Would You Buy From A Petstore?

[moosepup]

Is anyone else finding it increasingly difficult to find an animal supply store that doesn't sell animals?

I buy BARF patties from Better Pets & Gardens (only place I can find them) but they have just recently started selling birds/fish/rabbits etc. So far I'm struggling to find any that don't sell any animals at all without having to drive hours out of my way.

[manlynau]

I buy my dryfood online .. human grade mince, chicken necks etc from Coles. anything else we have a petbarn closeby ..

[~Shepherd~]

I hate the sale of live animals in pet shops and dont support puppy farms, but how the hell would registered breeders support the demand for dogs in todays society? Become puppy farms themselves?

Whats the solution?

[HugUrPup]

I have 4 pet supply stores that don't sell dogs and 2 that do, all really close by. The only place I could find a clicker today was at one of the ones that does sell dogs and cats

I'm still really angry at the no puppy farms signs. They'd stoop to any level to sell live stock. Surely their food, toys, collars, books and beds would bring in enough dosh?

[~*Shell*~]

NO I do not buy anthing from pet shops that sell animals

Same here. I refuse to give them a cent.

Ditto. Here's why:

My cockatiel Lucius is from pet's paradise. When I was in high school, my friend worked in the local PP and kept telling me about this bird. He had his wing clipped, was kept on one of those open perches and constantly had people poking him and trying to pat him. He became completely hand shy and one day while I was walking past PP when he jumped off the perch, trying to fly away from a child who was annoying him and hit the floor face first. He had a bloody nose and was obviously dazed so I picked him up and put him in a cage. My friend told me that he was about to be "let go" because they couldn't sell him. He was over a year old (he'd been in the store for a year) and lived in the PP store for nearly that entire time. The day my friend was supposed to let him go, she gave him to me. He's still hand shy and hates everyone but me. PP completely ruined him. If he acted the way he is with me with everyone else, he'd be the perfect pet.

Fast forward 2 years and I got Remy. Same story as Lucius but he was moved from PP store to PP store (he ended up in the same PP store as Lucius) and my friend brought him to me when her manager told her to take him out to the carpark and let him go - he's now nearly 6 and he is so strange. He's kind of neurotic. I've never met a bird like him. Strange things frighten him, he randomly attacks the air around him when nothing has changed or moved, he will walk up to Lucius when he's sleeping and jump on him, he adores rope swings and perches but won't jump on a normal stick.

2 months before my 21st birthday, a kitten landed on my doorstep in a cat carrier with a birthday card attached. He was a suprise present for my birthday. I have a siberian husky who likes to try and eat cats. I had never wanted a cat and suddenly I had one. Mow was very sick, he had fleas, worms and was insanely thin. A week or so later we got a phone call from a vet - he was overdue for his vaccinations. I found out he was a lot older than he looked - the vet had given him his first injection at 6 weeks and he had only gained like 200grams in 6 weeks - at that age he should have been gaining 150grams a week. The person who bought him for me was able to walk into a store without my knowing, put my details on his microchip without knowing if I even wanted a cat or could care for one, and noone at the store bothered to check. The reason he was thin and sick was because the pet shop didn't give him the care he needed.

I would never EVER give my money to a store like that and the sad thing is that the vast majority of pet stores that sell animals don't care about their welfare. It makes me sick to think of what my gorgeous boys went through and I could hurt the people who did that to them. Luckily both of those stores have shut down but one of them has been replaced by another store that sells a lot of designer mutts.

[Parkeyre]

No one here will support you. This is a purebred forum.

[moosepup]

NO I do not buy anthing from pet shops that sell animals

Same here. I refuse to give them a cent.

Ditto. Here's why:

My cockatiel Lucius is from pet's paradise. When I was in high school, my friend worked in the local PP and kept telling me about this bird. He had his wing clipped, was kept on one of those open perches and constantly had people poking him and trying to pat him. He became completely hand shy and one day while I was walking past PP when he jumped off the perch, trying to fly away from a child who was annoying him and hit the floor face first. He had a bloody nose and was obviously dazed so I picked him up and put him in a cage. My friend told me that he was about to be "let go" because they couldn't sell him. He was over a year old (he'd been in the store for a year) and lived in the PP store for nearly that entire time. The day my friend was supposed to let him go, she gave him to me. He's still hand shy and hates everyone but me. PP completely ruined him. If he acted the way he is with me with everyone else, he'd be the perfect pet.

Fast forward 2 years and I got Remy. Same story as Lucius but he was moved from PP store to PP store (he ended up in the same PP store as Lucius) and my friend brought him to me when her manager told her to take him out to the carpark and let him go - he's now nearly 6 and he is so strange. He's kind of neurotic. I've never met a bird like him. Strange things frighten him, he randomly attacks the air around him when nothing has changed or moved, he will walk up to Lucius when he's sleeping and jump on him, he adores rope swings and perches but won't jump on a normal stick.

