Pets at Home - Do we need to campaign and become more active rather than grumbling?!

[Layla - NSGPR]

Ok well I have just taken care of another 4 beautiful baby piggies that are unwanted.

And they have the usual story behind them, owner got 2 female piggies from pets at home, both turned out to be pregnant, Pets at Home takes no responsibility for this, now she doesn't want them, and oh yes, she miss sexed them, so the 2 females are pregnant again!

I do not understand how Pets at Home can continue to irresponsibly rehome pregnant and miss sexed guinea pigs. They now have big signs in store saying that they take no responsibility for either of these situations and will not take the babies. So they take the money and rescues pick up the pieces.

I do not know how this can continue. The local pets at home gets all its piggies from two main breeders, which I didn't realise, so there are all these unwanted piggies and they keep on breeding them, and accept no responsibility for the piggies once they are rehomed.

I had someone ask me to take a guinea pig they had only bought two weeks ago from pets at home and already wanted rid! Funny how I never get people wanting rid who have rehomed from a rescue and been thoroughly vetted.

Spoke to my mum and she recalled how focus DIY once started selling animals, similar to Pets at Home. She said that they stopped within a year as people campaigned outside the shop and held demonstrations. I'm wondering if maybe I should start more actively campaigning and publicising what goes on there. As I don't think members of the public always realise.

Anyway - just feeling very angry at the moment at the stupid people who keep contacting me with animals they no longer want and have only had for a few weeks - and thinking a rescue would never have let you adopt them!

 

[Vikki]

Each P@H case coming in gets a letter sent to head office from us regarding it and there is a rabbit rescue trying to publicise the P@H inadequacies

http://www.greenwichrabbitrescue.com/petsathomedont.htm

I agree something needs to be done to at least train staff correctly and to treat and sell animals responsibly if the trade cannot be stopped altogether.

 

[starla]

no way I didn't know focus diy had once sold animals! that's terrible.

I think it's sadly the case with most p@h stores, they sell mis sexed guinea pigs (or even more usually, mis sexed rabbits, as these are even harder to sex than pigs when young, if you don't know what you're doing!).

I have heard some will take mistaken babies back to re sell, but it's possible that due to the credit crunch thing people aren't buying animals and so they have an 'over stock' of animals.
This is really where p@h should tell the breeders to stop breeding, but some how I doubt that will happen.

 

[sccobyandfudgesmum]

hi

i got talking to a couple buying a guinea pig for their 16 year old daughter, i asked them had they considered getting a pig from a rescue as against a shop as there are a lot of unwanted pigs needing homes. They didnt know about rescues so i pointed them where they are. Hope i gave them something to thing about.

 

[Tracyxx]

All of our local PatH stores are a lot nicer than the ones I've heard about on here. However I do remember when Focus had a pet section, we brought a tiny, sickly looking baby from there and she died two days later. As a little kid I was soo upset

 

[daftscotslass]

All of our local PatH stores are a lot nicer than the ones I've heard about on here. However I do remember when Focus had a pet section, we brought a tiny, sickly looking baby from there and she died two days later. As a little kid I was soo upset

The point isn't so much the quality of the stores and the way the animals are kept. We can applaud this all we want but the fact of the matter is anyone who looks old enough can walk into one of these shops like I would a Tesco for a pint of milk and come out with a bunch of animals.

To me the whole concept of shops selling pets promotes small animals as being relatively disposable - if you buy one and it dies, they'll replace it. If it isn't right they'll take it back. As if the animals were a ripped pair of trousers or a faulty television set. Lovely.

The main reason I don't stand outside the shop picketing is because as long as there are customers and as long as they keep selling animals, this will keep happening. I see post after post on here of people who just couldn't resist that gorgeous little face in the shop but for every good owner there are another 10 who couldn't give a toss about their purchase. Because to them a purchase is what it is, not a living breathing being.

Not being a customer and encouraging others to do the same speaks volumes.

 

[Tracyxx]

Yup, you're right. They do treat them like a loaf of bread.
Back then we hadn't heard of rescuing, it wasn't as widely promoted - I'm talking 12/13 years ago, as I was about 7 years old.

