Visit to a rodent farm ... Why not to support pet stores

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It's stunning to see such things on such a large scale. The poor sweeties have no quality of life. And I suspect that this breeder is one of the better ones; he wasn't concerned about photos being taken.
 
This is just sickening. BUT I would say I am rather torn about somethings and there are somethings I have to wonder.
Let's take rats for an example:
Unless a miracle happened... pet stores are never going to stop selling rats. Which means yes these places would be kept in business. But my question is that if a pet store doesn't sell a rat what happens, do they just keep it or do they get rid of it somehow.

I agree that there are so many rescues out there needing homes, heck I am taking one in and I understand how important that is. But I mean I got Lily from a pet store and I am happy I did, she's awesome (also please note at the time there weren't many rescues, I could have waited yes but I didn't).

But here is the reason I am torn. It's not the rats fault that they were born into that situation. And in my opinion all rats need a home so see where I am going with this.

I guess the problem is that they will always be there. :(
 
Holly, thank you so very much for posting this! I have been looking forever for rodent mill photos for my MySpace page. I am going to put them up right now.

I am never torn over whether to support mill breeding practices or not, I don't think it is a situation that has any grey area for me. I am not going to contribute to any animal being conceived, born, raised, housed, or die in a mill facility like that under any circumstances because it is just plain evil. If it were the last place on earth to get rats from, I just wouldn't have rat companions anymore.
Neither do I think that the way things are today for animals, just because they have been that way for a long time, are necessarily the way things will always be. People's actions make changes happen - plain and simple. If you don't want to change your own actions then don't expect changes to occur on a grander level. If you do want to see those changes happen, then they start with each individual person making personal changes in their life.
Remember, there was a time when everyone said that black people would never be free, women would never vote, and Apartheid would always be the way it is and look what people were able to accomplish when so many individuals fought to do what was right.
They don't have to 'always be there' if people don't want them to.

I edited this to add one more thing...

ENTIRE countries, including the U.K. and Australia have passed laws making the sale of animals for feed in petstores illegal. I'm not saying that the odd animal doesn't slip through the cracks to go for food, but if you need to feed your animal other animals in those countries then you are breeding and killing them yourself.
With whole entire countries managing to do that, then I can't understand why so many people say it can't be done.
 
Pet store employees have told me that people support all of the store's practices or they would not shop at their store.
That is why I do not buy pet supplies from pet stores.

Pet stores make a lot of money by selling pet supplies so if people stopped buying them, it would make a difference.
I now buy from pet supply stores and the internet, and occasionally Walmart :oops:

I certainly understand why people will buy pet store ratties
... Cindy, Jordan, and Caleb came from the local horror (pet) store.
And I can't imagine what my life would have been like without them.

I will not be buying any more pet store ratties tho because I find it much to painful to enter pet stores, knowing that I can not take all the animals with me when I leave. Plus my head knows buying pet store ratties just encourages the abuse to continue ... tho my heart tells me to scoop them all up and make a run for it ....
By helping rescues, I feel I am helping pet store rats without supporting that system since most rescues were pet store rats or their parents were.
 
And that is exactly why i go to shelters! I bought my first 2 rats in a pet store, but after founding out that those rats came from breeders like this, i go to shelters. No way that this kind of people who use animals like that will get money from me. Looking at the photo's is making me sick. :x
poor animals.
 
SQ said:
Visit to a rodent farm (with pictures)

http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/community/v ... &sk=t&sd=a

Wasn't sure where to put this ...

Pet store employees have told me that people support all of the store's practices or they would not shop at their store.
That is why I do not buy pet supplies from pet stores.
Click to expand...

The only way to materially damage businesses of this kind is for someone to open animal friendly breeding centers and then advertise their "humane"" practices.

You were lied to about people supporting "all" of the petstore's practices. You can knock most petstore employees flat by posing rodent direct questions and determining just how much they know about the animals in their care.

I've done it... and the results were not pretty for the poor, sweet, baby I lit into. She didn't know the first thing about rats or their care. She couldn't even tell me how to tell males and females apart. DUH!!!

I had a great time with Petco... 8)

In case you're wondering... yes, I can be a real b1tch when it comes to inhumane treatment of animals. :evil:
 
I never bought a rat at the petstore and i never will.

I got Cujo from a petstore, they gave me her because they didnt know what to do with her (she was agressive, thats what they said...she was just really scared) they knew i had rats, so they gave me her for free, i didnt pay anything.

My rats all come from a good breeder or a shelter :wink:

We should all do that, and make the world a better place :wink:
 
There is a misunderstanding about what Holly meant by support, her statement is absolutely correct.
Whenever you give any establishment your money for their products or services, you are automatically supporting their practices and enabling them to continue to employ those practices. It applies to petstores, Walmart (child labour in Chinese factories), meat and the factory farming industry, the fur industry, any industry that is able to make a profit off the practices that they employ to give you the products and services that you are voluntarily paying for. Why else would you reward them by allowing them to make a profit off your shopping unless you support what they do? That is the whole basis behind boycotting products and being a compassionate consumer.
Canada has lost over 400 million dollars this year in revenue because we refuse to give up the seal hunt. Every year more and more countries are banning the import and sale of seal products, and the Canadian seafood industry is suffering greatly because of individuals boycotting their products. That is what happens when you don't support practices - no profits are made and eventually those companies either change their practices or close their doors.
 
