- a lot of parents buy them for their children thinking they'll be all loving and cuddly from day 1, and when they realise it doesn't work like that, they can't be bothered with them so they get dumped
- because they're smaller than syrians they get the impression that they're going to be easier to handle for the kids, when the exact opposite is true
- parents ending up having to take care of them instead of their kids, and they're not prepared to do that
- kids get bored with them because they sleep all day and only come out when it's bed time for them
- a child gets bitten by one because it was being man-handled, parent panics and tries to get rid of them as quickly as possible
- hamsters are seen as children's toys rather than real animals and are considered disposable when the child gets bored of them
- hamster keeps the family awake at night because it's chewing in the bars of its cage due to boredom - but rather than spending a couple of pounds on chew toys the parents decide to dump it instead
- hamsters are so easy to obtain and are so cheap that they're often an impulse-buy, or a birthday/Christmas present
- the pair of hamsters start fighting and rather than buying another cage they decide to get rid of both of them
-the hamster gets sick and the owner doesn't see it fit to pay for treatment for a little 'worthless' rodent that only lives a couple of years anyway.
Personally I think hamsters are the least suitable pets for children...If I was a breeder/owned a pet shop I'd refuse to sell them to anyone under the age of 16 and I wouldn't sell them to any adults who were considering them as a present for their kid. Also just make them more expensive for the sake of making people consider it twice before buying. If a hamster cost let's say £50 rather than £7-10, people would think more before buying. When you buy a dog from a breeder, you have to answer a lot of question and they may even inspect your home...it's nothing like that with a hamster or any rodent for that matter, that are mainly sold by pet shops. Buying a hamster from a pet shop is like buying a chocolate bar in a corner shop. It shouldn't be like that in my opinion. That's why there are so many unwanted hamsters...also pet rodents are prone to being mistreated a lot more than dogs or cats, as many people view rodents as emotionless, stupid vermin...which is very sad.
