Pets at home adoption

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[email protected] said:
I am Beginning to fill sorry i put this message on as it seams to be starting an argument i did not mean to upset anyone i just like seeing animals put in small cages and not allowed to run around and express themselves.
I was annoyed that my local pets at home thought it was OK to keep all 6guineas in 1 tank that is not even big enough for 1 guinea to be in and they have so many of their own stock run around in a pen that is no bigger than 3ft i could not tell how many where in it. Some of the staff if you ask them a question they don't know the answer or tell you to ask someone else. They keep all new adoptive pets out the back for 7 days in quarantine so i was told is this long enough.
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They would have strict guidelines for quarantine purposes and would be advised by a vet! If you ferel the cage size was not big enough, bring it up with the manager and take a photo of it and forward it to their head office stating size regulations! :)p
 
Debate is good, its not nasty. There will always be difference of opinion. :)
 
Tis just a bit pointless constantly debating P@H in general rather than addressing the specific problem. I think with cage size you are best speaking to their management or making a formal complaint. The owners of P@H want to keep customers happy hence why most stores now seem to be improving by the month even. If you complain to them they will sort it out, it doesn't benefit them to ignore you. I've never had a problem with any local stores but i'm sure if i mentioned something like this they would do their best to sort it out. I'm hoping the improvement shown in various P@H stores will soon extend to all their stores. I understand that some are awful but the fact that there are a good few stores out there that are up to scratch shows that the company as a whole is trying to better itself. Which is more than can be said for basically every independent pet shop i've seen in my area. In an ideal world everyone would go to rescues but people are always going to go to pet stores and i'd rather they got their animals from somewhere like p@h than keeping the horrendous independent stores open. I don't know why i'm saying this as i've just said it was pointless! This is what sundays do to me :)) xx
 
LOL Clare! Yeah them the one up your end is horrific with the garden centre! And the one this end with the fisheries well they were banned around 2001 but got the licence back after the owners said they wouldn't stock reptiles!

In the ideal world no shops would house animals but thats never going to happen, despite people saying lets make a petition, it will never work. It's people before animals, thats how the government think (and I believe with that) all we can do is badger them to provide good standards of living and complain if we have to.

Ooo Will I be lynched now for putting people above animals! :(|) The hills, the hills...I'm running to them! :o
 
jnenbnb said:
Tis just a bit pointless constantly debating P@H in general rather than addressing the specific problem. I think with cage size you are best speaking to their management or making a formal complaint. The owners of P@H want to keep customers happy hence why most stores now seem to be improving by the month even. If you complain to them they will sort it out, it doesn't benefit them to ignore you. I've never had a problem with any local stores but i'm sure if i mentioned something like this they would do their best to sort it out. I'm hoping the improvement shown in various P@H stores will soon extend to all their stores. I understand that some are awful but the fact that there are a good few stores out there that are up to scratch shows that the company as a whole is trying to better itself. Which is more than can be said for basically every independent pet shop i've seen in my area. In an ideal world everyone would go to rescues but people are always going to go to pet stores and i'd rather they got their animals from somewhere like p@h than keeping the horrendous independent stores open. I don't know why i'm saying this as i've just said it was pointless! This is what sundays do to me :)) xx
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And you more or less just repeated what I said earlier tee hee :)p
 
The things you miss when you don't log on for a day :))

My biggest problem with Pets at Home so called 'adoption' is that they don't home check and they don't have a minimum donation for a rescue pet... you can give whatever you like, which as already stated makes them a 'cheap' option given the price of their sales pen pigs, and as already mentioned, it works on a 'tugging at the heart-strings' level.

I've seen very few genuine adoptions in our local Pets at Home stores, they are just used as overflow when pigs or other animals get too big to look cute in the sale pens.

I work in marketing and PR and they're doing a good job of making it look like they're being responsible... without actually taking responsiblity i.e homechecks.

Anyway, we'll probably all agree to disagree. If you don't like it, don't buy from them.

