Can ANYTHING be done about a local business mistreating rats?

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orangeK

New Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2020
Messages
1
Location
California
I think my review of this place says it all:

"PLEASE DO NOT SHOP HERE FOR LIVE ANIMALS - FEEDERS OR PETS. HORRIFIED BY THE TREATMENT OF THEIR RATS. They are very disorganized and dirty, nothing like any other small pet stores I've seen.

Luckily they don't seem to have very many live animals, but they did have rats. It was a female rat and several babies. Rats have very sensitive respiratory systems - they MUST be house in a wire cage. These rats were house in a glass tank with a GLASS SLAB over top - not even a screen (which is still a terrible way to house rats). The only air flow was holes drilled on the side, meaning they were breathing in harmful ammonia from their urine. This is cruel even for animals with not so sensitive respiratory systems. Regardless of whether or not these animals are meant to be sold as feeders, they don't deserve to live a life where they will definitely get an upper respiratory infection and die a painful death if they're not sold (and probably will even after being sold). I wonder if they were even fed the proper diet (it's just a kibble made for rats, not hard to do - veggies are good too for them) and had enough clean water. Even if you don't care about the rat itself - do you want to feed your reptile a sickly rat?

If they are trying to sell them as pets this needs to be fixed. It's tempting to want to buy and save the rats but DO NOT support this and give them your money. Along with this, the boy working the counter seemed to not care. When I asked him if the babies were female, he couldn't answer - even though they were old enough to be sexed. If you got a rat as a pet here, you risk it being pregnant. I asked if they sold cages and he pointed to a cage that while it's advertised for rats (a Kaytee rat cage) is so small it's cruel and definitely not big enough for the minimum 2 rats (they are social animals). None of the rats were socialized so they did not want to be touched and were very fearful.

It's disappointing to see a pet store know nothing about their animals and not care. Honestly, I would consider this animal abuse and I wish people would care for small animals the way we do dogs and cats."

Can I do anything about this? Can I contact anyone? Is this illegal?
 
Depending upon the laws where you live you could report it to the SPCA, agencies in your state and the city responsible for investigating animal cruelty and animal welfare, You could contact your city counsellor. You could fight for changes in animal welfare standards and treatment in your area,

Btw, this is a rat rescue forum.
We are opposed to rats being used as food and do not allow discussion of those practices
We also do not support live feeding of any animal
We support and encourage people to adopt rats from rat rescues, shelters, and rats being rehomed
We do not support breeding , breeders or the purchase of rats from stores or breeders
Many of our members do not support pet stores that sell animals in any way, preferring to purchase food and pet supplies from stores that do not sell animals.

Here are our rules: Please read!
 
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Depending upon the laws where you live you could report it to the SPCA, agencies in your state and the city responsible for investigating animal cruelty and animal welfare, You could contact your city counsellor. You could fight for changes in animal welfare standards and treatment in your area,

Btw, this is a rat rescue forum.
We are opposed to rats being used as food and do not allow discussion of those practices
We also do not support live feeding of any animal
We support and encourage people to adopt rats from rat rescues, shelters, and rats being rehomed
We do not support breeding , breeders or the purchase of rats from stores or breeders
Many of our members do not support pet stores that sell animals in any way, preferring to purchase food and pet supplies from stores that do not sell animals.

Here are our rules: Please read!
Sorry about that. Got it. And, of course, I agree.
 
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