The Anti-Pet Store Generalization

[Ly&Pigs]

Forcing opinions down someone else's throat and making them use EXACT perfect grammar and capitalization seems anal to say the least and Hitler-like to say the most.

We don't make members use "exact perfect grammar and capitalization". But we do expect members to use proper capitalization and punctuation as to make the posts legible and easier to read. We have many international members whose first language isn't english and legible proper posting makes it so easier not only for them to read and translate but for us to read as well. This isn't a chat room or a fluff filled, cotton-candied, full of smilies/emoticons forum. This is an adult-oriented forum where members can learn and get advice on all aspects of guinea pig care.

It also isn't the members who get to decide on who gets caged and who doesn't. We mods make that determination on the basis of rules being broken. It's basically all decided by the impaction system these days compared to before that system was put into place.

[NewGuinea]

Originally Posted by PookiesPiggies

I wish I could have laughed. I feel so bad for her girl. She's over the age to have a first litter and she doesn't seem at all bothered by it. I don't want to speculate, but if she's not willing to drive 6 hours to adopt, whats to say she'll spend $400 or more on a c-section. This saddens me. She said we don't care that her pigs are happy and healthy, that is so far from the truth. Im going to say goodnight, hug Caesar, and thank god for giving me the common sense it takes to know that if you place a male with a female, they will reproduce.

Wait a second, I don't mean to be rude, but you're implying that if someone doesn't want to drive 6 HOURS to adopt that they won't pay $400 on a c-section? There is no way that I'd drive 6 hours to adopt a pet, but I have spent thousands on vet bills for the animals I have.

[OSUCavies]

Originally Posted by NewGuinea

Wait a second, I don't mean to be rude, but you're implying that if someone doesn't want to drive 6 HOURS to adopt that they won't pay $400 on a c-section? There is no way that I'd drive 6 hours to adopt a pet, but I have spent thousands on vet bills for the animals I have.

Different strokes for different folks.
I'm sure there are plenty of others that wouldn't do either.

[PiggieMamaKelly]

I wouldn't drive 6 hours for a guinea pig. I probably wouldn't drive more than two or three. But that doesn't mean I would get one from a petstore either. It is manipulative when people talk about a situation as though there are only two options, when there are really three, four, or maybe five or six. I think the real bottom line is that people are too impatient and impulsive to search those options out.

[seagirl96]

If you can get past the anger, you can learn so much here. I started out knowing nothing but fortunately, we have wonderful rescue people here in Connecticut. They do NOT release a piggy who is not healthy and who is for sure not pregnant. I would love to adopt from there but every time I make plans to go adopt one of their piggies, a rejected one in the community finds its way to me. I did buy one female from a really awful pet store when I was a newbie. Do I need to tell you all that she was pregnant? I have her daughter & my son has her other daughter. They are the strangest looking piggies I ever saw but healthy. I do think that some replies in this thread are harsh and I do understand why but anyone who is willing to learn should be helped & educated. I know I made some bad mistakes but have really tried to learn all I can because I love my little buddies.
Maybe you would better understand the anger & hostility you were met with if I tell you an experience I had. I went to a Petno to donate a cage to my local shelter people. They were at Petno to educate the public on the needs of piggies & to make people aware that there are animals available for adoption. Petno went along with this because it was good public relations and because they make their money selling supplies rather than the animals. There has been progress here in CT getting these stores to stop selling the animals because public sentiment is against it. While I was there talking to the rescue people, a man came in & shoved a cardboard pet carrier box at them. Inside this tiny cardboard box were four baby piggies, males & females, not a shred of hay or bedding just terrified animals crammed together. The man was angry because his kid's female piggy kept on "getting herself pregnant". One of the rescue people recognised this man & knew this was the third litter he had dumped. This is pure supidity at its worst.
The happy part of the story is that I had brought in my large (for a pet store) cage, the employees at Petno got some bedding & food and one wonderful customer donated a water bottle and a "chube" tube for them to hide in. They rode off in style to a better place, the shelter. The idiot who brought them was read the riot act by several angry women & warned by the shelter people to separate his female & male because they would never take another piggy from him. That's why we get angry. Because of people like him. I don't know you but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt & hope that you are'nt like that man. Perhaps "mate " was apoorly chosen word. I have two boys who live next door to all the girls. I did catch one girl giving kisses through the fence but that's as far as it has ever gone. If you want to learn to be the best pet owner you can, then this is a good place. Just don't make any throw-away animals & don't encourage others to do so.

[PookiesPiggies]

This weekend I am driving 2 hours to Jacksonville and about just over an hour to Ocala to look at Guinea Pigs that owners just seem to not have time for anymore. It will be alot of driving but I don't look at it as something I'm doing for me. Im doing this for Caesar. I found out from this site that even though I think Caesar is happy, she'd be happier to have a buddy. No drive is to far when it comes to making my girl happy. Call me insane but I've done crazier things in my life for my pets. I don't regret it one bit.

[Hansel]

Gemstone whether or not you realize it, you while working at the pet store were part of the problem that makes pet stores an awful place.

You were selling these poor animals and you have nearly no correct knowledge of them! Anyone who has taken a high school biology class will know that a male and female will breed.

If pet stores are as good as you claim them to be – don’t you think they would have properly educated you about the animals you were selling? You were passing along bogus information to anyone that you sold an animal to. There are too many pet owners that just take the pet stores advice for keeping a pet and guess what? Most of it is wrong!