Sophie
x
 
One of mine - a beautiful Sheltie called Buttercup - came from the adoption section and I absolutely adore her, she is SUCH a character. I also have a friend who adopted an older boar from there - he had been found wandering in someone's garden and he has a great home with her now. I think it's very good and it raises awareness of rescues.
 
sophiew said:
The things you miss when you don't log on for a day :))

My biggest problem with Pets at Home so called 'adoption' is that they don't home check and they don't have a minimum donation for a rescue pet... you can give whatever you like, which as already stated makes them a 'cheap' option given the price of their sales pen pigs, and as already mentioned, it works on a 'tugging at the heart-strings' level.

I've seen very few genuine adoptions in our local Pets at Home stores, they are just used as overflow when pigs or other animals get too big to look cute in the sale pens.

I work in marketing and PR and they're doing a good job of making it look like they're being responsible... without actually taking responsiblity i.e homechecks.

Anyway, we'll probably all agree to disagree. If you don't like it, don't buy from them.

Sophie
x
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HAHA, I have never heard of pet shops home checking any customers before lol good one :)p Not only that I have known some rescues to not homecheck either!
 
I won't shop at pets at home. All I have got from them is sick piggies and bad attitude, I used to get my pig food from them until I got Charlotte and Millie. They spent a month in and out of the vets and then Millie died. I got all my money back for vet bills but the manager was so horrible about it and not sympathetic at all, just cross he had to refund £160. I have heard all sorts of things from friends who won't go there either, rats being picked up by their tails and animals being PTS just to make room for "new stock". Our pets at home doesn't have many animals in the "adoption" area but the ones they do are just ones they haven't sold yet. I won't support them at all and nobody can tell me otherwise, I am getting my new pigs from a real rescue centre.
 
sophiew said:
The things you miss when you don't log on for a day :))

My biggest problem with Pets at Home so called 'adoption' is that they don't home check and they don't have a minimum donation for a rescue pet... you can give whatever you like, which as already stated makes them a 'cheap' option given the price of their sales pen pigs, and as already mentioned, it works on a 'tugging at the heart-strings' level.

I've seen very few genuine adoptions in our local Pets at Home stores, they are just used as overflow when pigs or other animals get too big to look cute in the sale pens.

I work in marketing and PR and they're doing a good job of making it look like they're being responsible... without actually taking responsiblity i.e homechecks.

Anyway, we'll probably all agree to disagree. If you don't like it, don't buy from them.

Sophie
x
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I absolutely agree, Sophie. I also have experience in Marketing Communications, both in an academic sense and also through working in PR and you're right that P@H are doing an excellent job (as can be read in this thread) of coming across as the good guys.

Businesses, and P@H as part of a larger American corporation (which does NOT have a good reputation), are smart. They also have one goal: to gain profit from their target market. When a business identifies another market and they are either doing well in their current market or they are failing in their target market they will attempt to leek into a niche of their target market. In P@H they originally targeted people with an interest in animals and animal ownership.

However, ethical and moral awareness (fair trade) is becoming important in society nowadays and the big bosses realised there was a market for adoptions. Adoptions, to a niche of their target market, is more appealing than "bought" and carries with it the attachment of meaning that you have rescued or taken into your home out of the kindness of your heart. It sounds less commercial.

Call me jaded, but from working alongside many different companies, studying marketing and learning about everything else connected with pet shops (where stock comes from) which comes along with the pet-shop//rescue debate, I'm more likely to slide along with Sophie than to believe that P@H have decided to start fresh on a new ethical leaf.

My saying this does not mean that those who have bought pets from P@H or any other pet shop own or love their pigs any less than I do. If you're okay with your decision then that's fine. It also doesn't mean that each branch of P@H is evil or negligent of their animals welfare - by all means, praise your branch of P@H to the high heavens if you're happy with it and place your support where you want (it is, after all, your money; your time; your morals/ethics and I'm not out to question it) - but do not misunderstand the intentions of a business, of P@H and it's American founder (Petsmart? Petco, I can't remember which) as a whole - while you do this.
 
piggyme234 said:
I won't shop at pets at home. All I have got from them is sick piggies and bad attitude, I used to get my pig food from them until I got Charlotte and Millie. They spent a month in and out of the vets and then Millie died. I got all my money back for vet bills but the manager was so horrible about it and not sympathetic at all, just cross he had to refund £160. I have heard all sorts of things from friends who won't go there either, rats being picked up by their tails and animals being PTS just to make room for "new stock". Our pets at home doesn't have many animals in the "adoption" area but the ones they do are just ones they haven't sold yet. I won't support them at all and nobody can tell me otherwise, I am getting my new pigs from a real rescue centre.
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I'm sorry that you had to go through the heartbreak of getting a new pig, fighting for them and then having one sadly pass on.

