seems there are only two, one about cage size for 10 cavies and this one. I am not sure why he/she came out swinging here, perhaps something in the other post annoyed them.

I may be a 'new' member myself but as one of the 'old folks' that frequent here and in chat I try to be understanding of the younger crowd's viewpoints and attempt to relate. I think young and old, new members and longtime members have something to contribute to this site and discussions, we learn from each other and although we don't always agree I see 99% of the time people are civil here.

"It was a cold late December morning, the sun was just coming over the mountain, we pulled into the appointed meeting place, our breath came out in clouds as we got out of the Jeep. We looked around at the few parked cars and saw one idling a few spaces away, slowly walking in that direction the woman got out and looked furtively around. "You here for the guinea pig" she said amid a cloud of steam in the cold morning air. "yes' I replied, "can you tell me a little bit about it?" She explained it was a one year old female and had been a classroom pet but they were no longer able to afford the upkeep. She opened the hatchback revealing the cage and a shivering bewildered guinea looking up at me. So do you want it she said? I nodded yes, she thrust a plastic bag in my hands and said there is its food. We lifted the cage and walked it to the Jeep, waved goodbye and drove off in the frosty morn. I had not even gotten the womans name nor the name of the guiena pig and didn't think of asking til we were home."

Fade in 3 days earlier... I had seen a notice on the local grocery bullitin board for about a week before christmas 'guinea pig & cage free to good home' day after christmas my boyfriend and I were talking about our past pets over dinner and the notice on the bullitin board flashed into my mind. I casualy asked if he had ever had a guinea pig and to my supprise he had one as a teen, I knew about his dog and rabbit but this was first time I had heard about a guinea pig in the over 12 years we had been together. So I mentioned the ad and asked if he would like to adopt, he immediatly said yes. I called the market it was just before closing time and someone went out, found the phone number and called back. I called most likley expecting it had already been adopted. To my delight it was not and we arranged to meet two days later in the parking lot.

That is when I found this website, guinealynx and a few others, I was up till dawn reading everything I could find. On the next morning we hopped in the Jeep to meet for the transfer. Without this site I would have probably continued to feed her the crappy pellets with colored treats and cheerios that came in ziplock bags and wondered why there was a ziplock full of hay!

I am still a noob but thanks to this website and others like it I now know enough about nutrition, health, grooming and cages to provide for the little furball of love. I have met many good people here I consider my friends even though we will never meet except in chat.

So I guess my point of all this is... if you object to this website and its purpose why bother posting, you obviously have your mind made up on what is right and wrong and are not open to new ideas or learning!

My two cents worth!

Edit: I notice collie99, you have nobody has 'friended' you yet. I might just on a lark!

 

[SpicyPiggies]

LOL @pocketmonster I am MOCKING her for CAPITALIZING every other WORD. Just CHILL. FYI There is no difference in bold, or underlining. It's making the same point. You are wanting certain words to STAND out. Now I feel addicted to DOING it, just because YOU pointed it OUT.

How mature...

 

[Crystalkate]

Yea, just like this whole topic.

 

[SpicyPiggies]

This is ridiculous. No, not all pet stores are bad but as a majority, they are. Pet stores (like Petco and Petsmart) are in it for the money - they are a business! They don't care about the welfare of animals. That doesn't mean their employees don't care, but making money is the first priority of any business. Rescues are non-profit. They are built to house orphaned animals, not make money. If you want to help the welfare of animals, rescues are the way to go. My first two pigs are from pet stores. I didn't know you could adopt pigs! But I don't regret it - I love those two and wouldn't change anything! Bottom line is that you need to look at the whole picture, the whole corporation. Not your dad's business, because that does not represent the pet store corporation accurately.

 

[Dee_E]

The point to this thread seems to have been lost....

 

[pocketmonster]

LOL @(broken link removed) I am MOCKING her for CAPITALIZING every other WORD. Just CHILL. FYI There is no difference in bold, or underlining. It's making the same point. You are wanting certain words to STAND out. Now I feel addicted to DOING it, just because YOU pointed it OUT.

Well, as a graphic designer, I'll have you know that capitalized words actually do carry quite a different meaning than boldface and underlined type. Please don't start arguing about me with this, I didn't get my undergrad and grad degree in graphic design for nothing.
And sheesh, why the attitude?

As far as the original poster goes, there's nothing we can do except wait for her to grow up. I'd imagine s/he's only 13, so reason and logic will come with time. We just must hope that her piggies are cared for well until then.

 

[kittymalone]

It is silly that so much energy and attention has been given to this post. His/her stated their opinion and, whether we agree or not doesn't really matter to this person. He/she wanted to start chaos and they got what they wanted. Let them think and do what they want as there are plenty of us that understand why buying pigs from petstores is wrong and nothing we can say will change this person's mind. I vote for not letting this continue. If Collie99 wants useful information and advice from those of us that have guinea pigs, then I would say that they stick around. If all you want to do is tick a lot of people off and make trouble then this may not be the place for you.

 

[Cavalicious]

I'm not sure there was a point. Oh well, back to cleaning the cage....:yuck: