Adopt vs. Buy reasons people may choose to buy from petstore as opposed to adopting

[Mama&Baby]

I live in a rural area and, even with all I'm learning about guinea pigs, I still find them a very affordable

You live in the same area I do. It's not so rural that you can't drive even a little distance to find a good shelter.

 

[guineapig67]

correct me if I'm wrong, but if there is a pet store near your home, there is a shelter. and you will just have to wait until they get guinea pigs

 

[CavyMama]

correct me if I'm wrong, but if there is a pet store near your home, there is a shelter. and you will just have to wait until they get guinea pigs

I'm not sure that's necessarily true (pet store in town = shelter in town). We used to have a pet store in our town (they ended up closing) but I adopted from a guinea pig rescue (Critter Corral) that is over 2 hours away.

 

[chinchiller]

There are two reasons in my area that it happens. The first is ignorance. Our area's shelter only has one or two pigs at a time. If you went around and asked fifty people if they knew pig rescues existed, 49 would give you a look of bewilderment and the last one might have heard vague mention somewhere.

The second is convenience. In rescue lists, there's one in the area, but the email is dead and no one answers the phone. The next closest is three hours away. I don't have piggies yet, but I'll be driving there to get them (it does help that I have family up there though). Why drive hours away when you can drive 15 minutes to Petsmart? There's just little motivation to go through all that effort and it's just pure laziness.

 

[guineapig67]

I wish I didn't say that I wish I had guinea pigs in a shelter near me. Right now there is a guinea pig (unknown gender) and a boy guinea pig about 4 months old. And in a city 2 1/2 hours away is 2 girls and they are mixed. I want to adopt them next weekend if they are still there!

 

[piggy love]

People may buy from stores because it is more convienent (driving to a store is probably shorter than to a shelter.)