I following the livejournal of someone who works for Petco, she's honest in the posts that she makes about her work under the understanding that her stories can go no further than her journal while she works there. Sometimes I wish she'd be less honest; the treatment of the reptiles and guinea pigs - especially when they are ill - is so poor. And it's not that the store or management is bad, it's because they simply don't have the budget to provide the right basic care for them. :(
 
One thing you will not see P@H doing is jumping on the marketing bandwagon for G-Force! lol :)p
 
I'm not a fan of Pets at Home, or their adoption scheme. My hamster came from an unexpected litter from a Pets at Home hamster, and when the shocked owner rang the store they were told that they would take the babies back and rehome them via the adoption scheme! rolleyes

However, I do feel that Pets at Home have improved significantly over the last few years, as opposed to all the smaller independent pet shops I've been in; I am yet to find one that sells any decent sized hutches, cages etc. In addition, rabbits and guinea pigs have been split up in all Pets at Home stores I've been in recently.

Personally, I'd only adopt an animal via their scheme if I had exhausted all other rescue options.
 
pelicano said:
I'm not a fan of Pets at Home, or their adoption scheme. My hamster came from an unexpected litter from a Pets at Home hamster, and when the shocked owner rang the store they were told that they would take the babies back and rehome them via the adoption scheme! rolleyes

However, I do feel that Pets at Home have improved significantly over the last few years, as opposed to all the smaller independent pet shops I've been in; I am yet to find one that sells any decent sized hutches, cages etc. In addition, rabbits and guinea pigs have been split up in all Pets at Home stores I've been in recently.

Personally, I'd only adopt an animal via their scheme if I had exhausted all other rescue options.
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Again it also comes back to whether you would leave a piggy or other animal if you felt you could care for it, if you really liked it would you leave it? It then comes down to your morals whether you feel more strongly about not buying from a pet shop or to rescue said pet? Which would you do? Hmmm
 
PetCook said:
One thing you will not see P@H doing is jumping on the marketing bandwagon for G-Force! lol :)p
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I'm honestly not sure that they need to promote G-force in order to benefit from the guinea pig hype that has been predicted (just like that which happened after Finding Nemo and Ratatouille) in wake of the movie. People are pretty good at connecting the dots that they'll be able to get a guinea pig from a pet shop and P@H is there to meet that demand. CA-CHING!
 
teadragon said:
I'm honestly not sure that they need to promote G-force in order to benefit from the guinea pig hype that has been predicted (just like that which happened after Finding Nemo and Ratatouille) in wake of the movie. People are pretty good at connecting the dots that they'll be able to get a guinea pig from a pet shop and P@H is there to meet that demand. CA-CHING!
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There is one thing they will do and advise correctly to people when buying as they will be aware of the problems caused by said issues! :)p

Ooooh btw, I think you should all smile bigger hehe
 
Our Pets at Home is very good. They have links with the local Pet Rescue who check the animals out.
 
PetCook said:
There is one thing they will do and advise correctly to people when buying as they will be aware of the problems caused by said issues! :)p

Ooooh btw, I think you should all smile bigger hehe
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Will they... will they really? I think teadragon said it... CHA CHING indeed. They will be too dazzled by the pound signs. Funny how they never seemed to discourage people buying rats because of Ratatouille {:|
 
daftscotslass said:
Will they... will they really? I think teadragon said it... CHA CHING indeed. They will be too dazzled by the pound signs. Funny how they never seemed to discourage people buying rats because of Ratatouille {:|
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I really don't think thats the case! Although I can see some of you walking up and down outside with plaquards on shouting out the evil ways of Pets at Home! Hehe :<>
 
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