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Hamsters Hamster cage video

LittleSqueakers

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Oh, yes. Hamsters are another example of a small animal that chain pet stores market to consumers as an "easy-to-care-for, starter-pet suitable for young children," when in fact their care and habitat requirements are vastly different from advertised. And then these stores profit off their own misinformation by selling products that fit what they tell people, as well as what they know people will intuitively want to buy.

Certainly, there are some pet stores and some store owners and employees who are better informed on small animal care and are interested in providing ethical, up-to-date information to customers. However, as a general rule: the pet store is NOT an acceptable resource for proper animal care, and products should be purchased ONLY after thorough, independent research! This goes for ALL species, from dogs to beta fish and everything in between! (This ends my public service announcement for today...) lol
 

PiggieLifexoxo

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I have a question, I got my piggies from a pet store, but it wasn't a chain pet store, does this make me a bad person???
 

bpatters

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It doesn't make you a bad person. But it does show that you didn't do sufficient research about guinea pigs before buying them.

Pigs sold in pet stores come from breeding mills, where sows are kept continually pregnant until they're too old to breed, and then they're killed. They're inbred, and often sold sick, mis-sexed, with parasites, and the baby sows are pregnant. They are shipped in horrible conditions. To the pet store, they're just another item to be sold, so when you buy two, they order two more to take their place. You participate in that whole atrocious chain when you buy a pig from a pet store.

On the other hand, when you adopt a guinea pig from a shelter or rescue, you give a home to a homeless pig, and you free up a space for another homeless pig to be taken in.

Do the pet store pigs deserve loving homes? Of course. But there's no end to it. Your "saving" one pet store pig just means another one will be deliberately bred. You save one, you condemn another one just like it. "Saving" a pig from a rescue or shelter doesn't have the same problem.
 

bpatters

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It doesn't matter where you got them. People who sell to pet stores are almost never careful about breeding -- they're in it to make a few dollars and that's it.
 

PiggieLifexoxo

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okay, just checking to see your opinion on that shop
 
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