 

[MemberX]

Sadly the only way to stop animals being sold in pet shops is for the government to get involved and thats never going to happen. I really think campaigning outside shops is a waste of time, can result in the arrest of people and won't do anything for the cause. So I feel the best thing to do is educate, get the word out there about guinea pig rescues as not many people know they exist.

I'm not being defeatist just realistic, pets have been sold in the UK since time began the law won't change as its big bucks for the companies, I really feel education is the key.

 

[Angeladeedah]

The other side is however, that when I wanted guinea pigs I tried the SSPCA and local adverts (don't think there are any local rescues - at least I couldn't find any other than Fife) and no-one had any or were due to get any in. I waited a while and they still didn't have any so I then went to P@H and got my 2 from there (but my local store is a really good one). The member of staff I dealt with was really good, knew her stuff but also gave me a leaflet to take home with me.

I'm maybe being naive but I don't there is such a massive problem where I am with unwanted guinea pigs (or at least, there is no-one rescueing them).

Pet shops will never go - but I think the companies/owners should have to be educated to some level on animal welfare before they are given a license and they must ensure that their staff are the same. They should also prove they still have this knowledge every year - like a gas Corgi engineer! It is also not viable for a company to do homechecks etc before allowing anyone to take a animal home - so again, doubt this would ever happen...........I think education is definitely the key.

 

[lolseh]

The other side is however, that when I wanted guinea pigs I tried the SSPCA and local adverts (don't think there are any local rescues - at least I couldn't find any other than Fife) and no-one had any or were due to get any in. I waited a while and they still didn't have any so I then went to P@H and got my 2 from there (but my local store is a really good one). The member of staff I dealt with was really good, knew her stuff but also gave me a leaflet to take home with me.

I was the same about the SSPCA. None around Glasgow had piggies so I ended up going to pet shop for Misty in the end. The same thing happend with Sooty. SSPCA had no piggies in and couldn't recomend any breeders or other rescues. I never knew there was other piggie rescues in Scotland but my health wouldn't have been up to traveling anyway.

P@H will probaly always find a way of selling animals. They advertise online the animals that they sell and the prices for them. I'm suprised they haven't found a way of selling them online and I hope they never do find a way either. The animals even have Iteam Numbers like the stock that they sell online. I suppose that's all the animals are to them though.

 

[Layla - NSGPR]

Each P@H case coming in gets a letter sent to head office from us regarding it and there is a rabbit rescue trying to publicise the P@H inadequacies

http://www.greenwichrabbitrescue.com/petsathomedont.htm

I agree something needs to be done to at least train staff correctly and to treat and sell animals responsibly if the trade cannot be stopped altogether.

I will try that, especially as now they won't display my rescues details as we are in competition apparently. Do you ever get a response back from them?

 

[susie_q]

I don't mean to be horrible and picky - but as a rescue in Scotland, there IS a lot of rescues in Scotland. Not just myself and Hels, and Sokel(who isn't in scotland, but we form an easy piggy train), but there is also thistle cavies (in argyll but I'm sure she would travel for home checks) and a woman in perthshire who does rescuing as well as boarding. She advertises on guineapigrehome. (both of which I am sure have been around for a while)

When I was looking for a friend for my current pig after his cagemate died, I just typed in "Guinea Pig Rescue, Glasgow, Scotland" into google and I got a list. In the end I ended up doing a rehome to good home from glasgow gumtree, but the point is that it isn't hard to find rescues, and cardonald cat and dog home isn't the only place to look.

And as for being on topic - I agree completely with Daftscotlass. I couldn't put it better myself.

 

[MemberX]

I agree Susie. In Merseyside though there aren't many rescues, I know of one sanctury that doesn't rehome at that is it other than the RSPCA. Here we have more of a dog problem with our gorgeous canine friends being taken down south by the RSPCA as there just aren't enough spaces for them up here.

 

[daftscotslass]

I don't mean to be horrible and picky - but as a rescue in Scotland, there IS a lot of rescues in Scotland. Not just myself and Hels, and Sokel(who isn't in scotland, but we form an easy piggy train), but there is also thistle cavies (in argyll but I'm sure she would travel for home checks) and a woman in perthshire who does rescuing as well as boarding. She advertises on guineapigrehome. (both of which I am sure have been around for a while)

When I was looking for a friend for my current pig after his cagemate died, I just typed in "Guinea Pig Rescue, Glasgow, Scotland" into google and I got a list. In the end I ended up doing a rehome to good home from glasgow gumtree, but the point is that it isn't hard to find rescues, and cardonald cat and dog home isn't the only place to look.

