Oskar

[Sabine]

This has been a very strande day for me: The most infamous pet store in town has opened their first superstore. I was just curious to see if there would be some improvement to the small shop they always had in town, so we drove out to have a look.
This was the first time I left a pet shop crying - they had several tiny rabbit or rather guinea pig cages piled on top of each other. One rabbit on the very top was hopping around so wildely that it started shifing position and the whole pile threatend to tumble. There was a rabbit enclosure with over twenty baby rabbits all shoved in and worst of all was the pair of chinchillas sitting in full display in a guinea pig cage without even a card board box to hide and this was mid day. The poor creatures looked actually stunned. I was badly tempted to take them out of there but couldn't really make the commitment to yet another species of pets.
Oh, and when I inquired whether they were male or female, the answer was YES:?
So the girl could even be pregnant..... I should have said something to the keeper but he looked so rough i was sure he would have hit me

Anyhow to cut a long story short, I ended up buying a rabbit that i have been visiting for months in a small suburbian pet shop. I know it's still a pet shop bunny but this fellow had been there since way before Christmas and i was sure someone would snap him up any time. He is an Angora/Lop mix with beautiful blue eyes. He needs an enourmous amount of grooming being all knotted up at the moment. I know it doesn't quite make sense being upset about the neglect in one shop and then going to buy a bunny in another but it felt like the perfectly right thing to do. i knew he was still waiting for me. he is booked in for neutering next friday.
And i should mention: i have abandoned my plans of breeding Magic. if against the odds she did conceive I will keep one baby and bond him/her with Oskar, but before I bore everyone silly with my rambling let me present Bunny Nr 7 - Oskar (aka Frankie)

 

[paul2641]

! How could that cutie pie still be there since before Christmas? I love him.

 

[Flashy]

Aw, he's a beauty. Lucky guy

Are you going to try and do anything about the pet shop?

 

[Pipp]

You did the right thing by not supporting the 'stupidstore'. As sad as it is for the current tenants, to buy one from there is only enabling them to continue and even expand their abuse.

However, I would certainly write letters to the shop, local gov't, whatever business bureaus and pet organizations, etc you can find complaining about the poor treatment.

Keep us posted.


sas

 

[Sabine]

Flashy wrote:

Aw, he's a beauty. Lucky guy

Are you going to try and do anything about the pet shop?

Everyone i talk to about the store will alays say; OMG, I wouldn't go in there!!! They are notorious and when you say I saw such and such a terrible thing in a certain shop most pet people in Cork would know straight away which shop I'm talking about and now they have even expanded!!!! To be honest i am not quite sure what I can do. I am not sure if they are actually breaking any laws by just being pig ignorant. I may actually check with some more local people involved with animals if actions have been taken before.

 

[Sabine]

paul2641 wrote:

! How could that cutie pie still be there since before Christmas? I love him.

It's a mystery to me too.It might be the way they presented him. he should have received much more grooming and put into a more central location maybe. i was even thinking why would staff not take him out when it was quiet and groom him in the shop or something. He seems to have been handled though and is relatively friendly and not scared of being handled. i have a HUGE grooming session ahead of me tomorrow. i'd say i'll have to use sissors

 

[paul2641]

Sabine wrote:

Flashy wrote:

Aw, he's a beauty. Lucky guy

Are you going to try and do anything about the pet shop?

Everyone i talk to about the store will alays say; OMG, I wouldn't go in there!!! They are notorious and when you say I saw such and such a terrible thing in a certain shop most pet people in Cork would know straight away which shop I'm talking about and now they have even expanded!!!! To be honest i am not quite sure what I can do. I am not sure if they are actually breaking any laws by just being pig ignorant. I may actually check with some more local people involved with animals if actions have been taken before.

I was in a fish shop were I normally get my tropical fish and I got into a conversation with a woman who said there was this one pet shop in Shannon, Were they were doing similar things and with a few complaints she said they were closed down within 6 weeks, But this pet shop was also letting the rabbits that had lost there cuteness factor free into the wild and a few days later they were being found by children in a local park dead, I was pretty shocked at how badly things can get.

 

[paul2641]

Sabine wrote:

paul2641 wrote:

! How could that cutie pie still be there since before Christmas? I love him.

It's a mystery to me too.It might be the way they presented him. he should have received much more grooming and put into a more central location maybe. i was even thinking why would staff not take him out when it was quiet and groom him in the shop or something. He seems to have been handled though and is relatively friendly and not scared of being handled. i have a HUGE grooming session ahead of me tomorrow. i'd say i'll have to use sissors

Yeah My new angora I spent 2 hours fixing up today. Read my help thread and things might become a bit more clearer.

 

[Sabine]

To be honest i wouldn't put it past this shop to release their rabbits. I can't imagine them selling these huge amounts

 

[paul2641]

Sabine wrote:

To be honest i wouldn't put it past this shop to release their rabbits. I can't imagine them selling these huge amounts

I hope you don't have to chop off any of Oskar's coat, This woman I went to went to her local animal welfare about it and said they were brilliant, I am just wondering who would sell there baby rabbits to such a pet store?

 

[Sabine]

paul2641 wrote:

Sabine wrote:

To be honest i wouldn't put it past this shop to release their rabbits. I can't imagine them selling these huge amounts

I hope you don't have to chop off any of Oskar's coat, This woman I went to went to her local animal welfare about it and said they were brilliant, I am just wondering who would sell there baby rabbits to such a pet store?

I'll take the grooming bit by bit. I don't have much confidence after the run in I had with the CSPCS Wouldn't expect an awful lot of help from them.
I have a very good idea where they were getting those rabbits from. there were tons of rough looking kids roaming the store and i saw one of them dropping bunnies into the enclosure. they are probably the ones buying them too...

 

[paul2641]

Oh yes In Limerick The rough people also breed rabbits just to make money. Limerick animal welfare from what I hear is very helpful maybe give them a buzz explain Cork animal welfare weren't very helpful?

 

[paul2641]

Just wondering are Oscar's ears lopped?

 

[Sabine]

One ear lops occasionally and he has some of the facial features if you look at him from the side.

 

[Sabine]

 

[paul2641]

He is such a cute rabbit, He has such a long coat looks more like a purebred angora.

 

[Numbat]

Arrgh, that pet shop sounds horrible. I wish there was something that prevented pet shops from mistreating animals. It's such a simple thing, so unfair.

Congrats on Oskar though, he's really gorgeous!

 

[Sabine]

Thanks, he'll probably will have no fur left by the time I'm finished with him. The pet shop I bought him from i guess is somewhat better than the other one but still , they let a rabbit with angora fur get into such a state.
Oskar must have had the best day of his life today. he spent all day in the garden and didn't stop running, he was so excited!
I had promised myself never ever to buy another animal from a pet shop and I'm not pretending he was a rescue. but he deserved a good home and i feel privileged to be able to provide him with one. It was just precious seeing him racing around and chinning everything he could reach. i hope to have some better pictures soon.

 

[clevername]

hard to tell, he could be a French angora with poor ear carriage. Cute bun all the same.

 

[Sabine]

He is actually rather small about the same size as all my other buns. I reckon he weighs around 2 kg. I would lean to believe he is an angora lop cross as I am sure the owners wouldn't have dumped a pure bred into a pet shop and have him sold as a mutt. Having said that, the shop was charging top price for him, which may also be a reason why he was staying there for months and months