It’s disgusting how pet stores treat their so called “pets”. Just when it couldn’t possibly get ANY worse than the large chain stores, in walk the little people who think they are going to make a difference. Did you make a difference? No you make it f’ing worse! Not even local owned independent stores who claim to be the bees knees are responsible enough to make a difference. They make it worse. SPCA and animal control need to get off their asses, do their job and remove all the animals from the overcrowded jail cells in these stores run my pompous idiots. Your reptiles are emaciated and dehydrated. Your overcrowded rodents are eating each other! And your employees are simply street hired circus clowns who know nothing about providing adequate care to their “stock” or even educating the public. —Anonymous
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2011.
It is nice to see you have a heart, but the fact is, we are human, the top of the food chain, and the king of the jungle. We eat all animals and insects we can find and when we find animals we don’t want to eat, we make them our pets and treat them like little dolls and dress them up and lock them in cages when they get loud or stinky or a pain in the ass. We don’t care enough to do anything about it because realistically we don’t care enough about things that can’t take care of themselves.
Most people own a pet because it becomes the one living thing in this world they can trust to be just what they are, stupid enough to love the person who feeds them.
I went into one of these stores to buy a new wheel for my hedgehog (purchased from a reputable breeder) and what did i see but hedgehogs in cages with SHAVINGS inside (never EVER should shavings be used for a hedgehog) no toys or wheel and two in a cage (hedgehogs are NOT supposed to live with one another outside infancy – they’re like siamese fighting fish.. they fight! They’re solitary!)
It broke my heart to pieces. I wanted to take them all home but i can’t afford to give them all THE CARE THEY REQUIRE.
>:(
what place is this?
oh and the pet store lights were on ALL night. Hedgies (and many other animals in that store) are nocturnal and will not emerge to eat or play if there is too much light. And it was cold in there! Hedgehogs hibernate if the temperature gets too low and that hibernation is fatal if not treated immediately.
It’s ridiculous.. they claim to be experts and send folks home with animals and no one knows jack shit about how to care for this little life..
Paingirl, where i got my wheel? PetsUnlimited.
I will NOT EVER shop there again. I was absolutely broken hearted. The animals looked healthy enough but none were getting the proper care.. dogs in tiny pens, wtf??
thanks ik, no i meant what place anon was talking about. i won’t shop at pu
I 100% agree, I won’t even go I to PU because I know if I do I’ll be removed from the property for causing a disturbance. The last time I went there I saw an adult dog moping in a dirty cage with no food or water with a pricetag of 1400 dollars. These pet chains should be smudged of the face of the planet and the owners and shareholders made to live in dirty cages and taken care of by teenagers.
Pet stores are also one of the biggest offenders of supporting puppy mills, and as the laws become more strict in western provinces the mills are moving east where our animal rights laws are too slack.
Good 🙂 That’s good to hear.
It’s hard because when you go in, you want to buy an animal to save it.. I’ve often thought about cleaning out their hedgehog supply if they agree never to purchase hedgehogs again..
“Puppies! Get Them While They Last!!!”
– sigh at Charlottetown Pets Unlimited
Unless the gov’t regulates the piss out of these places, I agree OB.
I sincerely believe one of humankind’s great things is that we love animals so much we bring them into our homes and love them like family members. (yes, I know we also treat them poorly sometimes)
It makes me sad when popular culture makes certain breeds trendy. Some people I know used to bring their pug everywhere. I haven’t seen it in a year. And for corn’s sake, let little dogs be dogs. Stop carrying them everywhere, and please let them interact with other dogs. You’re making the little bastards batshit crazy.
That’s not cute.
/tangent
Yes, it should be illegal for these places to sell animals.
I thought by now everyone knew that hedgehogs don’t get along….
http://scratch.mit.edu/static/projects/Mas…
You definitely don’t want to get on the bad side of one, because they do hold a grudge.
http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivation…
Oh!!! No!!! I thought that was over!!!
