UK pet shop survey - join in to help change the law

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Hiya all,

Did you know that a licence to sell animals in pet shops is granted on whether or not your caging reaches the minimum standard. There is no need to have any qualifications or training to sell animals. Surely this is ludicrous, as we don’t allow a surgeon to become a surgeon and cut you open just because his operating room meets the minimum standards.

The pet shop survey has been designed to show just how little pet shop staff know about the basics of small animal care, and with these findings RAWA hopes to get the law changed to at least have the staff trained to a basic level.

I am devising a small questionnaire and what I am hoping you will all do is go to your local pet shops which sell animals and ask them 10 simple questions about buying a small pet. Of course you will have to memorise the questions and then write down the answers once back in the car etc.

I would ask that you all make a note of the pet shops you have visited and there telephone number so I can contact them about the results. The more pet shops we can hit the better.

If you would like to to this please let me know either by PM or email siobhan@rattyhaven.co.uk with your email address and I will send you the questionnaire.

Please cross post this to all forums that you know of as the more pet shops hit the more chance we have of people listening to us.

RAWA is also writing a days course for pet shop staff which we hope to get backed by the PCT.

Thank you all,

Who is RAWA?

Part of the licence conditions are:

No animal should be stocked or sold unless the staff (or at least one member of the staff) is familiar with the care and welfare of the animals stocked and has a recognised qualification or suitable experience.

In respect of new applications (not renewals), at least one member of staff working at the licensed premises must hold the City and Guilds Pet Store Management Certificate, or some other appropriate qualification, or must be in the course of training, and obtain the qualification within two years of the licence being granted.

The licensee must formulate a written training policy for all permanent staff, and will be required to demonstrate that systematic training is carried out.

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By all means - I have emailed you my details - happy to pose as prospective buyer of a pet for my daughter.

this is what is coming in from what I can understand. According to the DEFRA web site it is to do with cage sizes.

RAWA is the rodent awareness and welfare association

it is really just to get a basic idea of the lack of knowledge, not all pet shops are bad some are very good, but when you have people ringing you in tears as a pet shop told them rabbits don't cause fur allergies and now their daughter is in hospital and the pet shops refuses to take them back, you wonder if the know their ABC's !

I think the problem is although they do get some training very little is on the specific needs of individual types of animals. It would help for them to having training from rabbit specialists on rabbits rather than general training on small aniamls. I think the RWA is hoping their Outreach Officers will help with this.

Tam

Are the RWA and RAWA working together on this? I expect they would get better results, since they are essentially working towards the same thing? (although imo the RWA should be campaigning for rabbits not to be sold in pet shops at all, but that's another discussion...)