Can you buy and be anti?

You can think you are anti-pet store when buying from pet stores, but by buying supplies from pet stores which sell animals, you are being pro-pet store. If that makes sense

If the pet shop sells animals then yes, you are supporting an organisation that promotes the sale and hence breeding of animals. There are plenty alternatives to buying supplies in such shops - my local pet shop does not sell animals but stocks most things I need. Anything they don't stock they can try and order in (within reason). You can also buy supplies online.

That's what I was thinking, daftscotslass. You just put it into words better than I did

We have a wonderful animal supply store here that I purchase all my piggies staples from. I purchased one of our piggies from a petstore because I just couldn't pass her up. They were having air conditioner problems in the store and she was the only long haired in the cage. She was just sitting in a corner panting (I didn't know piggies panted) but she was. So I asked to hold her and I was hooked. I couldn't walk out that store without her. Normally, I only venture into this pet store when I'm waiting for a perscription from a pharmacy near by.This time I feel there was a reason. I'm soo happy I ventured in there that day because Hazel is a God-send. BèBè and Chelsea were just tolerating each other and Hazel became their peace-maker. Now they are all a family and it is amazing how she turned the other two around.

(I'm not advocating supporting pet stores, just in this case there was a reason behind the purchase. Hope that made sense)

I use feed stores or km for hay and soon maby pellets and critterstore.com for everything else.

I have a good non animal selling store near me that carries everything. Oxbow, Hay, Bedding, toys, etc. I look at it as you are supporting them by "donating" your money to there practice.

i am in sort of a pickle everyone. My brother has a snake (i hate snakes!) and he obviously eats mice. They go to a petstore near us for the mice (WE LOVE PETS) and after my horrible experience there i said that i will not let them go to get mice there anymore. I don't want to go to any petstore for anything, especially a living creature. I have tried numerous ways such as asking if we could breed mice in our house or get them from my friend whose has a few mice that she saved from her mothers lab at university of penn.
I don't want to support petstores be buying mice their, but i have no other choice. Any suggestions?

I live in a small farming town with one feed store that I get my hay from. A neighboring town has two pet stores that sell animals that i could get supplies from, but I would rather make what I need myself or order it online. My personal oppinion is that any money that goes to a pet store that sells animals helps them buy more animals, thus furthering the problem of unwanted animals.

Guinea_Gal said:

i am in sort of a pickle everyone. My brother has a snake (i hate snakes!) and he obviously eats mice. They go to a petstore near us for the mice (WE LOVE PETS) and after my horrible experience there i said that i will not let them go to get mice there anymore. ... Any suggestions?

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I have a rescued snake. Here is a post I wrote about this issue. https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/showpost.php?p=85312&postcount=27

daftscotslass said:

If the pet shop sells animals then yes, you are supporting an organisation that promotes the sale and hence breeding of animals. There are plenty alternatives to buying supplies in such shops - my local pet shop does not sell animals but stocks most things I need. Anything they don't stock they can try and order in (within reason). You can also buy supplies online.

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My thoughts too. A while ago I decided to change the brand of dog food I fed my pups. Initially, the only place I thought I could buy it was from the large pet chain store in our area. I hated buying it there as they sold livestock...all the usual animals and rabbits and buns in together.
Thankfully we now have a local animal feed store that stocks it...so I'm much happier.

Please people, avoid any store/shop thats sells animals...hit them where it hurts and take your business to somewhere that doesn't sell livestock.
Barbara

It helps. Most larger cities have pet stores that don't sell pets, in my city there is a store "The daily pet" that works with shelters / rescues. See if your town has some, and if so, be willing to drive a little farther or pay a little more to suppor the right kind of businesses and not the wrong kind. Ultimately it is your support (buying stuff from their store) and that of others that keeps their businesses profitable and 'alive'.

I needed something from my local Pet Club the other day. I broke down and went in. My new rule, is that for any reason, if I walk into a pet store that sells animals (which is quite rare these days), I'm going to cost them more money by virtue of me walking in AND I will do something to improve the lot of some living creature in there at that moment.

