#pet stores

good step, now do the same for parrots unless you are a dedicated parrot store

A situation that seems to keep happening more and more. "I have a female (insert species here) and I got another one from (insert place here). They told me it was a female, but it's a male. Now I have more than I can handle!"

Something we always say at work: small animals are good at being prey animals. They reach sexual maturity at a young age, they get pregnant and give birth in a short span of time, they have large litters, and they can get pregnant again right after giving birth. All of this leads to an increasing numbers of small animals entering the shelters. Or worse, living in unsanitary conditions caused by the sheer number of animals being cared for by a limited number of individuals.

Who is to blame for this? It's not an easy question to answer. But I think it's again, something that society is to blame for.

Pet store employees (I can personally confirm this from experience) are not always taught how to correctly sex the animals in which they sell. While hamsters and rats are easier to tell, rabbits and guinea pigs are not. Some of the corporate pet stores have policies and regulations that definitely helps the problem. For example, PetSmart stores only sell one sex per store. So one store will only have males, and another store will only have females. Therefore, if people purchase more than of the same species, there won't be any surprises one morning. Even this practice may not always be perfect, and there are times when the opposite sex makes it into the stores. Most stores don't have a policy like this in place at all, so the chances of the same sexes ending up together are substantially higher. I have even heard of people purchasing a single female, and it giving birth in their home. My boyfriend tells me a story often, of how when he was growing up he had some gerbils that they bought, and they ended up being the opposite sexes, so they kept breeding. But his family would just sell them back to the store where they bought them from. So perhaps for some of these smaller businesses there could even be a slight benefit to selling the opposite sexes. They can cut out a middle man and breed the animals themselves or get them from unprofessionals for a lower cost.

Of course pet stores can't be the only thing to blame. I've spoken before on how individuals get an animal who they perceive as an easier or beginner pet in the stores. They often just purchase them on a whim with little to no education about them. (You can read further on this in the Smallies vs. Society post). So to some extent these individuals can be to blame as well. When welcoming any new animal into your home, I can not emphasize enough the importance of researching what you are taking on. At least that's the responsible thing to do. With research people could learn how to sex an animal themselves, and even learn the importance of spay and neutering.

That brings up my next point, is the cost and risk of spaying and neutering. Most small animals are considered exotics, therefore require care from an exotics trained veterinarian. That can be quite expensive even just for a wellness exam. I've heard of rabbit sterilization surgeries costing up to $500. I've also heard of veterinarians not performing the surgery at all after the animal is past a certain age. This is because of just how sensitive smallies are under anesthesia. The older they are, the higher the risk of complications or even not waking up. There are even some species where sterilization surgery isn't a common practice just because of how prone to complications they are. Guinea Pig are one of those species. While the surgeries can be performed, it's not commonly done, even for shelters. I speak from experience when I say it is not worth the risk infection. At least not when the animals are properly sexed and separated. Due to these barriers sterilization isn't always an option for everybody or every situation.

I want to make it known, that I don't feel that everybody in these accidental breeding situations are at fault. Especially when buying from a pet store, individuals have trust in who they believe to be professionals working there. That trust, is broken far too often. I will forever be an advocate for shelters. If you are interested in adding a new animal to your home, you'd be surprised how many shelters have smallies! You can find them on petfinder.com under the "other" tab. Reach out to shelters, rescues, and humane societies with any questions you may have. They are there to educate along with finding animals homes. I'm sure they'd be happy to give you information, and help you find the perfect addition to your family. Adopting not Shopping will always be a fantastic option!

Pet stores like pet smart throw away LIVE animals in the dumpster!!!

I saw this video on YouTube by bird nugget and was shocked. How can anyone do that to a helpless animal?!?!

And worse of all, HOW CAN THEY DO THAT TO A SWEET INNOCENT ADORABLE LITTLE BUDGIE?!?!?!

Just thinking about this happening to a budgie makes my heart ache and I run right to my budgies, pick um up and cuddle them to me, holding them close and kissing them and tell them how much I love them and how lucky they are.

This is not my video obviously, but I’m sharing this to raise awareness and hope that this knowledge get around enough so that hopefully it will stop. These poor animal’s lives are important and need to be saved from this horrible cruelty!

I worked at a summer camp last year, and there was a kid who said that her parrot died of old age and it was everything I could do to stay calm. No fucking parrot is about to die of old age, especially if you're telling me it was like 3 or 5 years old.

Basically all pets that are marketed as having a low life expectancy only have a low life expectancy if they are being mistreated. Or if they are specifically bred to have health problems (for example, certain dogs such as pugs or certain snakes such as spider ball pythons). Or if they are rodents, because rodents don't live that long for the most part, but they sure as shit will live longer than they typically are toted as living if you take care of them properly.

I also fucking hate the pure misinformation bullshit that is that small animals should be in tiny cages because they are small. Fuck that fucking noise. No! Just because an animal is small doesn't mean it deserves a tiny ass cage. And pets are not decoration either. They are living, breathing creatures who deserve to be taken care of properly and treated as such.

I hate it when people assume all animals are dogs or all animals are people, and then get are somehow shocked when they are injured by their pet. All animals are going to have different body languages, and are going to act differently. Individual animals of different species are all going to have their unique personalities. If you have a goddamn lizard and it is moving in a way similar to a fucking dog, that does not mean it is experiencing the same emotion as a dog showing the same behavior. I am sick of people making videos and posting online how "cute" their pet is acting, and the pet is clearly upset/distressed.

If you get any pet of any species, even if it is a cat or a dog, you have to do extensive research on them ahead of time. Websites designed to sell you pet products and/or websites belonging to chain pet stores like PetSmart or whatever is in your area do not fucking count towards that research. Even if you are getting a pet cat, and you think you know about cats, I swear to god do research before you get a cat because I will hear people say the dumbest shit about cats and claim they are an expert because they have one.

It's not that fucking hard to learn about an animal before bringing it into your home. And if you are a person who buys pets as surprise gifts for the holidays without knowing 100% ahead of time that the person you are giving the pet to is going to be able to take care of it and wants to take care of it, then I hate you. You are a bad person. Pets are not fucking toys, you piece of shit. I am going to tag some Christmas tags in case some of the depraved fucks who impulse buy or gift animals instead of plushies, resulting in countless rehomed and/or abandoned animals see my post. I want you to know that I do not like you.

And before anyone tries to say that I am against having pets or that I am vegan, I am not. I have a ball python along with 7 cats. (One of the cats I grabbed off the street a few months ago, and she gave birth to 5 kittens. They are adorable.) I also quite enjoy eating meat. I, however, do not fucking enjoy people who do not respect animals, or do not do proper research before getting pets.

most of you probably know by now that Betta fish can't actually live in little bowls. they need a bare minimum of 5 gallon tanks, and filters and heaters. but a lot of pet stores are still keeping them in bowls or even small unventilated containers.

so here's what I've been doing, and I would be very grateful if you could do the same: every time I need to go to a pet store, I look at how the Bettas are kept, and if they're not in proper tanks, I call or email the corporate contact and tell them what's happening, specifically mentioning any visibly sick fish and implying that I think the only reason this is happening is because the company didn't know, because they would *never* allow this, right? I'm always told that they'll do something about it right away, and I'm always fairly sure they're lying. but I think it could make a difference if it's not just me. if these companies recognize that there are a good number of people who know this isn't ok and they could actually lose a considerable amount of customers if they keep blowing us off or lying, they might actually do something.