Sad Story

I wanted to share my sad story. I purchased an English Spot rabbit from Pets at Home in Oldbury on Sunday. When we got him home we noticed he was very skinny, severly underweight. He was quite lethrgic and had runny poo today so we immediatly took him to the vet. Unfortunatly he was very poorly and couldnt be saved. We complained to Pets at Home but the store manager didnt want to know and just told us to return the rabbit! We have complained to head office who are taking the matter further and I have also spoken to the RSPC who are going to investigate as this rabbit should never have been sold to us, let alone have been in a pen with other rabbits.
At least he died in the comfort of our home and has bought to our attention the dispicable care the animals are receiving at this store.

Oh sorry to hear your sad news, do not let them get away with this please keep complaining as other people have had this problem with dreaded pets at home.

Poor bunny and poor you! Maybe it would be better if you decided to get another bun, to get one or a bonded pair from a rescue centre as there are many there who are needing a loving home. You were right to take the poorly bun to the vet immediately, well done. I don't think people here at RU are very keen on pet shops selling rabbits, particularly the larger stores such as Pets at Home. Let us know what the outcome is, and thank you for telling us about your bun. Binky free wee bunny, and God bless.

hi,
oh no thats terible news if that rabbit was ill it should not of been sold but icolated and a vet should have been called out
becky

We got the rabbit on the spur of the moment as he was so sweet and totally agree that pet shops should not sell livestock. We are going to a rescue centre on Sunday to get another rabbit and will not let the issue with pets at home rest. They have agreed to refund the cost of the rabbit and the vets fees but the money does not matter to me. What matters is the welfare of those rabbits and I'm glad the RSPCA agreed that is was neglect and are sending an Officer out to the store.

Sorry to hear your sad news.

I am sorry to here your sad news, keep up the complaints, that is the only way to get them to listen and prevent the same thing happening again.

that is so sad. poor bunny.
good luck on sunday finding a new bunny.
keep us posted with outcome of rspca investigation

Sorry to hear you had this bad experience. Well done for taking the bunny to the vet straight away, at least he was with kind caring people when he passed away. My daughter and I had a bad experience some years ago when we found a dead guinea pig at Pets at Home.
I hope the RSPCA will do something about this and well done for taking action.
Good luck at the rescue centre and keep us posted as to what bunny or bunnies you choose.

Sorry about your bun.

I always wondered on what basis they stopped selling dogs in pet shops - and why whatever the reason was wouldn't apply to rabbits.

Does anyone know?

Its still legal to sell dogs/cats but the licence is more expensive and the regulations on space mean most don't have room. Also I think the bad publicity helped.

Tam

I am so sorry to hear your sad news. The poor darling.


I remember a year or so ago their been a big thing about Pets at Home on Watchdog about how poor thier animal treatment was. It was supposed to have got better since then.

Hi Keileyoneill -

So sad to hear your story of the little bunny.

Being inquisitive (must take it from my bunnies) I happened to go past Pets at Home this morning and thought I'd pop in and have a browse.

They had probably about 6 bunnies and one lone female on her own - when I first looked at her I thought she had a skin complaint as you could see her skin below her coat - then I realised that as she was so young it was that her fawn coat wasn't fully formed. She was sooo tiny - its been a long time since I've seen small baby bunnies so it was difficult for me to judge how old she was.
How I didn't come out without her I'll never know but I know by doing this I'm only adding to the problem.

A chap came over and started chatting to me whilst I was looking a the bunns and I mentioned that I was a Rabbit Welfare Fund member - he looked slightly uncomfortable with this. I bought a water bowl while I was there and the chap followed me outside to talk further to me - when I mentioned the huge amount of Bunnies which are in Rescue and that we try and do as much education as we he looked even more uncomfortable.
He mentioned that as a Pet Store they do try and assess folks as much as poss so I'd be interested to learn what if any questions or information you were given regarding Vaccination, Spaying etc - this would be really useful to know.