2 months before my 21st birthday, a kitten landed on my doorstep in a cat carrier with a birthday card attached. He was a suprise present for my birthday. I have a siberian husky who likes to try and eat cats. I had never wanted a cat and suddenly I had one. Mow was very sick, he had fleas, worms and was insanely thin. A week or so later we got a phone call from a vet - he was overdue for his vaccinations. I found out he was a lot older than he looked - the vet had given him his first injection at 6 weeks and he had only gained like 200grams in 6 weeks - at that age he should have been gaining 150grams a week. The person who bought him for me was able to walk into a store without my knowing, put my details on his microchip without knowing if I even wanted a cat or could care for one, and noone at the store bothered to check. The reason he was thin and sick was because the pet shop didn't give him the care he needed.

I would never EVER give my money to a store like that and the sad thing is that the vast majority of pet stores that sell animals don't care about their welfare. It makes me sick to think of what my gorgeous boys went through and I could hurt the people who did that to them. Luckily both of those stores have shut down but one of them has been replaced by another store that sells a lot of designer mutts.

Are you still close with this person?? That's outrageous!

[~*Shell*~]

Are you still close with this person?? That's outrageous!

Nope - he was an exchange student I went to uni with. I wasn't close with him at all - he once asked me about my animals and I laughed and told him all I needed now to complete the menagerie was a llama or a kitten. The card mentioned something about the llama so I assume it was him. Noone else I know would be that stupid. I never saw or spoke to him again after he gave me Mow - I have no contact details for him (i didn't even have a phone number for him) and he's not on anything like facebook. He just dropped him off on my doorstep when I was in class. I don't even know how he got my address.

Edited April 10, 2010 by ~*Shell*~

[Elsha_UK_AU]

I look in the local pet store when I walk past and my heart goes out to the puppies in there but I would never buy one from a pet store. About a year ago, there were 2 very miss marked Cavalier King Charles Spaniels in the window.....I sent hubby in out of morbid curiosity to see how much they were. $995....

I would expect to pay roughly that from a breeder and for my money get papers, proof of clear heart and other breed prevalant issues and develop a relationship where by questions could be asked back and forth to determine that we were a right fit for the pup and vice versa.

I walked away that day nearly in tears as I had never seen a CKCS in a pet store and it made me so sad. One sold right away whilst we were shopping but the other one was still there a week later. A colleague from work bought a CKCS from a petstore and within 2 days was at the vet and it was determined that the pup was very very sick and in fact, ended up dying. It wasn't parvo, I am not sure what it was.

So to answer your question, Yes my heart goes out to the puppies, I cry inwardly when I see pups marked down or "Make us an offer" if they have been there for a few weeks....but I walk away knowing that I cannot support a store that sells live animals.

Susan

[Guest acb123]

No one here will support you. This is a purebred forum.

I think you might have missed the point. I don't want people on here to "support me" because I want to support pet stores that sell pets.

I was here venting about my sadness at the situation & wishing I could save the pup from people expressing an interest in what looked like a temporary ownership of the pup.

Like I said, I'm on the list of reputable breeders & felt sad for the pup & wanting to rescue him.

[Staranais]

No one here will support you. This is a purebred forum.

I think you might have missed the point. I don't want people on here to "support me" because I want to support pet stores that sell pets.

I was here venting about my sadness at the situation & wishing I could save the pup from people expressing an interest in what looked like a temporary ownership of the pup.

Like I said, I'm on the list of reputable breeders & felt sad for the pup & wanting to rescue him.

Yes, it's hard. Not buying him is the right thing, but you can't help feeling sorry for the little guy in the cage. Not his fault he's there.

[Baileys mum]

No I would never buy anything from a pet shop that sells live animals.

However I do understand your frustration & sadness at seeing the poor pup locked up in a glass cage & wondering what sort of future it has. I mean it's certainly not the poor pups fault where & how it was brought into the world.

My OH & I walked past a pet shop a few weeks ago that had some pups for sale. From memory I think they where JRT x something else, absoulutely gorgeous little things. They had a sign on the window of their cage that stated they would be ready to go on a certain date, which had a date that was 3 weeks away, which meant they where probably only 5 weeks old at the time

There poor little things where so excited to see us when we went over to the glass cage, jumping up on the walls & crying for just a cuddle & some human contact. When we walked away, I could just hear them crying so loud, they didn't want us to leave.

Yes it breaks my heart to see a baby of my favourite animal locked up in a cage like that, that probably has an uncertain future, but then I think about where it's probably come from, & the suffering that it's parents might be going through, & I just can't for the life of me support an industry like that.