Because of huge prior stinks I have made, they no longer sell cavies or rabbits. But they do sell hamsters, birds, fish, feeder rats, feeder mice and bugs.

This was a pain in the butt visit because I ended up having to spend over an hour in there.

"Why do you have a rabbit water bottle in the mouse cage, the rat cage and the hamster cages. You sell small animal water bottles, right? You see that's what they are for, right?" uh huh. "Well, do you think they can push that huge ball bearing up to drink water with their tiny little tongues? NO. Look at that water bottle! The spicket is buried in the bedding. Do you think the poor mice can even get to the water? You sell the correct water bottles, right? Then, I'll just wait right here while you go get the proper water bottles off your shelf, fill them and replace the bottles on these cages." (Note, I have my cell phone handy and am fully prepared to call Animal Control while I'm standing right there if they refuse.) Now the reason they had the big bottles on the cage was these were aquariums and this water bottle was easy to hook over the edge. The ones they had to install took more of an effort to put on properly. But they were the right ones and the animals were thirsty. While he was busy doing that, I was checking out the fish tanks. I pointed out the tanks wtih the dead fish. And I had him fill the terribly small betta fish bowls. In the past in this store, I've also had them add another cage and reduce by half the number of poor rats in one cage--also causing them to go open new supplies. It's a little thing, but if everyone did that, it would start to make a bigger difference.

I have a rescued snake. Here is a post I wrote about this issue.

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Thanks for the advice. That is what i want to do, breed my own mice. My parents won't go for it. They say 6 pigs is enough and that mice stink. I really don't know what to do?!

Its generally the male mice that stink if you keep 4-5 females in with one male mouse you should be able to breed enough to keep the snake happy for a while, with some left over.

as they get to be the size you need humanely kill them, and than freeze them this way the snake will not get hurt in anyway, that way its an easier death all around, and you don't have too many mice living somewhere.

Now I have a question, being pro pet store does take away from the shelters right, but doesn't anti pet stores take away from the pet store (Yes, I do realise that this is the point.) but what we generally do not think of is the fact that the animals in the pet stores are suffering too by us not giving them homes and keeping them in horrid conditions.

I am in no way saying go out and buy from a pet store, just simply saying that either way unless we get all pet stores out of buisness (which to be honest is never going to happen.), or step up and do something about the pet stores there will always be problems so instead of never setting foot in a pet store maybe you should but do good as someone mentioned they did with the water bottles, and rat cages and betta cups.

Maybe we can talk to the managers when we see something in a pet store that we like, and we want them to continue doing, such as keeping the cages clean, or actually not over crowding the guinea pigs or rats, rather than just complaining about the wrong that they do on message boards?

Almost all feed stores sell rabbits, chicks, and ducks in the spring.

amfeider said:

I use feed stores or km for hay and soon maby pellets and critterstore.com for everything else.

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Funnygpigs said:

Almost all feed stores sell rabbits, chicks, and ducks in the spring.

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I guess I'm lucky in one way because our feed store sells tons of items, and they don't sell any animals. The folks that own this store also own several in surrounding counties, so there are many feed stores here that do not sell animals. They're friendly to the shelter here, and they occassionally have adoptions there. Unfortunately, they're pretty much the only place here for me to buy supplies (aside from a pet store that I don't go to), and they don't carry very much pig stuff, although they do finally have small bags of Oxbow oat and Timothy hay. Now I have to badger them to carry more pig items. Apparently if you nag someone there for at least a year, they will begin to stock certain supplies.

I have no choise to where I get my supplies. The only two petshops near me sell animals. I do go in there as little as possible if can be helped but sometimes I can't do anything about it.

Our feed store sells organic eggs! Sorry...side note. Bromers, sometimes you just have to make a little more effort. We have to travel like 45 minutes to get the hay. Or, you can make some changed. If you are buying bedding from a pet store, then switch to fleece or something similar.