Pet Stores that have adoption signs

[s_anthony]

Although my local fish store sells Guinea Pigs from a local breeder, they also adopt out animals that are brought to them (not from the breeder) for 20.00 including the cage and anything else that the people leave with the pig. They do not put them back in with the rest of the store animals - they are seperate.

I don't know what everyone personally feels about charging money for adoptions out of stores, however I do know that some of these guys do sit a while, and need care (food, shavings, etc) so I think 20. is reasonable.

[babybunny]

Question is does the money go to the pet store or to a rescue?

[daftscotslass]

Question is does the money go to the pet store or to a rescue?

I asked this very question to my local store that does adoptions and they could not confirm that 100% of the donations went to charity. So, in our case, the chain could be deducting "administration" costs.

[pridecity]

Holy guinea pigs VoodooJoint! I got my Freddie from Cavy Care Inc. The people involved in that organization are great. I wish that there was something we could do for them. Freddie was in perfect health when I adopted him and has been ever since (minus the slight bedding problem).

I wish that every state would be helpful instead of ignoring rescues like Cavy Care Inc.

[Biscuit]

Holy guinea pigs VoodooJoint! I got my Freddie from Cavy Care Inc. The people involved in that organization are great. I wish that there was something we could do for them. Freddie was in perfect health when I adopted him and has been ever since (minus the slight bedding problem).

I wish that every state would be helpful instead of ignoring rescues like Cavy Care Inc.

Another Colorado person! I take my pigs to the same vet as Cavy Care, and always donate to their little box. However, I have a bunch of towels (which may or may not be from hotels), garbage bags, papertowel and toilet paper tubes, etc for them. I have trouble getting a response of when I can come by and drop stuff off.

Any tips?

Most of my pigs come from dumb friend's league or animal control. It's so sad when they get pigs (Denver Municiple Animal Shelter) because they don't know anything about them and only charge $5.

[newpiggiemommy]

Before I found this site I went to all of the petstores in my town. After reading only 3 books about guinea pigs I knew more about the care of the animals than every employee I encountered at the three major chains here in town. I went into the stores to find a guinea pig (before I knew what I know now) and I asked questions. I wanted to know everything I could about the animal I was about to buy. The knowledge I gain from the 3 books told me that the employees were clueless. It made me very sad. And I almost didn't buy one. I ended up at a local store (not a chain) and I was talked into buying two of there pigs. I was assured that they were not like the other stores in town and their pigs were happy. I bought two of them (female) and I suspected from day one that they were pregnant. I was right. The miss handling of the pigs caused them to be pregnant and to top it all off they were too young to handle the pregnancy. One of them had two still born babies about 5 days after I purchased her, and the other one is due at any time. I can only pray she lives through it.

So, is it ok to purchase the pigs from the petstore? No it is not. I thought I was rescueing these pigs and giving them a chance to live a happy life. In reality what I did was open up another two spots for younger pigs to be ordered and live the same horror that my two lived. When I went back to the store to talk to the manager about the situation, she just laughed and said if I want to I can bring the babies back and she will sell them. THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN! I looked in the pen where the piggies were kept and sure enough they got more babies in and two of the females (about 3 months old) appear to be pregnant. All males and females in the same pen! That makes me angry. I wish I never bought mine from them!

[steve_and_pigs]

I haven't read this entire thread, so this point may have already been made.

This is not meant as an argument to support "false adoptions". Pet stores that claim "adoptions" when there is no adoption organization involved, or when the animal was not surrendered by a previous owner, are just lying. I think one previous poster identified himself as a pet store employee, and categorized "sick breeder mill animals unfit for sale" as "adoptions". A bit of a self-incriminating statement. An animal bred for sale is not an "adoption", even if it is sick and the pet store wishes to punt on the cost of treating it. In addition, I don't know any rescue that would adopt out a known-to-be sick animal.

In regards to the thread subject:

Adoption organizations that choose to hold adoption days at pet-selling pet stores do so because that is where every day people go when they are looking for a pet. If the adoption agency was not there, those people are most likely going to buy a pet from the pet store.

An adoption day at such a location is an opportunity to intervene, and educate consumers on the benefits of animal adoption. If the consumer is at the pet store, and considering purchasing a pet, this means that the consumer is probably unaware of the mals behind the scenes. The adoption agency will provide the customer with an immediate option to adopt rather than purchase. More importantly, the information given out by the adoption agency will provide pointers to articles describing the real state of affairs at pet stores. The customers may then educate themselves, and may even talk to their friends and family about it. The customer will also learn what it really means to get a rodent, and may chose otherwise.

This is the very reason that some pet stores don't allow adoption organizations in their stores. They don't want their customers to learn what is going on behind the scenes with their animals. The beginning of this thread talked about a pet store chain which either banished adoption agencies from their locations, or made sure that they were positioned in a way so that they had no real access to the customers. Do you think they are really concerned with missing out on a $30 guinea pig sale, when bags of the bedding cost $25. Do you think they make a lot of money selling $8 hamsters? No. They did not want the adoption organizations providing information to their customers. They don't want customers thinking about the realities and responsibilities of becoming a rodent owner. They want the customer to see how cute they are and spontaneously buy one, so that they can then get on with buying a cage, bedding, bottles, litter boxes, hay, feed, toys, etc.

I understand the point of not wanting to "support the pet store in any way", but I'd argue that forfeiting the opportunity to get direct access to a pet store's customers is supporting them. These customers are not out educating themselves about the need for animal adoption, and the pet store most certainly is not going to inform them. These pet stores are going to continue to do business without check, selling sick and abused animals to the unknowing public, who don't know what they are getting into by getting a rodent.

Granted, there are many means by which the general public can be informed on this issue, such as news media and the Internet. I can see how some organizations might think that the pet store floor is a good one as well.

To frame it another way, what would be the effect if every petsmart and petco in the nation provided genuine store space to the rodent rescue organizations in their area, and access to their customers. Would this improve or retard the overall state of rodent welfare, even if they still sold mill animals as well.

Mill animals are not going to be dealt with by going around and telling people "shame shame" for shopping at a pet stores. I'd advise creating a regulated term, such as "organic" did with food. Come up with something snappy, like "healthy bred". Start breeding in a responsible way. Sell your "healthy bred" pets to responsible pet stores. When somebody asks, "what does healthy bred" mean, you can say, well, they were not raised in a pile of sh!t, like any animal not labeled as "healthy bred" is. Guarantee the health of "healthy bred" animals by taking them back if they are sick for treatment. Imagine that. A breeder that takes back animals. Require that any pet store selling Healthy Bred animals also provide adequate access to local rescue organizations to place adoptions with their customers.

Have a catch phrase: "If it's not 'healthy bred', you might as well have pulled your pet rodent up out of the sewer."