People out shopping and impulse buying what should be a 2 or 15 or 60 (parrots) year commitment
– only to tie it up out back or close it in to the basement 24/7 when it isn’t cute any more
– only to open the door and let it go if it sharpens it’s claws on the furniture or pees on the floor because it’s in distress of some kind
– or abandon it when they move because they can’t be bothered finding a place that accepts pets or a proper loving home for it
Or parents giving in to whiny kids and then teaching the kids that – no problem! pets are disposable! when they get tired of it….
Ahhhhh! BOYCOTT!!!!!
me too http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/na…
Ugh. I hate going inside those places. I don’t like zoos, either. A few years ago, my niece dragged me to a chain pet store in Florida, an there was an adolescent grey FOX for sale, ffs! listless and on its side…
Hey, why not spend a few hours protesting outside with signs one day?
i find zoos very sad, i can’t stand looking at the primates. they look back at you with pleading eyes
I remember when I got a Hamster and the clerk told me it was a male.
I got the hamster home and found out it was a female. Each day the hamster keep getting bigger.
Then one day I felt movement in her belly. So I figured out pretty quick I got a prego hamster.
But I keep her anyway cause she was cute and I knew how to take care of the babies.
A week after taking my new hamster home she had her babies.
The people who work in the pet stores genually don’t have a clue about how to take care of animals and appently can’t tell the gender either.
http://www.hsi.org/world/canada/news/relea…
it’s funny, for some reason I was thinking about this exact subject the other night.. no idea why, pet stores just popped in my head, haven’t been in one in years. I swear they treat the animals poorly on purpose so people feel sorry for them and take them in.
On another observation. When my parents got there dog we went to pick it up from the owner. The owners dog ended up prego and they had 13 puppies. So they were just giving the puppies away. The puppies were very healthy and had a good environment. The only thing my parents had to do was get the dog her shots and fixed. Moral is if they got the dog from PU she would have been worse off.
I stopped going to PU for this reason as well. I used to go there all the time as a child and look at the animals and dream of the day I wouldn’t be stuck in a house with humans with allergies! When I would go into PU when I was older it just broke my heart… the staff working there were fucking 16-year-old tools that couldn’t take care of their own laundry, let alone A LIFE. I was looking at the puppies and some other man that was there with his son was asking one of the babystaff how often they walk the dogs and the guy was like “Like twice a day around the store”. FUCKING DISGUSTING. I now go to the pet store on Spring Garden and sometimes the one in Dartmouth Crossing. They don’t have puppies and the cats they have there are from the SPCA and require you to fill out an application for the animal, just as you would at the SPCA. I’m thinking about getting another kitteh soon 😀 My little orange man gets lonely!
“street hired circus clowns:” = NSCAD grads
just a sec here, they actually sell pets in a pet store. what a wonderful fucking idea. damn, and here i thought they only sold playboy/girl mags.
what the fuck do you think the sign means o.p.? do you go to a bar, and order a fudge sundae? give it the fuck up, as long as there are people out there to buy, they will have animals to sell them. i don’t go along with some of the shit in them, but there is no law as yet, that says you cannot sell an animal to someone else.
yes, spca does sell pets, in a way, but their prices are worse than these pet stores you speak of. and get this, i worked for them in bridgewater years back. i was one of the people taking care of complaints about neglect and shit. don’t even get me started on who i believe should have any type of animal. my number one pet peeve, is people wh buy the huge fucking dogs, and keep them cramped up in a little fucking apartment all the time. or those that leave them chained outside, in all kinds of weather. let me fucking do the last on you, douchebags.
