P@H, wondering if I did right thing?

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catherine

catherine

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I am quite new on this forum, and have quite a back story which I will explain. Firstly I would like to say I am very very pro rescue, and volunteer for the RSPCA weekly.

I rescued two neutered boars in August, I specifically asked if they had been fighting or showing any signs of it and was told that they never had. They were 12 weeks old and had just been neutered. The old family lost interest.

2 months later, after much bullying of Marley by Dylan, they started full on fighting and after buddy bathing them and trying to re-bond I made the decision to re-home Dylan. Went back to the rescue I got them from and explained and they were very helpful in finding another home for Dylan with someone they knew well. Lady came around to pick Dylan up and we had a chat, I find out that when they were brought into rescue they were fighting horribly and they had got them neutered to try and sort them out. So, lied to by first rescue.

Went to different rescue to find 1 or 2 sows as company for Marley, he ended up taking a shine to an Abby and a baby coronet. Decided to take both - Abby had babies so had to wait 2 weeks for her. I was told the Abby (Bella) was 9 months old. Was told the coronet (now Mabel) was 6 weeks old. Got Mabel home to find she developed a nasty fungal infection around her eye that 4 weeks later still has not cleared properly. Also find out by weighing her that there is no way she was 6 weeks old, she was max 3 weeks old at 150g mallethead

Went to pick up Bella when she had finished nursing her babies 2 weeks ago. She looked scrawny and upon getting her home I found she had very nasty sores all over her body, selnick mites... I treated her at expense to me and bathed her twice weekly til it cleared. Then I was just having a casual chat with a different lady at the rescue who said they missed Bella as they had her as a sticky pig for 2 years......so I probed a bit and found out that Bella was 4 years old! To make this worse she was now bullying Mabel horribly, so, after being lied to and given 2 ill animals by second rescue, I actually took Bella back to them.

Went into P@H on Thursday to get some litter pellets and made the mistake of walking past the adoption centre. There were 4 sows that had ringworm and had been treated and placed up for adoption. One of them really caught my eye, I watched them for a good 10 minutes to assess her temperament and she seemed very calm and submissive to the others, she was also friendly, I was putting my hand upto the glass with her the other side and she was trying to sniff me, rather than running away as the others did.

Now I am totally against buying pets from petstores, I hate the idea of it. However, I knew little about the adoption centre so asked a member of staff who told me it was a donation and it all went to charity (though he couldnt specify which one when I asked him). Given the recent bad experience of rescue centre's I decided to take her home, on the basis that the donation I was giving would be going to charity and not into P@H profits (and that P@H had lost money on this piggy so encouraging them to stop selling animals).

The new piggy, now called Molly, is settled in wonderfully already, she is a happy healthy Swiss and has the most beautiful markings. I, however, am wondering now whether my donation did go to the right place. It was a very rare thing for me to do and while I don't regret it at all because Molly is a complete darling, I really hope I wasn't lied to by the staff there :/

Sorry about the long story, but does anyone know for sure whether the donation goes to a rescue or just to P@H?

Thanks
Catherine
 
I know many people are VERY against P@H, but in my opinion, what would have happened if you hadn't adopted that little piggy? at least she has a home now and personally i think that's all that matters :)
 
I honestly don't know where the adoption donation goes, my gut reaction would be that it goes in P@H's pocket though. However, they probably did spend more on Molly than you gave them. What awful experiences you've had with rescues! They're not all like that I promise. Can't really blame you after all that for not trusting a third.

Molly sounds lovely.
 
Right, I've just done a huge amount of research and it seems as if the adoption money goes towards the P@H 'Support Adoption Charity', info below

At Pets at Home we are passionate about pets. We believe that every pet deserves a loving home and a happy and healthy life. It is this belief that led us to launch our own charity, Support Adoption For Pets.

For a number of years Pets at Home have supported a number of charities and with the support of our customers, stores and suppliers – and a lot of hard work - we raised in excess of £1.3million for pet related charities such as Hearing Dogs, Dogs for the Disabled and The Blue Cross. In addition we have built relationships with Dog’s Trust, Cat’s Protection and the Rabbit Welfare Association, all of which share our passion for animal welfare.

We’re really proud of Support Adoption For Pets; which provides much needed support to national animal welfare charities plus numerous locally-based rescue and re-homing centres which dedicate themselves to finding loving homes for pets within the community.

Am relieved it goes to a charity, however would rather it be more clear cut on exactly how much goes to each charity etc.

