Why do people suggest not buying from pet shops?

RiseToTheTop

Why is this?

4Q2 Wann Kerr

There are plenty of stray cats around the place.

angry kitten

RiseToTheTop wrote: »

Why is this?

Getting a pet is a huge commitment. The Dog pounds and animal shelters all over the country are struggling to cope with the huge number of animals who desperately need a home and we also have a huge problem in Ireland with puppy farming.

lorebringer

With regards to puppies and kittens from pet shops, the vast majority come from crap breeders out to make a quick few euros and the animals are not bred ethically. Many of the animals would be ill, have behavioural problems, come from disgusting conditions (leaving patents behind to churn out babies with no consideration for their health and well being). Pet shops will sell puppies or kittens to whoever walks in the door - there is no home check or question as to how the animal is going to be looked after. If you Google/YouTube "puppy farms" you will see the horrendous conditions these animals are kept in (and it's in Ireland too - not just other countries - we are the puppy farm capital of Europe, it's just very well hidden).

A good breeder would not let their puppies or kittens go to just anyone on the street - they make sure their puppies or kittens will go to good, life long, homes. They will do health screens on their parents so that the offspring will live healthy lives. What a good breeder is concerned about is that their puppies or kittens go to homes where they will live out their whole lives as family pets and be happy and healthy. Puppies and kittens that come from pet shops so not come from good breeders, there is no concern for where the pup has been and where it will go. It allows breeders to churn out animals with no regard for their welfare and allows people, who have not thought about the consequences, to attain an animal that may be totally unsuitable for their situation.

If you are looking for a pure breed dog, contact the kennel club and ask for the breed secretary of the particular breed that you are interested in to give you some names of good breeders. Make sure you see the mother (and father, if possible) with the pups, in the breeders home. And health check certs (by specialists, not regular vets) should be available for you to inspect. Same would apply if you are looking for a pure breed cat. If you are less set on breed, there are loads of fantastic dogs and cats in rescues around the countries, of all ages (plenty of puppies and kittens), shapes and sizes - animals that come from rescues are not all bad animals and most end up there due to owners not making the right decisions. There are pure breeds and mixed breeds available in rescues around the country and even if you were really set on a breed, have a look in your local shelter and you may be surprised what you find!

Discodog

RiseToTheTop wrote: »

Why is this?

It totally depends on what you are buying & the standard of the pet shop. Do you mean for buying pets or pet supplies ?

RiseToTheTop

I might like to get a budgie.

Zapperzy

Also in the case of small animals like rabbits and hamsters, you have no idea of what the conditions they were bred in were like and they are often inbred and very sickly. They also are not handled at all until someone buys them, whereas if you were to buy from a small breeder they put thought into the breeding process and handle them when they are old enough to be handled. Also pet shops are notoriously bad for sexing animals and people often get a surprise in a few weeks time of a litter of babies (often by a brother and sister), some shops will take them back and sell them on others leave you to deal with it. Also many shops have signs up saying the animals were sold in good health and accept no responsibility for ill animals so when you end up with a sickly or dead new pet they will not pay for vet fees or replace the pet.

Don't know an awful lot about fish apart from my own experience and what I'v read here. I was sold a fish and told it was a cold water fish, turned out to be a tropical fish and died a few days later.

Basically from my own experience of buying small pets (3 hamsters, 1 gerbil, a rabbit and numerous fish) pet shop staff know feck all about the animals they are selling and I'v gotten animals with health and behaviourial problems. Problem is it is very hard to find breeders of things like hamsters so even when I'v used my best judgement when buying from a shop I ended up with a hamster with aggression issues.

charlemont

Money, Pet shops would be too dear when you can clearly get a stray or pup from somebody or from an animal shelter for free or for a small contribution.

Discodog

RiseToTheTop wrote: »

I might like to get a budgie.

I would ask these people who they would recommend. They have a show tomorrow.

http://www.eirebudgerigarsociety.org/

Even with a Budgie I would still rather buy from someone who is an expert & breeds as a hobby than from a shop that is in business to make money.

Sigma Force

Because most pet shops in this country are rubbish, they house their animals badly, many are unhealthy or inbred, they don't sex them correctly, many shops give the wrong advice.
Some don't even know where the animals origionally come from. Some will sell pregnant animals and then offer to take any babies off the person who bought them ..usually these animals are related.

