Quote:
Originally Posted by HammyWammys
i understand what your saying, but people these days i:e parents when kids ask for a pet & they go to pet shop & buy whatever they dont think about where they come from do they?.
im guessing it would be same for guinea pigs?
i got mine from a rescue because P@h doesnt know how to house them properly!
i get all my food ect from p@h and everytime you see people buying pets, & i just feel sorry for them
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Last time we were at P@H, we'd bought some hamster stuff, cat stuff & a book on budgies because elder son wants a budgie; we were behind a family in the queue who'd gone in & bought 2 hamsters & various hamster accessories, including bedding & food. While we were walking round the shop, we'd talked about what & why we were getting or not getting stuff, & I noticed that the fluffy bedding had gone from the mum's basket by the time they got to the checkout - this could have been because I was talking to my sons about the dangers of it.
Younger son asked if we were getting a budgie that day & I explained 'No, we have to find out about the needs of a pet, & get everything it needs before starting to look for it.' The teenage girl of the hamster buying family looked very thoughtful as she heard me saying this.
Will my speaking in front of a family I'll likely never see again, & wouldn't recognise if I did make much difference? I don't know.
But I do think it makes a difference when we talk to people we do know! If we can't encourage our friends & family to know more about the negatives & positives of pet shops & about the alternatives, we're not doing the best for our pets.
When we tell friends & family about 'Thinking about getting another hamster and finding out where a good breeder of (preferred breed) is near to us/contacting the Blue Cross & finding out what rescues they've got', we open the dialogue to talk about why we'd prefer not to get 1 from a pet shop.
When we talk about the cost of animals & how £40 isn't really that expensive for a cage & how we've researched & thought about what to get, we lessen the chances that our friends will go into a pet shop to wander round while their child is at a nearby birthday party & come out with a pet.
I'm old enough to remember being able to walk into a pet shop in my early teens & come home with a small pet in a cardboard box - luckily my parents did know I'd gone to buy it & I had the cage etc ready - but now legislation has moved on as more is known about animal welfare. My husband was still able to walk into a pet shop & walk out with a hamster for younger son, but the shop person did have to tick off a sheet to say she'd advised him on feeding, etc. The pet shops & hamster farmers aren't the ones initiating the changes - they cost them more! The changes happen because informed people request & expect them.