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A new pet shop in Epping but selling rabbits

seagreen

Warren Scout
OMG, popped into the new pet shop in Epping to check it out & found they are selling rabbits which the shop owner happily told me that her husband breeds himself.

Fingers crossed that they have to close the business before Christmas & certainly before Easter.

I avoid going past/near the pet shop in Ongar as they have small hutches for sale outside & now I'll dread going near that end of Epping high street.
 
pet shop in Epping but selling rabbits

Where abouts is that:?is it in the High street:?I was over there a few weeks ago house hunting but didn't see a pet shop:cry:
I will have a look next time i go overe to Epping or should that be have a moan about them selling rabbits:evil:
 
Hi, I own that terrible pet shop in Ongar and am really hurt by your post. We do not sell animals as we do not believe that a shop is the right place to keep them, but to dig me out for selling hutches beggars belief. Maybe if you were to take the time to come into the shop and speak to me, you'd get a better idea of who we are and the work we do for rescue animals.

I assume you grow your own food for your pets as I've never seen a pet store that does't sell hutches and please don't try to tell me hat Pets at Home sell hutches and animals but care for them properly and have "rescue sections".

please come and see me and my wife before judging us
 
Hi, I own that terrible pet shop in Ongar and am really hurt by your post. We do not sell animals as we do not believe that a shop is the right place to keep them, but to dig me out for selling hutches beggars belief. Maybe if you were to take the time to come into the shop and speak to me, you'd get a better idea of who we are and the work we do for rescue animals.

I assume you grow your own food for your pets as I've never seen a pet store that does't sell hutches and please don't try to tell me hat Pets at Home sell hutches and animals but care for them properly and have "rescue sections".

please come and see me and my wife before judging us

She didn't say yours was a terrible pet shop, just that she had an issue with the sizes of the hutches you were selling.
 
Hi, I own that terrible pet shop in Ongar and am really hurt by your post. We do not sell animals as we do not believe that a shop is the right place to keep them, but to dig me out for selling hutches beggars belief. Maybe if you were to take the time to come into the shop and speak to me, you'd get a better idea of who we are and the work we do for rescue animals.

I assume you grow your own food for your pets as I've never seen a pet store that does't sell hutches and please don't try to tell me hat Pets at Home sell hutches and animals but care for them properly and have "rescue sections".

please come and see me and my wife before judging us

so what sort of work do you for rescue animals? :)
 
Just to put me down because of the size of a hutch is ridiculous. The hutches I have had outside are there to draw attention to the shop, as to feed my family and our rescue animals we need to have customers and as I am here alone for most of the week I have to have items outside that I can handle by myself. When customers enquire about hutches we advise much larger accomodation and give advice on diet, care and enrichment. We do not and will not ever stock animals due to welfare issues we do not see animals as stock and the thought of animal wholesalers repulses us , we always give addresses and phone numbers of rescue organisations for people to hopefully find pets,and advise against buying any animal from a pet shop. We have been criticsized by some customers for not stocking pets "call yourself a pet shop?" and been told by many reps that we could significantly increase our takings if we did, but we are genuine animal lovers who have a pet shop to earn our living but will never exploit the very creatures we supply care items for. I am hurt that a person who has judged us purely on an item seen outside without ever speaking to us or seeing the shop as it is now and is actively telling people how bad we are in a public forum is unfair and unecessary.This shop had an atrocious reputation prior to us taking it on, when we bought the business it was with a pet shop license so we could easily have traded in animals but we don't agree with it and the state of this place proved to us that these licenses are not worth the paper they are written on. We actively promote rescue animals, dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, chickens, etc all victims of human impulse purchases then given up on as soon as they become inconvenient or the battery farming industry, we are involved in the fight against puppy farming and regularly donate through our business to various animal charities for those customers who choose to give their loyalty stamps to an animal charity we also donate privately to dogs trust. This person has slighted us by saying she cannot even walk past the shop this gives the impression that we are evil, not the case. We promote healthy eating for pets and give advice where needed on issues of animal welfare we have no time for those going to pet shops just to view the animals as a day out for the kids and always state strongly why we don't sell animals! The hutch is an example and as we said we will always advise accomodation safe and appropriate for the animal concerned based on their welfare rather than our profits. Please please do not judge a small business on one persons uninformed reactionary opinion we are working hard for our family and do not need this unjustified criticism, we have a good reputation locally as we have changed this shop from one which deserved a bad reputation into one doing it's best to promote animal welfare and we are very proud of. Thanks, just had to put our side across as we also cannot bear bad pet shops but pets do need supplies for their care and our love of animals has drawn us to this industry. Alan and Angela and family.
 