And as for being on topic - I agree completely with Daftscotlass. I couldn't put it better myself.

Totally agree. And people like myself would be more than happy to help people transport piggies to places nearby us and even do homechecks if that's what Thistle wanted. My first piggy after a break of a few years came from the SSPCA. Then word got out and I got another from an ex-colleague who, not surprisingly, had bought a pregnant one from P@H. The next came from the SSPCA in Ayr which is over 2 hours each way from me. The next two from Thistle and so on. It's not rocket science.

It's not a case of there being no local rescues. People just don't seem to want to go to the effort of driving any distance or contacting folk to do piggy trains. We've spent a bloody fortune picking up pigs from all over the place though I'd draw the line at driving to Aberdeenshire for one! In the last two years we've taken pigs from people who heard we have pigs through the grapevine, freecycle and Gumtree. Oh, and the SSPCA don't always have just what you see online - that site is rarely updated. Bothwell Bridge is regularly inundated with guinea pigs.

It's not defeatist to say that pet shops will keep selling animals because in all honesty I don't think that market will ever disappear. But those of us who do have the luxury of education on the matter CAN do better.

 

[Angeladeedah]

Being totally new to guinea pigs at the time - I had never heard of a piggy train until I came on here and the only rescue that I could be referred to was Thistle Cavies - I am not aware of any in the Edinburgh area but if you know of one, please let me know as I may look to get 2 boys later next year (which I will get from a rescue). I googled for a rescue in Edinburgh/East Lothian and none came up.

And I didn't just look on the SSPCA website, I phoned them on many occasions to see if they had any guinea pigs or knew of anywhere - and the couldn't help me.

 

[susie_q]

Well, you don't need to just look in edinburgh - I'm in glasgow and getting piggies to you is not exactly a giagantic feat if your willing to help out with petrol costs. ask your local vets, check your local papers. There may even be smaller scale animal rescues that aren't exclusively small furries that have piggies in.

 

[helenllama]

I am in Edinburgh and got my first piggies from Helen and Graham, even though I had to go via train.
I am also willing to help with homechecks etc for people rescuing in Edinburgh/

 

[Layla - NSGPR]

Well thank you all for your useful suggestions.

I think from what you are saying it may be better to make rescues more well known - although I guess the people I would not rehome to will go and buy from pet shops, so those poor piggies will end up here in the end again anyway.

On the more big scale I have written to my local MP who is very pro animal so I will see if there is anything brewing in parliament or anything he can suggest. He has championed a lot of animal welfare issues.

I am also going to try to get more publicity about what happens to the animals from pet shops, so that maybe people become more aware. Maybe after Christmas will be a good time, when I'm sure unwanted christmas presents from pet shops will be dumped at the rescue. May be this being publicised will help a little bit and those who aren't aware there are local rescues will known where to look.

If campaigning worked before (i.e. Focus) maybe it can work again. I would prefer to try to do something than just keep grumbling about it. This irresponsible selling cannot continue from such big companies, nothing changes without some action.

 

[Angeladeedah]

Like most people, I was pretty clueless about rescues at the time of getting my 2 girls but I searched locally and couldn't find anywhere - the nearest one being Perthshire. I don't like travelling to places I don't know myself which is one of the reasons why I didn't go there - and no-one would go with me.

I can totally understand why people buy from pet shops though - most people will not travel that distance to get a pet (I'm just being honest!). However, by joining a forum like this you learn information and gain experience and its through this that I would now only get future animals from rescues - I would just have to make myself go alone.

 

[Angeladeedah]

I think from what you are saying it may be better to make rescues more well known - although I guess the people I would not rehome to will go and buy from pet shops, so those poor piggies will end up here in the end again anyway.

On the more big scale I have written to my local MP who is very pro animal so I will see if there is anything brewing in parliament or anything he can suggest. He has championed a lot of animal welfare issues.

I am also going to try to get more publicity about what happens to the animals from pet shops, so that maybe people become more aware. Maybe after Christmas will be a good time, when I'm sure unwanted christmas presents from pet shops will be dumped at the rescue. May be this being publicised will help a little bit and those who aren't aware there are local rescues will known where to look.