I usually shop at pet stock for my dog food& things like Advocate, & then their are plenty of online pet stores for all my other pet supplies. ;)

[RallyValley]

Today at the petshop there was Bull Arab and Rough Collie puppies. (I walked past on my way to grab dinner)

[Shaar]

Pet shop here a while back was selling "Jackapoos" for $1400 and at the same time they were selling purebred Shih Tzu pups for just $900

WTF?

I can't vouch for every breeder on the price but for $900 you can usually get a WELL bred and HEALTH tested Shih Tzu from a reputable breeder (pet quality of coarse but still healthy)

There are only a couple of pet shops in Launnie that don't sell puppies, I don't think we have any pet supply stores that don't sell animals at all (the few good ones only sell rabbits, guineas and birds)

[Red Fox]

When pet stores are selling puppies (mainly cross breeds) for $800+ I have to wonder if the average joe blow looks in the window and thinks "Gee, if pet shop puppies are so expensive then I can't imagine how much a purebred papered puppy from a registered breeder might cost"

I think that many people are under the impression that a dog from a good breeder, particularly if that breeder also sells show quality dogs, would be out of their price range. They don't realise that the pet stores are overpriced and that you dont always get what you pay for!

Then there's also the problem of people not knowing how to find a registered breeder...

When it came to buying my own dog the first thing I did was to jump on the net and research the breeds that I was interested in. Google lead me straight to DOL and also breed clubs in my state and I contacted breeders that way without giving it a second thought. However what about those who do not have access to that information? What if they had been thinking "Gee, I'd really like a dog" then happen to walk past a pet store that week and see a cute little puppy in the window? How convenient! If they have no knowledge of puppy farms, where pet shop puppies come from and registered breeders then why would they not buy the puppy?

Until the public is educated pet shops will continue to thrive I really do think that breeders need to be more pro-active about getting their info out to people. If that same person had picked up the paper that morning instead and seen a HUGE add for an -All Breeds Dog Show this weekend, come and meet the breeds, puppies available to the right homes- (No, not expecting breeders to be there selling puppies! But the option of meeting a breeder and discussing their upcomming litters could be an option) then where do you think that potential puppy buyer might have gone instead?

Back to the OP- No I wouldn't buy it. Perhaps ring the breed club in your state and notify them (if it is a pure breed) but buying that pup wont save the next one. If rescuing a puppy makes you feel good then go to the pound or become a foster carer

[Crazy Daisy]

I can't vouch for every breeder on the price but for $900 you can usually get a WELL bred and HEALTH tested Shih Tzu from a reputable breeder (pet quality of coarse but still healthy)

I got my pick of the litter, main registered, health tested, show quality Shih Tzu from a breeder for $750 four and a half years ago. It would have cost me around $895 to have a malt x Shih Tzu from a pet shop Yes I did have to wait for her and I did have to fly her from Townsville to Brisbane but for me it was a no brainer, registered breeder all the way for me

[sandgrubber]

Have a look at the label on your BARF patties. I'll bet they're locally produced, and there's a good chance you can buy them direct -- or even have them delivered.

Is anyone else finding it increasingly difficult to find an animal supply store that doesn't sell animals?

I buy BARF patties from Better Pets & Gardens (only place I can find them) but they have just recently started selling birds/fish/rabbits etc. So far I'm struggling to find any that don't sell any animals at all without having to drive hours out of my way.

[HugUrPup]

When pet stores are selling puppies (mainly cross breeds) for $800+ I have to wonder if the average joe blow looks in the window and thinks "Gee, if pet shop puppies are so expensive then I can't imagine how much a purebred papered puppy from a registered breeder might cost"

So true, because back when I was a kid, the pet shops sold crosses for $150 and you paid around $800 for a pure.

Most people would imagine a pure would be up around the $2k mark now.

[Staranais]

However what about those who do not have access to that information? What if they had been thinking "Gee, I'd really like a dog" then happen to walk past a pet store that week and see a cute little puppy in the window? How convenient! If they have no knowledge of puppy farms, where pet shop puppies come from and registered breeders then why would they not buy the puppy?

Good post!

[Shaar]

I can't vouch for every breeder on the price but for $900 you can usually get a WELL bred and HEALTH tested Shih Tzu from a reputable breeder (pet quality of coarse but still healthy)

I got my pick of the litter, main registered, health tested, show quality Shih Tzu from a breeder for $750 four and a half years ago. It would have cost me around $895 to have a malt x Shih Tzu from a pet shop Yes I did have to wait for her and I did have to fly her from Townsville to Brisbane but for me it was a no brainer, registered breeder all the way for me ;)

Good on you!

I would rather buy a dog from the opposite end of the country than support a Puppy Mill / BYB