those pet stores charge exorbitant prices for *pure bred* dogs, i can smell the sickness when i walk in. they often have parvo and other ailments and they do come from mills. trust me sucks, i know this stuff
I used to like to go to PU to look at the animals, til I noticed one little doggie, I think maybe he was deranged from lack of meaningful socialization and boredom and he was just repeatedly throwing himself against the wall of his tiny enclosure. If they’re going to sell dogs they should shell out some extra money and put the dogs in larger enclosures for fucks sake. Also the town where I grew up had a small monkey in the store that was there forever, I don’t know if he was finally bought or if maybe he just hanged himself. But he was doing the same thing, walking up a stick, tapping the glass with his hand, walk back down the stick, walk back up the stick, tap the glass, repeat. Every time I ever went in there that was all he was ever doing and he was there for like years. Poor little dude…
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Let me do tge fucking last on you, douchbags
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I love you, Gary, but sometimes it looks like you write random words on dice, shake the Boggle cup, and throw a sentence.
Translator!!!
socialization is so important for dogs but they are domesticated. if you go to enough zoos you will see many wild animals doing repetitive motions, they are bored and it’s very depressing
the last was meant to be tied out in a yard, in all kinds of fucking nasty weather, heat, cold, wet, whatever. i would dearly love to do that to some of these so called dog owners. they need a real good taste of reality in the care of their pets. i saw some real shit, when i worked with south shore spc. there were starving horses, dogs cats, even ducks and chickens. i took most of them to my place in camperdown, and let them lie out the rest of their lives there. and this was at my own expense. when the shelter closed there, before shade tree took over, i had 36 ducks, 45 chickens, 4 goats, 5 horse, and a ton of cats, and about 30 dogs. had to build special holding areas for the males and females.
they had their own building, complete with a propane furnace, and yes, even running water.plenty of food, and were groomed by my self, and my ex, every single day. horses ridden, and all the extras that goes with responsible pet ownership. i have had more awards and commondations from spca, shade tree, bridgewater chamber of commerce, the people and police. when an animal was adopted, i made sure you fit a certain criteria, if not, you did not get one of my friends.
you could adopt a human child easier, than getting an anial from moi.some of the most wonderful people, got these, all ready to go, in excellent health, and all needled, and ready to be rehomed.
had one old horse, that was about 18, he died two weeks before christmas one year, and i was miserable as fuck, til middle of january.
Last time I was I a pet store it was to buy crickets for my daughters lizzard (& no , I have no bloody idea what type it is)
IT really hurt my feelings to see the puppies in the little glass fronted boxes. Although the Aquariums looked well maintained & the fish looked healthy. The birds were all calling & several were out of their cages, sitting on perches & adding to the noise..but the puppies (& kittens for that matter looked sad & neglected) & cramped.
But what are you going to do ?
You can’t let them run loose through the store.
You can’t have them open to the public so every sick , sniffling kid & adult can paw all over them… & its a fact, people want pets.
I have bought dogs from breeders, I have got them from friends & family & on 2 occassions from the pound (once was an absolute disaster) but you never know when you take a dog home from a pound that has probably been abused, just how it will act. OR what problems it may have.
My ex wanted kittens for the kids on a couple of occassions & we went to the pound for them. Its tough enough trying to explain to your child why theeeiiir cat hasn’t come home, its even worse when you have to put it down.
Yes, pet stores can be quite depressing especially seeing those animals which need space such as dogs, cats or birds confined. If one is thinking about getting a pet to “teach their child about responsibility”, be ready to look after the creature yourself because children are notoriously fickle and don’t have the best attention span. Not a knock against kids, just the way it is.
I have a great respect for all members of the animal kingdom including ourselves. It’s tough for me to understand why people neglect or abuse other living things that did nothing to them. We owe our existence to the millions of species that have inhabited the planet since the life took hold here. Mammals evolved their physiology (endothermy, hair, stereoscopic vision for example) to exist on a planet dominated by dinosaurs and when the dinos were obliterated by a big chunk of space rock, they were the best adapted to rapidly populate the planet.
We wouldn’t have ever come to be without the dinosaur’s demise IMO.
So we should exercise a little compassion not to mention humility. Show an interest in the species you’re purchasing. Research it. Give it as fulfilling a life as you are able. Ask if you have the time, money and energy to do these things. If not, go buy a video game or something.