Cats Protections awful co-op with Pets@ Home

can I ask what other peoples opinions on their co-operation is?:evil:
http://www.cats.org.uk/news/make-a-...ets-at-home-very-important-pets-club-vip-club

I am absolutely mortified. with P@H selling large amounts of (very often very sick*) rabbits and guinea pigs that are being bred only to end up unwanted after x-mas (or living their lives in one of the tiny hutches they sell also) I can't for the live of me understand how an animal charity could ever consider working with them.

I understand CP are fairly mainstream in their approach (two of our cats are from CP and they do a marvelous job for cats) but surely this is beyond hypocrite and ridiculous even for them. They may as well be collecting donations from a cat breeder (unless they consider the welfare of rabbits less important than the welfare of cats i have absolutely NO idea how they could justify this).
in the public eye Cats Protection working with P@H is giving P@H the seal of approval by a charity that should have animal welfare in mind.

what a brilliant publicity stunt on behalf of P@H and how irresponsible, sad and disgusting of CP to even consider doing this.
their horrible VIP system means that they will directly benefit from the sale of every rabbit, guinea pig and all the other animals P@H has bred and sells.

have any rabbit rescues addressed the issue with CP yet?

thanks!

I have a VIP card and my donations go to Dogs Trust
I think its a great idea.

I think its great too, my card donations all go to The Retired Greyhound Trust. I've only swiped twice so far though.

how so ? Pets at Home sell animals to often irresponsible buyers for the sake of their financial gain, meanwhile 30.000 rabbits are sitting in shelters looking for new homes... an issue that shelters much more poorly funded than Cats Protection or Dogs trust than have to deal with. How is this a good thing?
Cats at home might as well be financing itself by breeding and selling cats, as essentially that's exactly what they are doing (only it’s the sale of rabbits that makes them money, not cats)..

surely buying from a responsible store (not a pet dealer) and donating 2 pound a month to dogs trust would be much better than financing dogs trust (and pets at home who keep most of your money) with the suffering of guinea pigs and rabbits?

overpopulation and breeding for a quick buck is THE reason that shelters are overflowing, pets at home makes money doing this and their measly donations in no way make up for the issues and suffering* they are causing, let alone the money it costs other rescue organizations to try and fix it, especially when it comes to rabbits...

if anything they should be donating to the organizations that deal with the aftermath of P@H churning out rabbits like they are DVDs... but than of course that would make the horrible irony and tastelessness of this all too obvious..


don't mean to have a go at you personally btw , but i find it REALLY really upsetting that a so called animal charity could essentially part-finance itself with - and benefit from - the sale and suffering of animals.

*whilst I would NEVER buy an animal (it's a being, not a product) unfortunately people i know did buy animals there, in both cases the guinea pigs had ring worm and infections... the store offered that they could swap the X-mas present guinea pig for a healthy one... however the kids were upset about this so P@H paid for treatment (in the 2nd, unrelated case also) but it died anyways ...
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I have a card too for when I use P@H, the discount vouchers are great and I'm helping my selected charity at the same time

The VIP card is really aimed at existing pets and their food etc not buying new ones in store.

I don't agree with the way P@H sell animals, but if the choice is between give a cut of profits to charity or not then I'd rather they did.

People are going to use P@H no matter what. Most of them don't see the rescue problem, so won't ever boycot them and rescues are taking advantage of free money and food, and why not! Our local RSPCA are only just afloat and my local one giving them food helps them stay open.

Our local cats protection and Gray hounds galore are getting discounts or free food from out of date stock, advertising themselves, holding tombola and raffles, getting round to the pound when the week charity drive is on.

Wood Green animal shelter and the Dogs trust are all in it too. Many may be against petshops, but as much as it's seems like "oh look P@H cares about animals" PR spin they have on themselves, it really is helping rescues and they might learn something from them. (Hopefully to stop selling rabbits at the very least!)

you are missing the point, the sale of rabbits or guinea pigs to the general public generates VIP points during the purchase (or lifelines or whatever they call them), hence cat's protection DIRECTLY benefits from the actual sale of animals.
they also benefit from the sale of foods etc by the same irresponsible trader that contributs to animal suffering by breeding and selling animals.

I am entirely gob smacked that people on here can claim they care about rabits/animals and then a) shop at P@H in the first place and b) are thrilled over the 0,03 cents they will donate to dogs trust with every 10 GBP purchase ...

I am just going to go bread the live out of a dog than sell it's puppies to any old person no questions asked (i.e. people like my neighbours who like to just lock their dog out for 12 hrs a day or the lady up the street whose P@H bunnies are all caged in tiny boxes or next doors singel guinea pig that is sitting in a cage all day ( it only cost a fiver though so who cares ...) ) ... and than I make it all good again by donating 0,03 % of the sales of the puppies to an animal charity... SERIOUSLY? people buy this Cr**???



so every 300 GBP you spend will be a 1 GBP gift voucher (which the charity than has to spend with pets at home) . assuming their profit margin is well over 50% that £1 will essentially cost them no more than 40-50p. so every 300 GBP you spend wih those horribly folks will donate 40p of pets at homes money (tax deductibel of course , so once that is taken into account they will be 20p out of pocket at the most ...).
It's the biggest marketing stunt ever! you stay loyal to their horribel brand and justify their horrible actions, they give themselves a charitable aura and all they have to do is invest 20p per your £300 turnover to buy you as a loyal customer that is willing to overelook and defend what they really are in business for ... money ... at the expense of animals... what a nice yield that is.

if you really cared about animals you should shop somewhere where they don't sell animals and use the money you will safe in the process to donate directyl to a decent charity. especially when considering that you'd only have to donate one pound to match their donation on a 300 GBP shop ...