You say that you are no against rescuing yet it is too much trouble for you to actually look for one. You have to realize that people here FIND ways. They research and connect with people and let me tell you – this is a great place to do so. The internet is a fantastic place that makes those kind of things much easier.

You obviously have a LOT to learn and for that I hope you stick around. You need to step off the defensive and just accept that you have miss-informed about a lot of things. People are here to help you and you will get lots of good advice and your pigs will be all the more happy for it.

[Tonka]

Pet stores give the pets Nyquil or an equivalent so they are calm and cute and cuddly when you hold them. But it's only temporary. PLUS, I know that that is not good for them and they get sick. Pet store critters are a lose lose situation.

[pdqgp]

WOW in just a few days such a response. Now again, this section is the same as other forums...if you can't take the heat...well, you know the rest. Work it through.

As you can see by the end of the first page, many folks here will drive to the ends of the earth to adopt and think anything else is sub-par. Everyone is different and some will some won't, it's just not enjoyed much here if you are the one that won't. That's okay. I join you in saying I didn't adopt, didn't even think about it for a Guinea Pig. Nothing against them, I just didn't want to adopt. I helped run the Boxer Rescue here locally too and didn't adopt. I wanted puppies so my family can enjoy them and I wanted specific ones/types. Some may call that hypocritical, but everyone is entitled to their opinion and actions. I raise them, they are in my house and only I make those decisions for my family.

No one else. No one is perfect nor 100% at anything, but in the case of adoptions/helping boxers, I'm much better than most. I feel the same about my Cavy. I made to call to buy what I wanted, if others disagree, then good, that's what makes the world go-round. This is a forum too, so let the debate go on. Want fire for the kitchen, talk religion and all the scandles in that world. Makes this issue seem small.

I also understand the simple point about your interest coming from your exposure at PetsMart. Perfectly normal. Don't read into it anymore than that regarding the replies. Again, the kitchen is for fire and emotions. Understand your audience and you'll see it's more so here for a number of reasons I don't dare mention.

Petstores selling animals aren't going anywhere. Right or wrong, but trying to make them go away isn't the answer and by small groups in the grand scheme of things not supporting them believing they are going to make that so, isn't realistic. They may influence a change in business structure, but IMO would be best to correct the wrong vs trying to make it go away. Fix the Problem. The whole fight against all the wrong being discussed has to be stopped much farther up the line than at the store level. Debates on message boards towards individuals certainly isn't going to impact anything.

What kills me is that much like all the folks with those frilly ribbons on their cars, supporting our troops or standing up for peace, most actually DO Nothing to support our troops exept by that stupid ribbon and in much the same way, support a store capitalizing on their actions. I stand by my point that if anyone actually wants to support our troops, then pull that silly ribbon off your car and go DO something. Same deal here. This board and it's founder seem to be a good example of Doing something. Many others here however, simply type at their computer and adopt a 1-3 pets and call that their good deed for the day. Kudos to you for the point made regarding starting up a rescue operation.

Regarding the situation you are in, continue learning and reading here. You can't change the past but you can perhaps understand a bit from your experience. If you were given wrong information, where did that come from? Don't blame the source...others here do enough of that. Go do something about it if that's your calling. Then you can come back and ask those that have given you a bad light here what they've done. Challenge them to work with you.

I do think by the nature of this board, emotions run a bit on the higher side than most place. I also must say as an outsider looking in that not all, but surely a handful of folks are casting stones at others without anywhere near an understanding of the person on the other end. Same goes for some hits I've taken. Only one person here as attempted to get to know me as a person. More have asked about my Cavy than me, my background, my family, etc. Email and PM works too. I don't expect these things to be noted on public posts.

My point is undertand that in this section of your board that folks don't come to bash rescuing or tout petstores...perhaps the underlying message is to challenge folks to do something about it. The original posters point wasn't to bash or threaten, it's a request to help both sides understand. She made her point, now educate her in a helpful leadership role. Somewhere along the lines everone became defensive. In fact the very first reponse called her lazy. Way to kick off an informative, educational thread.

[pdqgp]

I know that not to be true as a generalization. Again, I can appreciate the views of pet stores here folks, but don't post mis-information. Not all pet stores do such things. In fact you'd be hard pressed to show me this on a regular basis across the country.

Originally Posted by Tonka

Pet stores give the pets Nyquil or an equivalent so they are calm and cute and cuddly when you hold them. But it's only temporary. PLUS, I know that that is not good for them and they get sick. Pet store critters are a lose lose situation.

[VoodooJoint]

Tonka, post the proof and we'd love to hear it. I have never heard of giving petstore animals Nyquil and doubt it's veracity.

[Hansel]

Most of the time pet store guinea pigs are sick which is why they are so calm.

[pdqgp]

it baffles many much the same way they are in returned baffled that anyone would own 9 Cavies? open up a little bit; there are tons of reasons why folks go to farther extents for dogs and cats vs cavies. that alone is big enough to start a seperate post. it all starts with awareness and education and lack there of in return. not everyone is a cavy guru or surfs the web for days prior to making a decision.

Originally Posted by this_lil_piggy

I never will understand why it baffles people so badly why anyone would drive 3 or 4 hours to ADOPT a pig. But people will drive to the ends of the earth to purchase a killing machine with a pedigree (pit bulls) if they want one badly enough!

[Tonka]

They just sleep ALL THE TIME at first. I can't think of another reason, can you?

[Hansel]

They are SICK. That is usually why.