Just to put me down because of the size of a hutch is ridiculous. The hutches I have had outside are there to draw attention to the shop, as to feed my family and our rescue animals we need to have customers and as I am here alone for most of the week I have to have items outside that I can handle by myself. When customers enquire about hutches we advise much larger accomodation and give advice on diet, care and enrichment. We do not and will not ever stock animals due to welfare issues we do not see animals as stock and the thought of animal wholesalers repulses us , we always give addresses and phone numbers of rescue organisations for people to hopefully find pets,and advise against buying any animal from a pet shop. We have been criticsized by some customers for not stocking pets "call yourself a pet shop?" and been told by many reps that we could significantly increase our takings if we did, but we are genuine animal lovers who have a pet shop to earn our living but will never exploit the very creatures we supply care items for. I am hurt that a person who has judged us purely on an item seen outside without ever speaking to us or seeing the shop as it is now and is actively telling people how bad we are in a public forum is unfair and unecessary.This shop had an atrocious reputation prior to us taking it on, when we bought the business it was with a pet shop license so we could easily have traded in animals but we don't agree with it and the state of this place proved to us that these licenses are not worth the paper they are written on. We actively promote rescue animals, dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, chickens, etc all victims of human impulse purchases then given up on as soon as they become inconvenient or the battery farming industry, we are involved in the fight against puppy farming and regularly donate through our business to various animal charities for those customers who choose to give their loyalty stamps to an animal charity we also donate privately to dogs trust. This person has slighted us by saying she cannot even walk past the shop this gives the impression that we are evil, not the case. We promote healthy eating for pets and give advice where needed on issues of animal welfare we have no time for those going to pet shops just to view the animals as a day out for the kids and always state strongly why we don't sell animals! The hutch is an example and as we said we will always advise accomodation safe and appropriate for the animal concerned based on their welfare rather than our profits. Please please do not judge a small business on one persons uninformed reactionary opinion we are working hard for our family and do not need this unjustified criticism, we have a good reputation locally as we have changed this shop from one which deserved a bad reputation into one doing it's best to promote animal welfare and we are very proud of. Thanks, just had to put our side across as we also cannot bear bad pet shops but pets do need supplies for their care and our love of animals has drawn us to this industry. Alan and Angela and family.

Good on you, and it is a shame that people have jumped to conclusions and not actually gone in to speak to you.
Good luck for the future x
 
eeerrrmm ok quick question so if your not selling the small hutches outside your shop why bother having them? why not just have the legal requirement sized hutch outside? wouldnt that be easier to show people the size of the hutch that is required of them to have?
 
it sounds like you are a good owner and do give out plent of advice but you still can't really blame her for getting annoyed about the small hutches, she's just as passionate as you are about animal wealthfare and at the end of the day everyone has a different way of expressing it. she found it disturbing and alot of people who do loves their animals and go into some pet shops end up coming out deflated. i can understand that you have to load and unload things in and out of the shop but is there nothing else you could put outside instead to attract customers in? i have to say as a customer it doesn't attract me into a shop. you could always do up a wall with all the hutches that you sell. it's pleasing to hear that you don't sell animals and i'm sure sea green will now feel comfortable going in. hope you can stick around. :wave:
 
So, if someone wanted to buy one of the small hutches that are only outside your shop to draw attention to it, would you turn down the sale? What size are these hutches?