I think they are great ideas - there isn't a lot of information out there regarding rescues and the amount of animals that end up in rescues. I didn't realise the full extent of it until I joined this forum. And as I have just pointed out there are no local rescues that I am aware of in the Edinburgh/East Lothian area so there are no articles in the local press etc giving information to people.

 

[Juniper]

SSPCA had no piggies in and couldn't recomend any breeders or other rescues.

There are show breeders in Scotland but they are few and far between.

As I live not far from the border, I am fully aware of which breeds they keep - and sorry but I’ve looked on the Thistle & SSPCA websites and it is so obvious that the crossbred/inbred cr@p that they have to rehome have come from P@H and backyard breeders (the pair currently on the SSPCA website are classic P@H types).

I just find it incredibly frustrating that because of the rubbish P@H churn out …only to be recycled as rescue pigs a few months later….all breeders are damned. It just happens that in 30yrs of keeping pigs the cleanest, most organised, luxury shed I have ever visited belonged to a Scottish breeder!

If only we could stop P@H selling 80,000 deliberately bred wasters per year, bring in a licensed/inspected breeding system for private breeders (yes, my partner & I would welcome this with open arms) there wouldn’t be the problem we have now.

 

[summerleaze]

I would like to point out Juniper that any reference to "wasters" , "rubbish" and "cr@p" in terms of guinea pigs (rescue or otherwise) I find deeply offensive. I here enough talk from farmers in those terms about livestock - something which I could never consider guinea pigs to be. In addition it's naive to think that guinea pigs bought direct from a registered breeder wouldn't end up in rescue - I've got some here and always have, unwanted just as well as the petshop whims.


Back to topic ..............

Education is of course the key and if everyone with an interest in guinea pig welfare was more active in that area it could make a difference.

Last year I printed a small poster about rescue guinea pigs and gave my telephone number. I spent an afternoon going through the Yellow Pages and sent the poster to every vet practice/petshop/boarding cattery,kennels plus a few other places. It only cost me a few pounds but it has proved a great success and so many people have contacted me because of the posters, nearly all remarking that they didn't know guinea pig rescues existed.

I'm delighted that many of these people have boycotted their local pet shop and consequently have rehomed several of my rescue pigs.
It's a small achievement but the message can be got out there.

Anna at Wheek and Squeek has had alot of problems with Pets at Home guinea pigs - she has had quite a lot of communication with Head Office. It may be worth contacting her too. (Cavylover on this forum)

So in reply to your question, any action is better than doing nothing. Even "little people" like me can spread the word !

 

[lincolnsmommy]

I would like to point out Juniper that any reference to "wasters" , "rubbish" and "cr@p" in terms of guinea pigs (rescue or otherwise) I find deeply offensive. I here enough talk from farmers in those terms about livestock - something which I could never consider guinea pigs to be. In addition it's naive to think that guinea pigs bought direct from a registered breeder wouldn't end up in rescue - I've got some here and always have, unwanted just as well as the petshop whims.

I totally agree. I think that was quite offensive also

 

[sophiew (EAGPR)]

Couldn't agree more... it's as much about awareness as anything! Lots of people are genuinely surprised that a) there is a need for guinea pig rescues and b) that you can get a rescued guinea pig the same as you can a cat or dog.

Most people that I rehome to are willing to travel much further afield to get a rescue pig rather than go to their nearest breeder or pet shop. I've travelled to one, took me about an hour or so, they had a large Pets at Home at the bottom of their road and gave me a larger donation than P@H would have charged for a pair of guineas....

I'm not going to enter the 'pigs are healthier from breeders than rescue debate' because it will end in raised tempers... all I can say is the most unhealthy pigs I have here are from a 'breeder' and they're going to be in pain for the rest of their (short) lives. I've got pigs from breeders myself too, and they are lovely healthy pigs.... but all sorts of pigs end up in rescue, I've got a satin agouti who was dumped in a ditch, and a lovely Peru boar who was unwanted... just because they're well bred doesn't mean they don't end up in rescue.

People will always buy pigs from pet shops but if we can spread awareness about the numbers of pigs in rescue, people will come to us...

