Pet Stores...

[Love4Hedgies]

I read a post in chins debate about treatment of animals in petstores and figured I'd post one here as well since I have seen my fair share of really crappy conditions for hedgehogs. Where I got Lilly, there were 5 hedgies in one 10 gallon ank with NO wheel! I saw Lilly, played with her and fell in love. My better judgement told me not to purchase her from that pet store but I couldn't help myself...she was sooo sweet. I was sooo sad leaving the other hedgies at that store. This kind of treatment of animals should not be allowed in pet stores, does anyone else agree? I REALLY wish there was something I could do to make some kind of regulations on how animals can be housed in pet stores and also their staff needs to be informed about the animals they have in the pet stores b/c the girl I was talking to clearly knew anything about hedgies and what is sad is that she has one herself!!! It just makes me so sad and mad!!! :angry: :banghead: :S :(

[bloane]

I agree fully, Vanessa. Hard to change on a law level, we just have to work on each store to get them to change their ways, and support the ones who take proper care.
Becca

[Love4Hedgies]

I just wish there was something more we could do for the animals. It's so unfair to them. You know they are not TRUE animal lovers by the way they treat them...it's so unfortunate. I tried to make it clear to them that I didn't agree with the way they were treating their animals and I know I should have taken my buisness elsewhere but I couldn't leave Lilly...I felt sooo bad for the 3 I left behind. All I could think was at least I gave them some more space in that small cage by taking one of them...I swear, if I could, I would rescue all animals...:(

[SuperCow]

It's amazing to me that any hedgehogs who come out of petstores are the least bit social. I refuse to buy dogs from any petstore except Petsmart (who go through the humane society) because of puppy mills. It just seems so unfair that that animal has to suffer because some evil people have no regard for anything but the size of their wallet. It's illegal to sell hedgehogs in my city (thank god.), but I don't know if I could ever bear to leave one at a petstore.

[skaterya]

It's amazing to me that any hedgehogs who come out of petstores are the least bit social. I refuse to buy dogs from any petstore except Petsmart (who go through the humane society) because of puppy mills. It just seems so unfair that that animal has to suffer because some evil people have no regard for anything but the size of their wallet. It's illegal to sell hedgehogs in my city (thank god.), but I don't know if I could ever bear to leave one at a petstore.


Not all pet stores are bad. :banghead: There are some exotic pet stores that actually love the animals AND know what they are talking about in regards to care for the animal.

And the Petsmart(s) by me seem to be one of the worst places to buy a pet. Their staff is usually made up of high school kids who thought it would be fun to work around animals, most of them don't know the first thing about care.

However, I still would not buy an animal like a dog or cat at a pet store, when you can adopt directly from the shelter (so you know your money is going to them). I did buy Koa my hedgehog from a pet store, but only because I could not find any in rescues that needed to be adopted.

[Nancy]

Petcetera's cats and dogs are from the humane society also. My daughter works there and as for the hedgies, of the 18 that they have had since she has been there, one was a total unhandable grump. One, our Emma is nervous, not mean, balls up easily and takes about 5 mins to come out. The rest have been good as in ball up but come out within 30 seconds, to excellent which wouldn't ball up no matter what. I think that is pretty good. 16 sociables, 1 that takes time, and only one total grump out of 18.

[scabbers53102]

i totally agree with you! i usually post in the chin section but i just cant help myself. hedgies are so cute! anywho, the petstores around here are horrible with exotics. there was a hedgie(when i was looking into them) that was in like a 7 gallon tank, no wheel, just that paper litter stuff water bottle and food. and on top of that it was a regular quill color and it was 200 bucks! i was totally amazed. im just wanted to go up to the manager and be like , well, you know what i mean.

[Love4Hedgies]

It's sad...really really sad...:( I wish I could help all the animals!

[jasimon1]

Hey scabbers, where in AH? I work there and would love to talk to the people at the pet store.

[emskie]

We just bought Popples from a pet store near us. We had been looking for a really long time and couldn't find any breeders near here (now of course, there is a posting for a hedgehog in ohio that someone is trying to sell!!) Popples was in a very small aquarium, with an igloo, a water dish, and that's it. They fed him banannas, meal worms and lettuce--that's it. I think this cause huge nutrition problems, because when we got him, he had a gross little habit of eating his own poo. (thankfully, he does not do this anymore!!!) The only way they picked him up, which they rarely did, was by using gloves. But when I went into this petstore at random, I picked him up and played with him and loved him. I don't want to bash the pet store he came from.. they were very nice, and really seemed to be trying, however, still knew very little about hedgehogs and it's sad that Popples had to live there for over a month in this type of condition.

When we took him home, he RAN around for hours in his new cage, I think astonished by the huge amount of space he had comparatively. He's still a bit huffy, and a HUGE scardy cat, but after having him for only 4 days, he unballs for us right away. Which, considering he had barely been handled before us, I think he's doing really well. But it makes me wonder what he would have been like had he come from a well cared for and loving environment instead of the pet store...