Whats your opinion on pet stores?

[Hyatt101]

Vote here to tell your opinion on pet stores:

 

[Hyatt101]

I personally think they are acceptable sometimes; they're just not the BEST.

 

[Imbrium]

they can be good for buying accessories, toys, food, etc. (god knows I've spent a ton at petco during this ongoing massive online sale)... not so much for cages and live animals (or for getting advice on pet care)

 

[Nelsons_Mom]

A store where you can buy products for your pets and other pet related aervies (such as adoption fairs or puppy classes) are awesome.

However, I do not agree with the selling of live animals in a pet store. It encourages impulse buying, and a majority of the employees are not properly trained and give out false info (such as selling poor food, cages that are too small, or that pine and cedar bedding is acceptable.)

 

[Hyatt101]

For the poll, i meant it in terms of buying animals, and maybe not all pet stores in general- maybe there's a good pet store near you

 

[Imbrium]

I don't like the way pet stores keep animals, they never have enough space

I do like that my local petsmart has cats and dogs though - they feature a selection of shelter pets each day to help the shelters find new homes for them. I impulse-purchased my kitty that way, lol - I was always SO good at playing with the balls of fluff and then putting them back, but one day I picked up this little 3 month old gray kitten and she curled into a ball/snuggled into my chest, closed her eyes and started purring! other than the fact that she obsessively licked herself so loudly you could hear it in the next room, she was the PERFECT cat. my mom impulse-purchased an older cat from them about a year before I got my kitty, too (and she was NOT the type to do such things!).

in general, I think petsmart is more responsible than some other stores (like petco) - they don't sell rabbits or exotics (ferrets, chinchillas, etc.) and actually house ONE syrian hamster per cage like you're supposed to, plus they only carry one gender of animal at any given location so that no one ever finds out that their "boy" is pregnant or one of their "girls" has boy parts. I still don't like to see small animals in such tiny cages, though.

seeing things like chinchillas living in something half the size of my hamster cage (was a 20G tank or something) or bunnies without hay just makes me SO sad. there's a little local shop I decided never to buy from 'cause of those things (I went in looking for a good hamster wheel, which they didn't have).

 

[Hyatt101]

Yes, that really stinks about pet stores I always feel so bad for those babies, but, you really can't ever win, because if I say, 'i'll never buy bunnies from there' the rabbits probably won't even go to good homes. Sometimes its those bunnies that need help the most! But, on the other hand, if you buy all those bunnies, its kind of playing right into the bad pet shop's hands of just getting a profit and getting more bunnies in. Some pet stores really do care, but, unfortunatley, there aren't enough that do!

 

[whitelop]

The petsmart near us sells chinchillas. I don't think all of them do, but there is one that I know of that does. I always see it and I always want it.
The ones in North Carolina can't sell red eared slider turtles because its illegal in NC, but the SC one sells them. They're properly sized for sale and everything. We've gotten fish from petsmart and they've done pretty well. We have three right now that are from there.
I don't like pet stores because I don't think the people are properly qualified to care for the animals or to give the advice to the people who buy the animals. Plus, I've seen some pretty bad things at small pet stores. I think for petsmart and petco, they should stick to just the animal SUPPLIES and not the actual animals.
But then you get people who back yard breed their animals and I don't think thats right either. Also, sometimes pet stores get their animals from puppy mill situations and thats a terrible thing. We have had a few really large puppy mills busted in our area and they were selling sick/malnourished puppies to pet stores.

 

[Hyatt101]

Poor puppies

 

[Hyatt101]

:'(

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

One thing I don't like about pet stores if you don't know where the animals come from. I have seen hamsters arrive at a store in a carrier/cage that has info from an airline, so I would think they have been shipped in from who knows where. Even with puppies, the stores won't tell you where the puppy came from and if they do it probably isn't the whole truth. Responsible breeders aren't going to be selling to pet stores anyway. Not to mention that most people working at a pet store don't know much about animals. They are there to sell the products and have no say in what is sold.

