Shelters What is wrong with pet stores????

caitlinbenosky said:

absolutely nothing. i really don't understand it. people try to argue "you're supporting breeders." oh well. if i don't someone else will. at least if i take them, it will go to a good home - or not sit in a tiny pet store cage.

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That's a very negative way to look at it. You're supporting the cycle by buying live pets from pet stores. No demand = no need for supply. If you don't buy a guinea pig, you'll not be adding to their reason to breed guinea pigs; for money, and if you do buy a guinea pig or other live pet from a pet store, you may be giving it a better life, but what about the animal that gave birth to it? You're not doing anything good for her. In fact, you're just putting her through even more pain.

I would like to add to what @labgirl5 said then after you buy the pig they'll just add another and another and more sows will die.

@caitlinbenosky, you might be interested in where those big chain store pets actually come from. The animal rescues in the Dallas area were absolutely overwhelmed when Rainbow World Exotics (THE major supplier of PetCo and PetSmart) was shut down.

ETA: Thanks, @MochaAndMoo, for the reminder. It is VERY graphic, but if you support animal sales in pet stores, you need to see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOsXfetMfjM

There are many videos you can find and it is horrible. Every video I've seen I can never finish.

bpatters said:

@caitlinbenosky, you might be interested in where those big chain pets actually come from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOsXfetMfjM

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Just a warning, the video is very graphic and not for the faint of heart. But certainly makes a better statement than any of us can with words.

I honestly couldn't handle at the end where they said the animals die when their watering systems malfunction. I could never be brave enough to work undercover in such a hate filled warehouse. I have no words to even explain my feelings about this. As my brother would say, "There's a special place in Hell for those types of people." How do you not see that it is obviously wrong, and why would you take the job if you're not into animals which these people clearly aren't! Why does money matter so much to people that they would stoop SO LOW to do this. It angers me. It truly does. How someone came up with this idea to breed animals like this I have no clue. I hate when people say "Abby you're spoiling your pigs" or "They eat better than you!" I just look at them and tell them thats the way they are supposed to be treated. @caitlinbenosky did you know they pile pigs into boxes and ship them across country? Often they are mis-sexes & have terminal illnesses then those pigs die and cause people to buy more sick pigs. Just wondering, would you want your pig to be bred endlessly until it died and have its babies shipped out in horrible conditions and those baby pigs would either die or be taken care of by people who are completely oblivious to the way animals should live?

One of the reasons @PiggieWigglies why I prefer animals over people. People just erk me to no end (one of the nicest ways I can put it).

Having run a rescue for the past 9 years, I've had the opportunity to listen to many first hand accounts of people who bought their guinea pigs from the big chain pet stores. Yes, it is possible to get a healthy, non-pregnant guinea pig from a pet store but I have heard so many sad stories about guinea pigs purchased from there. Just today, we sadly lost an adorable pup with pneumonia that one of the pet stores had surrendered to a vet because they didn't want to treat it. We've heard countless stories of piggies with mites, lice, upper respiratory infections,pneumonia, mis-sexing, pregnancy or a combination of the above. One of the worst stories was from someone who purchased 2 pups for their kids for Christmas. One died on Christmas Eve, the other died in the kid's hands on Christmas Day. Whenever someone tells me that their piggy was pregnant when they got them, or had mites, URI or whatever, I ask them if they got the piggy from one of the big pet stores and the answer is usually yes. But there are healthy ones that come from there too.
TO make matters worse in our area, the big pet stores are now selling cuy, without really knowing what they are. We're seeing so many wild cuy end up in the shelters. One lady just emailed me to see if she could surrender her two guinea pigs to me because despite all their attempts at socializing, the piggies were still real wild. When I described cuy to her, she said that's exactly what she has. She had no idea when she bought them.

I can agree with that my star was healthy and not pregnant granted he turned out to be a male but for 5 years we thought he was a girl. Which supports the fact pet stores often miss sex pigs.

Guys take that video with a grain of salt. It is PETA which are drama queens and tend to overdo it without knowledge of the subject. Their stance on carriage horses is a great example of that.

Also please note that if that PETA member really cared she'd have called in a Humane Society with proof of her vidoes so that place would be shut down.

Yes that one is bad. But not all our bad. My local Petsmart gets its rodents from a local breeder and they are not housed like that. So please don't generalize all Pet Shops. Its what gives this forum a bad name

@PiggieWigglies, you make a great point about the way they're treated and 'shipped' as if they're cargo. It's akin to the way slaves were packed in boats and treated as cargo, and developed terminal illness during the journey. They're seen as produce, replaceable, not worthy of humane treatment.