Be as gobsmacked as you want your opinion of P@H doesn't affect me one bit. I will continue to shop there as and when I please, my 2 girls came from there and my 2 boys from a rescue.

It's my choice as to where I shop, my money goes to rescues, independents, online retailers and P@H.

I have a VIP PetsAtHome card and think its brilliant! I chose RSPCA i think Although PAH are selling animals, some sick, at least they are giving the money to charity And although some may think buying animals from PAH and other petshops is undermining rescues work, its always going to happen, i am sad to say

i call them deaths at home , i sent them a complaint at xmas as they had extra rabbits in to sell!

crazycatlady said:

how so ? Pets at Home sell animals to often irresponsible buyers for the sake of their financial gain, meanwhile 30.000 rabbits are sitting in shelters looking for new homes... an issue that shelters much more poorly funded than Cats Protection or Dogs trust than have to deal with. How is this a good thing?
Cats at home might as well be financing itself by breeding and selling cats, as essentially that's exactly what they are doing (only it’s the sale of rabbits that makes them money, not cats)..

surely buying from a responsible store (not a pet dealer) and donating 2 pound a month to dogs trust would be much better than financing dogs trust (and pets at home who keep most of your money) with the suffering of guinea pigs and rabbits?

overpopulation and breeding for a quick buck is THE reason that shelters are overflowing, pets at home makes money doing this and their measly donations in no way make up for the issues and suffering* they are causing, let alone the money it costs other rescue organizations to try and fix it, especially when it comes to rabbits...

if anything they should be donating to the organizations that deal with the aftermath of P@H churning out rabbits like they are DVDs... but than of course that would make the horrible irony and tastelessness of this all too obvious..


don't mean to have a go at you personally btw , but i find it REALLY really upsetting that a so called animal charity could essentially part-finance itself with - and benefit from - the sale and suffering of animals.

*whilst I would NEVER buy an animal (it's a being, not a product) unfortunately people i know did buy animals there, in both cases the guinea pigs had ring worm and infections... the store offered that they could swap the X-mas present guinea pig for a healthy one... however the kids were upset about this so P@H paid for treatment (in the 2nd, unrelated case also) but it died anyways ...
​

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Because people are always going to buy pets from pet shops, its just the way the world works. People might as well make money towards charities while doing so.

And most people who are in there aren't buying actual animals. If I go in and spend £50 on , food, toys and treats, why shouldn't I support a rescue?

happysaz133 said:

Because people are always going to buy pets from pet shops, its just the way the world works. People might as well make money towards charities while doing so.

And most people who are in there aren't buying actual animals. If I go in and spend £50 on , food, toys and treats, why shouldn't I support a rescue?

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:thumb: I agree with this.
The sale of animals is just a marketing ploy to bring the customer back for the maintenance things where the really big profit is made.

Rock bottom, the problem of unwanted animals isn't from either breeders or pet shops, it's from irresponsible owners. It's adults who buy an animal & when they do so, even if it's supposed to be for a child, the adult takes full responsibility for the animal's welfare.

My parents had a rule that no one ate until all the animals had been fully cared for - fed, cleaned out & watered, as did many in those days. It taught me some very valuable lessons. Until we start to return to that ethic people will continue to think of animals as disposable when they get bored with them, rather than as dependant family members.

I buy from pets at home. I prefer pet shops to be big and branded because they are more in the public line of sight and more noticed when they do something wrong. Little ones get away with more. Anyway my RSPCA get money when I buy from there and it helps animals so it's good in my eyes.

I would not participate in this scheme. I have refused and will always refuse any offer from Pets@Home whether money or goods are offered.

jwr said:

i call them deaths at home , i sent them a complaint at xmas as they had extra rabbits in to sell!

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Thats soooo appropriate!

It is beyond me why anyone would have anything to do with P@H after this

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...-*worse-than-ever!*&highlight=special+rabbits

What is this, a new scheme? There's not much info on the P@H website about it.

To go back to the initial point. Cats protection are concerned only with the welfare of cats and if pets at home sold cats they may view pets at home differently. You are talking about the sale of rabbits, guineas etc and whilst I am sure many who work for cats protection may be concerned about animal welfare in general their main priority will always be the care of cats and generating money for that purpose.

You say they might as well support breeding of cats if they support pets at home but P@h don't sell cats and by joining this scheme cats protection are not endorsing anything to do with P@H's policies regarding other animals as it is not their area of specialism.

I think giving something to charity through purchasing at pets at home is better than nothing.

hellsdarkrose said:

To go back to the initial point. Cats protection are concerned only with the welfare of cats and if pets at home sold cats they may view pets at home differently. You are talking about the sale of rabbits, guineas etc and whilst I am sure many who work for cats protection may be concerned about animal welfare in general their main priority will always be the care of cats and generating money for that purpose.

You say they might as well support breeding of cats if they support pets at home but P@h don't sell cats and by joining this scheme cats protection are not endorsing anything to do with P@H's policies regarding other animals as it is not their area of specialism.

I think giving something to charity through purchasing at pets at home is better than nothing.

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This is what I was about to say. Pets at home selling animals doesn't conflict with any of CP's policies and this is a great opportunity for them to make some money.

As much as I see the flaws with P@H they are better than the vast majority of independent pet shops who aren't under as much scrutiny. It's certainly not the worst place people could choose to shop.