Rescuing homeless animals is a very good thing to do. But i know petsmart has cat adoption centers in there store too.
What the heck does that have to do about the homeless problems with guinea pigs? It is ok that 1000's of animals are euthanized in shelters every year because Petsmart offers up space to cats?
The point is, why are they homeless? Why can't shelter animals find homes? Is it "possibly" because people selling pets at the store level did not properly indicate what level of care and responsiblity owning pigs involved? Is it because there are just too many pigs in this world? Most pigs are homeless because the owners made an impulsive uneducated decision in a petstore, and they stay homeless because people who actually want to provide good homes to pigs either don't know about shelter animals, or are overcome by the convienance of getting one at a local petstore. More selection, extended hours, usually no background check or questions asked!
If pet stores, like Petco, did not sell guinea pigs, then in just a few years, there would no longer be any homeless pigs! Petco and stores like it are directly responsible for shelter animals dying by flooding the market with surplus guinea pigs... Period.
I don't think your pee sized brain can even handle other reasons not to support petco, like what the mills you get your pigs from do to their breeding stock, the illnesses that plauge petstore pigs, or the money and time it takes for people involved in rescue to clean up Petco's and other stores messes.
Just last week, their was a lady who posted about her pig dying on the Chat forum. She was told by two different stores that Petco (where she bought both pigs from) had neutered them, and it was ok to place the sow with a boar. The end result was pregnancy related complications. After the fact, it was indeed determined, that Petco does NOT neuter all the guinea pigs they sell, and the manager had no idea why the employees where giving that sort of advice. (She has two separate reciepts that show the pigs as having been "neutered".
Yup, definately the happiest place on earth! I wanna be an aquarium pig too!