I was also suprised at the cost - its been three years since I first bought Buffy from a Petstore and I think she was around £12.00 then - the costs for Pets at Home Bunns were now from £17.00 upwards - that would make a Rescue bunn which has been spayed and Vaccinated much better value - presuming the owners are going to spay and vaccinate that is!!!

Feeling a bit low after seeing the bunns

Sorry folks -

I wanted to Add that I really felt for this chap at the Petstore who spoke with me as he was clearly uncomfortable about the side of his job which involves selling animals and its clearly not his fault he is just doing his job which is a real shame really, he was clearly interested in welfare or I don't think he would have approached me to chat further.
Shame there is not more that can be done but I think we just have to plug away at Education, Education, Education and write to the Head Offices or Managers of any stores that give particular concern.

Sorry I'll get off my soap box now!!

Lany, you done good girl! :thumb:

Big NECH's (non emoticon cyber hug) being sent to you (cos Tamsin hasn't found a hug emoticon as yet).

On behalf of all of us, thank you

Update

Since Wednesday I have spoken with both the Evening Mail and Express & Star who are both going to run the story next week in the newspapers!! :shock: I also spoke to the local council animal welfare authority. They are going out to the store next week with the RSPCA to investigate and will let me know their findings. They agree that staff training is obviously not up to scratch and are going to check the welfare of the animals and suggest improvements etc. She agreed that although the rabbit had a disease which may have not had any symptoms the staff should have seen that he was severly undeweight and shold have arranged a vet to see the othe animals as soon as we informed them of this problem.
We paid £21 for the rabbit. We had no advice from the staff apart from help with what bedding and water bottle we required. The girl checked the rabbit over (well looked at its ears) and told us it was a boy but didnt give us any information as to the breed or how to care for the rabbit - even though we told her we knew nothing about rabbits. All she told us was to feed it hay in the morning and rabbit food in the evening. We only found out it was an English Spot after looking on the internet.
We have received a letter from Pets at Home head office apologising, they are getting the livestock manager to meet with the store manage to investigate and are also getting the area manager to do a disciplinary wth the deputy manager due to his attitude. They are giving us a full refund and paying the vets bills (total of £111).


We are going to the RSPCA rescue centre on Sunday to get a rabbit. We have cleaned the hutch out thoroughly but will this be ok to use for the new rabbit?

Will keep you updated but we are determined!!

Well done for all the effort you have put in. This will make the pet store sit up and take notice and hopefully clean up their act.

The hutch you have should be fine for your next bunny. Just make sure you have washed it out with a bunny safe hutch cleaning product. I am sure you will already have done that though. I use Vetaclean, I buy it from my vet. It is concentrated so makes a large quantity and works out cheaper than the spray bottles you buy in the pet shops . Don't know what the others on here use!

Good luck on Sunday .

This is the identical story of what happened to me six years ago - only then they were called Petsmart. Casper lived for three days only and he was so severely underweight that he must have been ill a lot longer than 3 days!

It is so sad that things are still no better!

We also complained to the store, it went to headoffice where they paid back the price for Casper and all his veterinary treatment! I didn't care about the money, but wanted to make sure they would not make a penny profit out of the situation. Hence I took the money and ended up buying another bunny for it (from a different pet shop - Benji, the bunny on my avatar).

As mentioned this was six years ago, I am not buying from pet shops anymore and always advise people to adopt a rescue rabbit instead!

Good luck with your new bunny.

Vera

We went to Barnes Hill RSPCA on Sunday and fell in love with a rabbit called Doopy. We are having a home visit this week but then should hopefully be able to bring her home next week.
I must also give a big mention to The Pet Centre in Shirley. We went there to purchase a new bigger hutch and their rabbits are so well cared for and healthy- so much so that we fell in love with a baby dwarf lop and brought him home with us. We now have Gizmo in 1 hutch and await Doopy for the other.

I will keep you all updated on the outcome of the investigations with Pets at Home. The animal welfare authority & RSPCA are visiting them this week.

Yes please keep us posted and pics..................... please