Now don't get me wrong there are some pet shops that know what they are talking about and house their animals correctly and give the right advice.
But they are few and far between.

Imo pet shops shouldn't sell pets it's just gotten too messy in this country they should concentrate on pet products and correct advise. Offering rescues to advertise their dogs there instead as a means of drawing in buisness.

I would recommend esp. with budgies is to go to a responsible breeder, budgies from pet shops in general look more like pidgeons some suffer from scaly leg and scaly feet and a lot of pet shops sell those horrid round budgie cages/coffins, pet shops also sell really bad housing for hamsters, guineas and rabbits. Don't get me started on those starter cages that places like argos and pet shops sell, some online pet shops are no better when it comes to certain housing.

People might think this ott but I have been to lots of pet shops and I would say only two were well run.

boomerang

Because my rescued pet rat, whom the previous owner bought in a pet shop, had to be put to sleep today because she had cancer. She was only 15 months old. Had I purchased my two rats from a reputable breeder, they would have been far healthier and would probably have lived a lot longer. Rats can live to be two years or more.

People who breed small animals for pet shops nearly always raise the animals in dirty, overcrowded conditions, neglect the breeding animals' health and breed indiscriminately so a lot of the animals are in-bred or susceptible to hereditary disease.

Cameron Poe

boomerang wrote: »

Because my rescued pet rat, whom the previous owner bought in a pet shop, had to be put to sleep today because she had cancer. She was only 15 months old. Had I purchased my two rats from a reputable breeder, they would have been far healthier and would probably have lived a lot longer. Rats can live to be two years or more.

People who breed small animals for pet shops nearly always raise the animals in dirty, overcrowded conditions, neglect the breeding animals' health and breed indiscriminately so a lot of the animals are in-bred or susceptible to hereditary disease.

Your rat got cancer because most female rats get cancer. Nothing to do with anything else.

boomerang

Yes, mammary cancer is very common in female rats. My rat didn't have mammary cancer though. There is only one reputable rat breeder in the country, and she has an extremely low incidence of cancer in her lines. I would definitely be picking up the phone to her before I'd buy rats from a petshop.

sambuka41

I have worked in a few pet shops in Dublin over the years, some that took it seriously and some that really didn't. It can be really sad when you are working in shop with animals when you know that the owner doesn't care. I walked out of one place half way through my first day, it was horrendous.

But my first pet shop job was great, there was a veterinary nurse who worked there so most animals were sold by her. The owner also let us take books home from the shop so that we could read up on the animals that we were selling. He also let us refuse to sell to a customer if we felt that they weren't taking it seriously, I had to do that one more than one occasion. The sadest was a man with his children beside him, who wanted to buy a budgie but keep it in a cage for finches, it wouldn't have even been able to fully extend its wings. (personally I thought the cage was too small even for finches but suppliers didn't do any bigger where the bars weren't too far apart,this was years ago so hopefully its better now) That man went mad when I refused to sell either the cage or the budgie.

Another guy wanted to get a hamster and keep it in one of those little plastic carriers (the ones you would transport him to the vet in, tiny is not the word for it)

Are there pet shops in Ireland that sell cats and dogs? I have never seen any?

DBB

sambuka41 wrote: »

Are there pet shops in Ireland that sell cats and dogs? I have never seen any?

Yes, for dogs anyway, unfortunately there are. There's one in Drogheda and two in Dundalk, all three owned by the same company.
There's another one in Collon, Co. Louth. The Wee County does not bathe itself in glory when it comes to selling pups in pet shops :-(
OP, it is considered unethical for breeders to sell pups via a 3rd party, as it breaks the chain of communication and responsibility between producer and consumer. As a result, the people who supply pups to pet shops tend to be far from ethical, with consequent poor conditions for dogs they are producing.
Moreover, pups are going through their most sensitive psychological development period at just the time they're living in a pet shop... They endure too many stressors, and not enough positive experiences, at this critical stage, which leaves lasting, and difficult to change, damage to their behaviour.
I have lots of experience dealing with the fallout of pet shop pups, their health and behaviour are, to say the least, poor.

Shanao

There's also a shop in Cork that sells puppies and kittens, especially around Christmas:mad: