Pets at home

TasherR said:

Well went to pets at home today to get some cat litter but for the buns and decided to have a quick look at the baby buns before i left...good job i did!
Two of them started circling wildly and then had a major scrap :shock: the guy come in checked them over and just left them together then they started fighting again :roll: how predictable.
so i said are u sure they are all girls his reply yes we are. The manager came over and i got her to re sex them turns out there were two boys in with a girl :roll: so their solution...just put the boys in with aload of new buns that they have never met before how clueless!? :? :roll: I made sure i stayed for a bit longer just to check that they didnt end up figting again
sorry not really much point to this

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• Animals are not supposed to be accommodated in a manner such that "they can be 'interfered with' by other animals". I would assume that fighting constitutes 'interfered with'.
• Staff (or at least one member of staff) are required to be familiar with the needs of each type of animal sold. So he/she should have known:

• How to sex rabbits.
• Mixed sexes would produce fighting and/or mating.

• Extensively and thoroughly trained using both internal and external courses.
• Subject to checking of their training.
• Not allowed to sell any animals until their training has reached the requisite standards.

lydz said:

I went into pets at home for a look at the larger hutches that they have and got talking to one of the young sales staff - she was brilliant and very knowledgable. I tested her a few times asking how many rabbits i could fit in a hutch and she gave the answers you guys on here would be proud of. (I.e did not recommend the small hutches at all and said the big 6ft one needed a permanent run and was not really suitable for more than one bun, etc etc)

She was very caring with the rabbits and asked the children who were leaning over the fences to touch the rabbits to move along as they would be scared of people reaching down as in the wild thats how they are hunted

I was very impressed

Having said that i know this is rare, but not everyone in pets at home is useless.

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blue_vix said:

I have just had a very strange conversation with a staff member in a Pets@home near me

Apparently they dont put the sex of the rabbits in the adoption centre now because they will only rehome them as single buns, and he advised that you can never put two buns together who aren't littermates or they will just fight to the death...

I pointed out that that if both buns are neutered and properly bonded this shouldn't happen, and that this policy was contradictory to RSPCA and RWA guidance. I said surely the answer would be to ensure people adopting the bunnies know about neutering and how to bond, or at least where they can go for help for bonding.

He said well the policy has been brought in on advice of vets and because they've had so many complaints from customers, BUT they still recommend the babies to be sold in pairs...
So I asked well surely they will just as likely fight too if they're not neutered?

Apparently he didn't want to get in to a discussion about it with me thats just the nationwide policy now.

I don't know what to think, it seems to me an easy way out when what they should be doing is giving good advice and ensuring people have understood it. No other pets@home have ever told me about this 'nationwide policy'

Coincidentally (or maybe not) the charity who sponser the adoption centre in that store do not rescue small animals, they start at cats and work up to horses

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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.

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