It doesn't help that some of the larger 'rescue' organisations (RPSCA etc) marginalise the 'small animals' and often don't have facilities for them like they do cats and dogs. Also heard recently that large places like Wood Green are turning pigs away to independent rescues.... !

Sophie
x

 

[MarthaAndMaud]

Fair enough Pets at Home might have their faults, but having just spent three weekends at the Norwich branches I can honestly say that I was very happy to see clean, well fed, healthy guinea pigs in all stores.

Further to the comment about government intervention, if this was to go ahead and the only way was to go direct to breeders it would create so many more problems with unhealthy, inbred guinea pigs being bred for a quick £5.

If only you knew how the last two batches of guinea pigs that we rescued from breeders are coming along, including death, eye sores, still born pregnancies and the usual lice and mites then you might just think that pets at home aren't all that bad. At least their guinea pigs are checked before being sold to the public. The last two breeders I have dealt with couldn't care less what condition they are sold........

If any of you really care about the basic, fundamental rights that all animals should have, you should be targeting animal testing labs and abattoirs.

 

[MemberX]

Totally agree Sophie. I only have to look at our Jasper he is show standard and came to rescue for being unwanted (this was before Trudy took him and sadly she had to rehome him because she couldn't take him to her new home.) The same happened with Tika, ok shes a bunny but she was returned to breeder for being ugly! Far from it she is a stunning Simese Sable Doe bunny again probably show quality. It's not just the cross breeds that end up in rescue.

Anyway being told up by Peter to stop typing as he is trying to get the kids to sleep! |)

 

[daftscotslass]

I think they are great ideas - there isn't a lot of information out there regarding rescues and the amount of animals that end up in rescues. I didn't realise the full extent of it until I joined this forum. And as I have just pointed out there are no local rescues that I am aware of in the Edinburgh/East Lothian area so there are no articles in the local press etc giving information to people.

Interestingly enough the piggies I've picked up have all been from Edinburgh/Lothians. Penicuik and Broxburn were the latest lot. I'm sure it is just a case of there being no rescues there (Lothian SSPCA do get pigs in occasionally), however there certainly are pigs in need.

Edited to add: Interestingly enough many of the pigs at Thistle ARE from breeders originally. There are many, many more than you can see on the website. There are satins, satin carriers and skinny carriers. They will never be rehomed in case they fall into unknowledgeable hands.

 

[Angeladeedah]

I'm really surprised that in such a large area there is no rescue centre other than the SSPCA but I did honestly look before I bought my 2 girls.

Next time my piggies will be from a rescue, no matter what - I just need to convince one of my friends/family to chum me and they all think I'm nuts as it is - so think that might be a journey I'll have to try on my own.

 

[daftscotslass]

Well if you need help looking or with transport give me a shout and I'll help as best I can

 

[Layla - NSGPR]

I would like to point out Juniper that any reference to "wasters" , "rubbish" and "cr@p" in terms of guinea pigs (rescue or otherwise) I find deeply offensive. I here enough talk from farmers in those terms about livestock - something which I could never consider guinea pigs to be. In addition it's naive to think that guinea pigs bought direct from a registered breeder wouldn't end up in rescue - I've got some here and always have, unwanted just as well as the petshop whims.


Back to topic ..............

Education is of course the key and if everyone with an interest in guinea pig welfare was more active in that area it could make a difference.

Last year I printed a small poster about rescue guinea pigs and gave my telephone number. I spent an afternoon going through the Yellow Pages and sent the poster to every vet practice/petshop/boarding cattery,kennels plus a few other places. It only cost me a few pounds but it has proved a great success and so many people have contacted me because of the posters, nearly all remarking that they didn't know guinea pig rescues existed.

I'm delighted that many of these people have boycotted their local pet shop and consequently have rehomed several of my rescue pigs.
It's a small achievement but the message can be got out there.

Anna at Wheek and Squeek has had alot of problems with Pets at Home guinea pigs - she has had quite a lot of communication with Head Office. It may be worth contacting her too. (Cavylover on this forum)

So in reply to your question, any action is better than doing nothing. Even "little people" like me can spread the word !

Thanks this is really useful. I have already started targeting vets and sending posters to them. Every time I rehome I always think, wonderful two more rescue piggies rehomed, and 2 less bought from a pet shop!