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

[Vanessa]

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.

Of course I reported it. I wouldn't preach to people the way I do if I didn't do the right thing myself.
Actually it was in the city of Toronto so I contacted the Toronto Humane Society, the OSPCA diverts all Toronto reports to THS. I followed up every single day with the head of their investigations department and they ended up going out to the store about two weeks after I experienced what I did. It was very difficult to get them to go out because the abuse was related to rats and feeder rats specifically, but I didn't give up.
Another member of a rat forum I was on at the time was in the store when they arrived, and they said that they were all decked out in uniform and caused quite a concern to the staff. I was both surprised and very happy to hear that they were there on a Saturday so the store was packed.
In the end the store was made to make significant improvements to the layout and the area that the rats and birds were kept in. Although I have never stepped foot in that store again, some Toronto rat owners did keep me up to speed on what improvements were made.
Again, it was very difficult to get them to go out for a rat complaint. The first reaction that I got from them was 'there are no guidelines in this city for cats and dogs in petstores, let alone feeder rats', but I didn't give up because abuse is abuse. It absolutely paid off in the end.

Just as a footnote I have also reported the sale of tarantulas to the OSPCA. There was a bylaw passed prohibiting tarantulas a few years back and I was in a store that was selling them. One of the spiders was a very difficult species, and the biggest tarantula alive, and I was concerned that the staff would allow anyone to purchase it when it was a species that should only be kept by the very experienced owner.
That store no longer stocks tarantulas.