People that are passionate about rabbit welfare would definately have preconceived ideas about the type of establishment you are running due to the size of the hutches visible to the general public. I often comment on the size of hutches outside petshops and yes it would deter me from buying from somewhere that stocked small accomodation.

Even if you are advising the public to buy large accomodation, unfortunately when people see small hutches they will think that this is the acceptable way to house rabbits.
 
I don't have enough room inside to display a whole wall of hutches as much as I would like to. Outside the shop at the moment we have 1 guinea pig hutch, 3 signs, 1 Parrot cage, a bin for people to donate food to a local rescue kennel and a bird table. In the past we have had chicken coops, RABBIT hutches, bird houses and some other bits.
The trouble is that we have been told by many people that when people are looking for a pet shop, they look for things like hutches, bird tables and the like and as there appear to be so many people in Ongar who do not even know of the existence of the shop, and others who, rightly, wopuld never have entered the shop in its previous incarnation, we need to let it be known that we are here.
 
So they are advertised as guinea pig hutches? You sound a nice person to me x
 
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have you tried doing a little advertising in your local paper and have like an new open day with a special discount on that day or something.
 
Why is there this assumption that the hutch is for rabbits? The hutch outside at the moment is a guinea pig hutch and measures 3 feet although we only got this particular one for a lady for hedgehogs, we bought two, (she bought one). We would only reccomend it for 1 (not advised) or 2 guinea pigs and not for rabbits. We always ask people what the intend to house in the hutches and advise appropriately.
If anyone out there could see there way clear to asisting me every morning and evening to get the larger hutches in and out, I'll certainly be up for it, we only sell decent hutches which aren't that light and being an unfit fat bloke, it's just not that easy!!
 
We've spent a small fortune on advertising to let everyone know that the shop has changed hands and have had several open days to show off the improvements but obviously some people don't want to give us a chance
 
Still have to store them somewhere at night i.e. in the shop, better to have small representative hutches outside with signs indicating that larger ones are available and in stock.
 
A new shop in Epping but selling rabbits

Hi bubblespetcare:wave:and welcome to the forum:DI thought it was wrong about your pet shop being in Epping as i was looking for a pet shop but there wasn't one:cry:(every time i go out i try to get a present for my disabled kitty and wanted a toy mouse for her) so you are in Ongar:?that,s next on my househunting list so i may be giving you a visit to check on your catnip mouse collection:lol:
It,s good to have someone who actually own,s a pet shop on here as you seem to care about the size of hutches that you sell and can be a good influance on prospective Rabbit owners:)
ShanX
 
Hi bubblespetcare, welcome to the forum. I'm sorry if you were offended by the original post and from what I've read you seem to be a very considerate person where animals are involved.

However I am inclined to agree with people that it isn't really appropriate to have small hutches outside your shop even if its not something you endorse. I appreciate your predicament regarding moving these everyday and I think it is fanastic you ask questions and give people the necessary advise but the problem is that joe public see these hutches and think they are acceptable. Personally I wouldn't house even a lone piggy in anything less than 7.5sq ft so I would have a problem with that hutch size even for piggies.

You are doing a really good job but those hutches are a complete contradiction of everything you are trying to achieve. Could you not just put some posters of suitable hutches in your window to draw attention or maybe some nice big signs to display outside?
 
Welcome to the forum :wave:

It sounds like you've had great success turning around a dreadful pet shop into a responsible, non-animal selling one :D I have to agree about the advisability of not stocking small hutches - could you maybe use one of those big A board / sandwich board signs instead with a picture of your bigger hutches?

Anyway, I hope you'll stick around on the forum. There is considerable support on here for a very well known pet shop chain that do sell animals, and your set-up sounds like a vast improvement to me (as someone who never gives their custom to animal-selling establishments) :D
 
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