I sure do know what you mean LA, you're right all rats are deserving.
But for me, I just can't bring myself to being part of continuing the mill. Petsmart won't bring in anymore rats until they sell their last one. Only then will they put in an order to their rat mill. I've been guilty many times before bringing a pet store rat home, it's so hard to just walk past them.

Some changes can happen. We had a Pet Valu here that decided to start selling feeder mice. Our family stopped shopping there and I told everyone I knew to boycott that store. It worked! She lost so many customers, she had to stop selling feeders.
 
Vanessa your comment is true about how things have drastically changes for black people. Yes things will change it just has to be wider known and it will take time.
SQ I totally agree with you about supporting a RAT from a pet store without supporting the pet store by taking in a rescue.

It is very hard to walk past those rats and not want to pick one out. I guess the whole situation is much like puppy mills. And those are stopping.

I am going to use this as a note on Facebook (just maybe not right today).

I remember a coment that mamarat (I believe) made the comment that petsmart doesn't normally have rats past 2 months because people are buying them up. I guess with that they go to homes, now whether they are good or not.... who knows. There will always be rescues.
 
Petstores get their rats from these horrible farms/mills. Buying a rat from a petstore ends up putting money back in the pocket of that breeding hellhole.

If people refuse to buy the rats from the petstore, maybe the mills will realize its not as profitable and STOP breeding so many. THEN we can get all the deserving rats dying in shelters, or set "free" in the woods into real homes.

You have to think of the Big Picture here, not the individual rats, those places and the petstores sure aren't seeing them as anything other than stock. :cry:

I don't go into pet stores for the same reasons Holly doesn't. There are always ways around it.
 
I know I come off as being extremely heartless a lot of the time when it comes to certain situations, that I never feel in my heart for these creatures, but that really is far from the case. I do tend to favour making decisions with my head over my heart, but that doesn't mean that I don't feel regret in my heart for those decisions. It isn't ever that those rats don't deserve homes, because every single rat no matter where it comes from deserves the same as every other animal. The very best homes there are.
I have been in petstores where I have left in tears and could barely see as I crossed the street to my car because of what I have seen in them. Leaving those places without taking even one sorry soul is the most difficult thing I can ever do.
What keeps me from doing it is to constantly remind myself that I am just condemning another sorry soul, and its mother, to being put in the same situation the following day or week because of my actions. I remind myself that I wouldn't give a guy money for beating his dog at the side of the road and that the abuse is no different. I remind myself of all the rats that languish and are destroyed in shelters by the hundreds each year.
Instead, I take that anger and sorrow and I do what I can to get the information out about these situations to as many people as I can. In some cases I have been able to get results from calling in shelter investigation teams to the stores. I can't tell you how many times I have been contacted by other rat owners on MySpace telling me that because of my efforts they will not only never buy animals from petstores again but will not even buy supplies in stores that sell animals.
That to me is the greatest feeling of all, the greatest reward. I might be able to save one or two rats from petstores myself, but to get the word out might prevent dozens of rats ending up like that. In the end, that makes my heart feel very good.
 
Pet store employees have told me that people support all of the store's practices or they would not shop at their store.
Click to expand...

When people shop at pet stores, the store owner and employees interpret that as people being ok with the things that store does.
As I was told by a pet store employee "If people didn't like us selling rats as feeders, they wouldn't shop here." While their customers may not agree with this, they are giving the store their business and that is what the store is interested in. The stores are making money off selling pet supplies etc. so they have no incentive to change their practices.

If all rat owners stopped buying rats at pet stores it would make a difference, but it might not have a huge impact given the reptile trade.

But if people who care about animals stopped buying pet supplies, etc from pet stores it would make a huge difference ... just let them know why they are losing their customers.
 
Just as a footnote, this was just forwarded to me by an Australian friend on MySpace. It is a link to a bill that is attempting to be passed in an area of Australia that will prohibit the sale of all animals in petstores.
If this is passed it will pave the way for other legislation to follow by setting precedence. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill 2007
 
I'm very proud of Australia lately.

All I'm going to say is, I agree with Godmother. This is probably one of the "better" breeders.
 
SQ said:
Pet store employees have told me that people support all of the store's practices or they would not shop at their store.
Click to expand...

When people shop at pet stores, the store owner and employees interpret that as people being ok with the things that store does.
As I was told by a pet store employee "If people didn't like us selling rats as feeders, they wouldn't shop here." While their customers may not agree with this, they are giving the store their business and that is what the store is interested in. The stores are making money off selling pet supplies etc. so they have no incentive to change their practices.

If all rat owners stopped buying rats at pet stores it would make a difference, but it might not have a huge impact given the reptile trade.

But if people who care about animals stopped buying pet supplies, etc from pet stores it would make a huge difference ... just let them know why they are losing their customers.
Click to expand...

I would say that most of the time it's not the acceptance of the pet store but the lack of knowledge of what actually happens. I have to say until his post I didn't not know ANY of this. So I shop at Petsmart and all those other places because I did not know.

Knowledge is hugely powerful.
 
Vanessa, if the conditions in a pet store are so bad that you walk away in tears you have good cause to report them to the OSPCA. An inspector will go and talk to them and most of the time the store will make an effort to clean up their act. They don't want the bad publicity that charges or an investigation will bring on them.

I've done that a few times to stores here in Barrie and things got cleaned up pretty quickly. Remember, actions speak louder than words.
 

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