I probably won't do it again - I forgot to mention that the other reason I adopted from there is because there is a distinct lack of sows in local rescue centres. Both local RSPCA's had just boars and the other two local rescues were the one's I'd already had dealings with...
 
i find it very worrying that some rescues are lying, all the rescues i have read about on this forum i am sure are great, and do a fantastic job, lots of us regularly send things from wish lists etc to give them much needed support, so these other rescues are letting good ones down, and it might put people off helping good rescues, i really hope not x
 
Hey there. I can sympathise a little, I have discovered most of the rescues near me have a less than useless knowledge of guinea pigs and are fairly poor. :(

Just a few things to say, Firstly, Incase you were not aware neutering guinea pigs does not affect their behaviour so neutering wouldnt have helped your initial pair of boys unfortunatly.

Secondly, I personally do not believe anyone claiming to be a rescue yet still breeding (which they must have been with bella) can possibly have the animals best interests at heart. As I'm sure this sight will show you there are plently of piggies here already thankyou very much.

Thirdly, here is a link to a story you may find interesting. These piggies were rescued from a so called "sanctuary" A backyard breeder mascarading as a rescue. It hopefully may restore you faith that real rescues are outthere to pick up the pieces.

*if you just click the link you see when you open up my link, you can read more about their back story there*

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=79676&highlight=scabby+boys
 
Rachel WD said:
I honestly don't know where the adoption donation goes, my gut reaction would be that it goes in P@H's pocket though.
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If you gave cash and didn't get a receipt, that money could have gone into the clerk's pocket! I am glad to see that other post that said where the P@H money goes.

And about the lying - some of it has to be outright lies, as with the two fighting before neutering, but some of it, like maybe Molly's age by the rescue, could be due to pure ignorance, like the lady who told me that Redemption was 3 months old and my being totally ignorant of guinea pigs didn't know any better, and found out after being educated that he was probably not even 3 WEEKS old. Some people will say anything to avoid saying "I really don't know."

I got Salvatore at a pet store; I had been looking for a rescue pig but there are none in this area, and I felt so sorry for scrawny, dandruffy Sal being bullied by the big pigs, so I bought him. So don't feel bad for buying Molly; as was said, they probably spent more on her treatment than you gave them. Hello to Molly, and I hope she continues to do well.
 
Pat Shields said:
If you gave cash and didn't get a receipt, that money could have gone into the clerk's pocket! I am glad to see that other post that said where the P@H money goes.

And about the lying - some of it has to be outright lies, as with the two fighting before neutering, but some of it, like maybe Molly's age by the rescue, could be due to pure ignorance, like the lady who told me that Redemption was 3 months old and my being totally ignorant of guinea pigs didn't know any better, and found out after being educated that he was probably not even 3 WEEKS old. Some people will say anything to avoid saying "I really don't know."

I got Salvatore at a pet store; I had been looking for a rescue pig but there are none in this area, and I felt so sorry for scrawny, dandruffy Sal being bullied by the big pigs, so I bought him. So don't feel bad for buying Molly; as was said, they probably spent more on her treatment than you gave them. Hello to Molly, and I hope she continues to do well.
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Oh I didn't give the money directly to him, I paid on card at the till and got a receipt! On the receipt it says 'Support Adoption' so looks good.

Having only had sows before, and knowing that neutering bunnies affects their temperament (and because the rescue assured me it would) I assumed that neutering the boys would settle them down. Unfortunately I learnt the hard way that i was wrong!

Really intend to avoud P@H in future though, I will try and find different places to obtain all my supplies, though I'm not sure if I will be able to ?/
 
i have a small sanctuary and is open to visitors it is a forever home for my girls and boys, and i cetainly do not breed them, but as you rightly say not everyone is so caring, if anyone has any concerns regarding piggy welfare, please, please, please contact rspca, you could save an animal/s alot of suffering, please don't ignore it and walk away, we owe a duty of care to our friends. pookie
 
There are many online shops that sell all kinds of piggy supplies for usually less than the pet shops. :) Just as you asked...
 
Oh its so terrible to hear of your experiences with the local rescues, unfortunately its the what I would deem "rare" cases like this which encourages people to keep going to pet stores. Like you I wasn't told the full truth about all my rescue pigs, in fact Jemima was bred in rescue and her mum died shortly after birth. However, I do fully believe that the rescue did this to have someone to pair the mother with and not for profit but I still deemed it as irresponsible and as a result I refused to give a donation for her, instead I have donated directly to reputable rescues that would not under any circumstances put their pigs through labour unnecessarily
 
Rachel WD said:
I honestly don't know where the adoption donation goes, my gut reaction would be that it goes in P@H's pocket though. However, they probably did spend more on Molly than you gave them. What awful experiences you've had with rescues! They're not all like that I promise. Can't really blame you after all that for not trusting a third.

Molly sounds lovely.
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When I asked the manager of our local store she told me that she could not guarantee that 100% of the adoption money goes to the "support adoption" charity. Hence, a proportion of it probably goes to corporate for "administration" costs.
 
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