Pet Stores What do you want to know about pet stores?

I'm just curious, are you going to be publishing your interviews somewhere? If so, I'd love to read them.

I would ask them "Where do you get your animals from?" And if they try to step around the question or come with a sprinkle-coated story, I'd say something like, "So you don't get your animals from mill operations like rainbow exotics that breed animals back to back for profit with no regard to their well-being?"

Something like that to make them sweat and that shows we know and we want the truth. That's just my approach, though.

Honestly I'll be surprised if they agree to speak with you. Good luck!

Agreed. Don't expect to get to speak to entry level sales people, it will be someone in a managerial position. Also, don't expect to get much information from them. They are not required to tell you anything about where they get the animals. It's protected information.

Ask them if they their give guinea pigs veggies. My local Pet Smart appears to (I went yesterday and there were peeled orange pieces in a silver dog bowl that were partially eaten, so I expect there were vegetables, not just fruit).

Yes, I will post there reply's here.

I do believe it is rainbow world that Petsmart and Petco get their animals from.

https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1133

https://www.petsmartcruelty.com/investigation_what_petsmart_knows.asp

https://www.petsmartcruelty.com/campaign_updates.asp

https://www.petsmartcruelty.com/investigation_manchester.asp

https://www.petsmartcruelty.com/photo_gallery.asp

There really isn't too much you can ask them that they will answer, that we already don't know the answers to. You'd do better to print up a pamphlet and hand them out near those stores, that talks about true adoption and not buying from a store that sells live animals. All about C&C cages, etc. The people that have found and come to this site and the likes are well on their way to knowing the truth already. It's the others that need to know.

Good Luck.

Even though I'm not from the US, I'd love to know what their knowledge of basic guinea pig illness is. You know, can they tell when a URI's appearing, or a UTI, things every piggy owner should know the signs of.

My guess is they'll probably ask you to call the corporate office if it's a large chain. Be careful about quoting someone in writing.

@pinky

Trust me I am.

No need to worry for me.

Mind of someone who has worked in customer service for to long kicking it, please do not be mean to the bottom of the rung sales floor employees. Yes they should know better, I have heard bad advice from them about every type of pet out there, it is not good that they are spreading this wrong information. At the same time though, they are not the people who make the corporate decisions about where the pets come from, they likely do not even get a say in what brand of food the pets are fed. That wrong advice they are unfortunately spreading is probably something they heard from some customer who owns that type of pet so they assumed it must me correct, it is not information that the company is telling them to say.

Yes the corporations are in it to sell more product and make more money, but unless there is a pet store chain I am not familiar with that pays their floor staff on commission they get nothing out of selling you more products. They are just trying to do their job. Sorry if this came off at all rude it is just from years for working for big corporations and being yelled at by guests for things I have no control over.

@lost_lover

I had lunch with my uncle and he told me the same thing.

I will not be asking such "Rude" questions. I will just be asking smaller questions.

Thanks.

I recommend approaching a sales floor team member and asking what they where told during training (if they had any) about guinea pig and their care, just to get a rough idea of how they're told to treat the pigs. There's no harm in asking that, they can't really say it's private information because it's the info they'd be passing on to customers, and it doesn't sound rude at all. Can't wait to see what's said!

As someone who works in one of those stores, I can tell you the vast majority of sales people have no idea where the animals come from. In fact, you'll not really get much information out of them. I didn't know until a coworker told me. Rainbow is where they come from.

Alright cool. Just had this awful vision of someone being paid minimum wage being put at fault. That does not sound like what you are planning to do though.

So sorry guys!

I will have these results soon I am just really busy.