Pet Stores Pet Supermarket?

If they don't use breeding mills, it's possible they have a private breeder - not that that's any better.

Either that or they just TELL the employees they don't get from breeding mills so they don't accidentally say it to customers.

Either way, I'm fairly sure they aren't rescue pigs. The money goes right back into their pockets.

Oh, no doubt. My store stopped selling guinea pigs and rabbits all together, I'm hoping that means that they'll stop with pets all together.

A girl can dream, right?

CavyMama said:

If they don't use breeding mills, it's possible they have a private breeder - not that that's any better.

Either that or they just TELL the employees they don't get from breeding mills so they don't accidentally say it to customers.

Either way, I'm fairly sure they aren't rescue pigs. The money goes right back into their pockets.

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2198lindsey said:

I can't decide if this was true or if she was just brainwashed to think so and the store is upping on the fact that some people are catching onto the idea of pet mills.

Does anyone know about PetSupermarket? I can't find anything but Petco, PetSmart, Pets at Home and stuff like that.

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I don't know that there are that many pet mills operating anymore in this country, honestly.

Most large pet stores have a third party wholesaler that is a go between for the store, who contacts private breeders and negotiates a deal, usually, to buy the animals the breeder can't sell or don't need themselves so that they can be picked up and sold by the larger pet stores. It's a "good deal" for the pet store and for the private breeder - the pet store gets animals at a low cost and the breeder offloads some animals they were otherwise stuck with, but it's this method that leaves pet stores (or their employees) saying that they don't buy from mills, but rather private breeders. It's not untrue, but it's not as though they are acquiring their animals from small, private breeders who breed with regard to health or to any care standard at all, either. However, "private breeder" usually sounds better to potential buyers than "pet mill."

People think of pet mills as big warehouse type operations or large dog breeding operations. However, it's all a matter of perspective I guess.

A small hamster/rat/guinea pig/etc breeder that just does it out of their home to supply to local pet stores might not consider themselves a "mill" but they are still breeding for profit and adding to overpopulation in many cases. I don't think there is a magic number that turns a home breeder into a mill-KWIM?

Some of these "home breeders" are very knowledgeable and take good care of their animals, others not so much, as we've seen many times. The stores don't see behind the scenes in most cases and as long as they are getting fairly healthy animals, they don't question them.

I knew a hamster breeder where I used to live and he supplied to the local mom/pop pet stores. He certainly wasn't getting rich off the venture and had done it for almost 20 yrs. I saw his "mill" and it was clean, well ventilated, and the animals were healthy and were kept in large bins (which is not uncommon for hamsters).
I say "mill" because he had close to 100 hamsters but that's nothing compared to a true animal breeding venture.
Was he a bad guy? I'm not going to judge if it was right or wrong of him, but at least the animals were well cared for.

@RubyRain If you can't stop them it's always better to hear that they're doing it in a better fashion, right?

@Paula Ah, that makes sense. I was confused. There was a missing link there that didn't make sense to me.

When you say there aren't many in the U.S., do we know where the majority are?

As for where pet stores get their animals, I think the majority of the small animals and birds come from the private breeders like I mentioned above. I don't know that there really are "mills" that run as mills, but rather as "private breeders" that may have hundreds of animals. I know there is an exotic reptile setup that very much resembles a mill in Texas, or there was a couple years ago - I don't know if it's still operating and the warehouse that was running on that scale breeding mammals has dismantled and sold out, I believe, but I'm not positive. I know there are farms or ranches for animals that are bred and raised for fur, and I know that at least with chinchillas, they occasionally sell through wholesalers the same way the smaller breeders do, but they would be considered more of a ranch than a mill, I think.

Many Amish communities still run puppy mills on their farms and probably don't consider themselves a mill but I've seen the conditions the dogs are kept in. Stacked filthy cages with multiple dogs to a cage meant for one. Kept outdoors in the elements. It's nauseating.

@CavyMama That's interesting. I'm going to look that up.

I heard that they don't use mills to supply, either. They're actually a pretty knowledgeable chain, from my experience. They train their employees pretty well, and they always answer questions about the history and prior health of individual animals. They're not experts or anything, but they do seem to care for their animals. The one near me uses several local breeders, and won't take more than a few of each breed on at any one time, and they won't get rid of animals that are beyond that adorable baby stage. They don't have a huge selection of small pet things, at mine at least, but they tend to know what their products are, and even warn against certain ones that are advertised as safe. I once when into my PetSupermarket, and some girl was about to buy a giant rolly ball for her pig, and the sales guy gave her a full lecture about how to never ever ever use those with her pig. Whether that was just an informed sales associate or if that was employee training, I don't know, but it was nice to see in a chain pet shop. Mine also has signs on all those expensive yogurt and seed based treats to warn customers that they aren't safe for all small animals.

I honestly wonder where you all are getting your information that there are no pet mills anymore? That stores buy from private breeders? None of the big distributors that supply the vast majority of pet stores have gone out of business that I'm aware of. Someone please update me on this new information. Please include business names and locations. Thanks.

There's a local pet shop near me which occasionally has animals for adoption. It's mostly pet supplies.