So, lets look at it this way;

Jack and Sally want two guinea pigs. Jack and Sally are browsing the web, looking for some care information, and they stumble across this thread, where they're given the impression 'Might as well buy from a pet store, if I don't, someone else will anyway', so they go to the pet store and they get two guinea pigs, that they call Pip and Squeak. The back story of those guinea pigs is as follows; born in deplorable conditions, their mother died birthing them, and they weren't fed any essential foods such as vegetables during their critical development stage at the breeding mill. They're then packed in to a crate big enough to comfortably fit 10 pigs, but 30 are in the crate. They're nipped, scratched, peed and pood on for lets say 2 hours on the way to the pet store. They arrive, are not checked over, and are then crammed in to a space not fit for 3 pigs, but 7 are in there of various sexes. Pip and Squeak are both girls, and are impregnated by the male pups they're housed with. Pip and Squeak give birth 10 weeks after Jack and Sally bought them home, but only Pip makes it.

So, let's ask ourselves; When Jack and Sally bought those pigs, what did the pet store hear? They heard 'We approve of you and your breeders practises, continue with them', instead of hearing nothing, because Jack and Sally looked on guineapigzone and adopted instead. If the message of adopt, don't shop, gets spread like this, the pet stores will get their message loud and clear, with a resounding silence of no purchases that condone their practises. It takes time to spread the message. But if you don't try, you might as well be treating pigs like that yourself, because that's what you're approving when you knowingly purchase a pet store animal.


ETA - @Rain Shadow, if you look back toward the start of the thread, you'll note that regardless of how a pig is bred, the death rate is still 1 in 5, and it still adds to the amount of homeless pigs in shelters being PTS because someone went to a pet store instead.

I live and work at a dog rescue so I'm very much aware of how to find rescued animals, and I don't see the whole 'overcrowded guinea pig' situation that the rest of you seem to see.

I live in Florida. Check us out on Guinea Pig Zone. Not a single pig will pop up. We also only have one rescue in the whole state that I can find. And when I checked last week their was not a single guinea pig on Pet Finder. I also work closely with shelters and I've asked and they say they rarely seen more then one or two pigs a year.

So in my area you don't find rescues. And a breeder is a perfectly good option. Not all of us have access to rescues. So don't shame people for buying from a responsible pet store.

Im not really hating on pet stores some actually care and get their pet's from rescues. I mean not any around me per say but I have heard people say their pet stores have rescue pigs. I don't think it happens very often but I believe it can happen. I'm from a small town so you've gotta factor that in most places near me are commercial places.

Rain Shadow said:

I live and work at a dog rescue so I'm very much aware of how to find rescued animals, and I don't see the whole 'overcrowded guinea pig' situation that the rest of you seem to see.

I live in Florida. Check us out on Guinea Pig Zone. Not a single pig will pop up. We also only have one rescue in the whole state that I can find. And when I checked last week their was not a single guinea pig on Pet Finder. I also work closely with shelters and I've asked and they say they rarely seen more then one or two pigs a year.

So in my area you don't find rescues. And a breeder is a perfectly good option. Not all of us have access to rescues. So don't shame people for buying from a responsible pet store.

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I bought my first two guinea pigs from a breeder. This breeder was the absolute most reputable around, he was extremely popular and talked about in the cavy showing community and referred to often.
Despite this, one of the pigs I bought had severe bloat and dehydration as well as a mouth abscess, the other had scurvy.
Now, after that ordeal, I adopted my next pig (after educating myself a great deal). She had not one health problem.

I bet that if you were to post what city you lived in, we could easily have found you a pig to adopt. There are plenty of rescues in Florida, and there are several members from Florida on this site who adopted their pigs. Whether it be re-homing, or from a rescue.

@Rain Shadow Cavyspirit does not allow PETA bashing on the forum. Even though your petsmart may not be supplied by mills, it's still a chain store and when you buy animals from them, the money goes to a corporation that supports horrific mill breeding.

Quick question what is PETA?

Starthecavy123 said:

Quick question what is PETA?

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Its a large animal welfare organisation.

Seriously? We can't insult PETA? I'm sorry but everyone in the horse world hates them. And most dog rescues do too.

Do you guys realize they are against No-kill shelters and they have a 98% kill rate in their own shelters? They are famous for lying and faking images to get more attention.

I'm now thinking of leaving this forum for this. I don't want to be associated with PETA any way.

Being on the forum doesn't mean you have to be affiliated with PETA, but you do have to respect the forum policies, which you should have read before/right after you joined. I don't care much for them either but you don't have to insult them publicly to dislike them. If you have an issue with the policy, take it up with Cavyspririt, but until then, you need to respect it.

Again, we don't associate with Peta. It's a rather controversial subject, so we forbid any negative comments towards the organisation (which is what you're currently doing). I myself am not for a lot of their practices, but this isn't the place to discuss it.