While there are some good stores that sell pets and the pets come from good sources (or are even adoptable through a rescue), these seem few and far between. Most small, independent stores tend to not sell pets at all and focus on quality products.

 

[whitelop]

Korr_and_Sophie wrote:

While there are some good stores that sell pets and the pets come from good sources (or are even adoptable through a rescue), these seem few and far between. Most small, independent stores tend to not sell pets at all and focus on quality products.

The place where I get my rabbit food/hay and dog food is an animal supply store. They have an in-store pet bird (the huge white ones with the yellow head feathers) and an in-store pet guinea pig. Those aren't for sale though, they're the pets. They will sell three rabbits every six months. Thats where I got my rabbit, but they get them from a local breeder. They're always the same breeds, SM lionheads, mini lops and dutch rabbits. They only get three at a time though. They will sell the ones that they have, wait a few months and then get three more. They do sell feeder mice and pond fish, but as for exotics the guy who owns the store doesn't really like to have them there.
BUT, I really trust the people who work there. The guy who owns it, is the father of my husbands friend/co-worker. The owner used to train police dogs and takes in retired police dogs. They sell high quality dog food and most of it is hollistic. I know, because I pay the price for quality dog food. Its unbelievable. Those people I trust, because they aren't in it for selling animals like a pet store. They sell mostly the SUPPLIES for animals.

 

[Hyatt101]

Morgan- thats really cool about the pet store near you. You can't find a whole lot like that!

 

[littl3red]

I love pet stores for selling supplies; hate them for selling pets. There are ZERO pet stores around here that don't sell live animals, and it frustrates me to no end. I generally try to buy from our local store, because even though they do sell animals, they're primarily an aquarium company and sell mostly fish, some reptiles, and feeder mice/rats. BUT when they do sell animals, they give out proper information and aren't just in it for the sale; I've talked to the people there about getting a snake and instead of pushing and pushing for it, after we considered it for about ten minutes (and I got really weirded out about feeding them rats, which I have kept as pets), they just said "Honestly, I really don't think reptiles are FOR you." They recognized that reptiles are just not a good fit for me and they didn't keep pushing the sale, and I respect that. They were looking out for the good of that animal and of myself.

 

[Hyatt101]

I do respect that too! I like it when they CARE about what happens to the babies AND owners.

 

[MiserySmith]

I went with the evil one. I wouldn't actually call them evil, but they should NOT sell animals. That's the part that should stop, I don't have a problem with the store selling toys or care items just animals.

 

[lauratunes12]

We're privileged with two very good pet stores. The one doesn't have dogs, but instead has dogs from the humane society in every Saturday. The other has dogs, but they're all very social and happy. When we went in to look at some Lionheads, there was a black lab in a blue dress with white polka dots running around the store greeting everybody.

 

[Troller]

Depends on a store to store basis.Most I wouldn't give the time of day for, but a few are truly exceptional with very caring andy concerned owners.

Take for instance a place called Fauna in NYC. Its a bird/reptile/fish store who's owner hand feeds and cares for the pets, with each employee specislizijg in a field who knows their stuff. This place is very clean, colorful and inviting, with educational events for children held often. Ive never been impressed with a pet store before I came to this one and I got out of my way to do business here even if its outside my neighborhood.

If I could find a rabbit pet shop like this, or hell anyplace pet place that ran like this I would be a very loyal patron.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat: I absolutely abhor Petland as a company and how they are run, but, we had one very close to us and they were all great there--the manager and employees were really wonderful and asked me several things about their bunnies and immediately made the changes I suggested while I was still there in the store. They were an exceptional group of animal lovers, but definitely an exception to most pet stores.

 

[Hyatt101]

I agree with Larry and Troller, i do have a good pet store near me that have workers who are very well-versed with rabbits, and clearly care about the bunnies' well being!