P@H

I contacted p@h about the stupid idea of seling large breeds and this is the response i got back

Good Afternoon,



Further to your email, we are looking at the possibility of withdrawing from the live bird market for a variety of reasons and using the space in store to stock a wider variety of pets and fish. No decision has been finalised as to exactly what we these new pets will be, however we are trialing some at the moment which does include French (and other Giant) Lops. I would like to assure you that every one we sell, the owner will be fully aware of exactly what to expect. The rabbits will be housed separately from the rest of ‘standard’ rabbits and a separate caresheet specific to Giant Breed Rabbits will be available. We will also stock a hutch suitable for a French Lop in the stores that will be trialing them.



Regards,



Nigel Gormley

Retail Department

Pets at Home

0161 486 3598

OMG i don't believe it :twisted:

"the owner will be fully aware of what to expect" my ****. They can't educate people as it is now.

I won't say anymore as there may be easily offended people reading :evil:

missshell said:

OMG i don't believe it :twisted:

"the owner will be fully aware of what to expect" my ****. They can't educate people as it is now.

I won't say anymore as there may be easily offended people reading :evil:

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totally agaree i wonder if a petition could stop them?

I doubt it don't think anything will stop them. Although i will be sending an e mail tommorow with my thoughts on the subject.

We have to do something
A petition can't hurt, I think we should do it :thumb:

I agree. P@H cant even care for the animals they already sell!

Fish are diseased floating on the water.
Hamsters are crammed into small 'tanks' in large numbers without any way to exercise.
Rabbits are kept with guinea pigs.
Birds get loose and fly around the store

AND
all of the above are not properly sexed and countless get sold either already pregnant
OR as same sex pairs when theyre not and come from badly bred commercially produced lines to start with!

We have in our practice a baby french lop, I was so surpried to see it. Its the first giant I've known our local pah to have It is fairly ill with bloat and not eating, I hope it made the weekend. Some of the other nurses thought it was an adult but I was like 'OMG its a french lop!' :evil:

(I might see if i can bunny nap her!)

Kate&Co is the one to get in touch with about this, she's working to help imrpove PAH, she might be interested to know this and let whoever he was talking to know

Hiya i've always had rabbits just wanted to know why its not a good idea to keep rabbits with guinea pigs? So many people do keep them together and most pet shops do :?

Aimee84 said:

Hiya i've always had rabbits just wanted to know why its not a good idea to keep rabbits with guinea pigs? So many people do keep them together and most pet shops do :?

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Their diet is different - GPs need more Vit C or something??
Also a boistorous bun, could kill a GP with it's humping or back legs stamping.
They're different species, so talk a different language. There's been a couple of threads on this recently. It's worked for some people - if they take the different dietry requirements into account, but obviously, your usual P@H customer wouldn't have all the info.

Thanks it makes sense not to keep them together. My sister wanted to have a rabbit and guinea pig but i'll let her know so she doesn't. I didn't know guinea pigs had different dietry requirement though i've never owned one so I wouldn't know.
Thanks again
Aimee

rabits carry a disease called bordetella bronchiseptica which though usualy harmless to the rabits is FATAL to guinea pigs.
The disease is spread via airbourne droplets as well as via direct contact so keep the species as far apart as possibal.
Rabbits also require a diet far higher in protein than guinea pigs so feeding your rabbit guinea pig food is not recomended (obviously you cant feed the pigs bunny food as they require vitamin c to be present in the diet)

Sorry not to reply to this sooner. I did try at work but the boss walked in and I had to click off the internet before he noticed what I was doing
I have contacted PAH about this. I've explained all of our concerns and suggested that they ask for proof of previous experience before they sell a giant. (They do this with Stingrays so I can't see why they won't do it with rabbits) Not sure that they'll take that idea on board but I'll keep an eye on the situation.
Apparently the new hutch they've stocking for giants is enormous, but I've not seen one so I wouldn't know how good it is. I've asked that they start selling bunny sheds as well as hutches and they seemed to quite like that idea, so with a bit of luck they'll look into it.
They are in the process of retro fitting stores to seperate guinea's and rabbits. This is obviously going to take some time so I'd ask everyone to be patient. At least they've agreed to do it and all new stores will be fitted to allow for it. They've already seperated them by sex so we have achieved something for now.
They're also going to look into enabling customers to adopt a rabbit from a local rescue rather than buy one from PAH. This is an idea that has been very successful in America apparently and PAH are keen to do it here too. All the money from the sale of the 'adopted' rabbit goes to the rescue not PAH and they've set up a trust fund to administer it. I'm not totally sure how the scheme will work, but I feel that it's a step in the right direction.
More than anything I'd ask everyone to think about the 'big picture' here. We're not going to stop PAH from selling small animals. (At least not in the forseeable future) There's an argument that we shouldn't stop them either. At least with PAH we can see what they're doing and monitor it. If they stop selling animals, we could well go back to small inexperienced breeders selling from garden sheds with no way of regulating or monitoring how the animals are kept or treated. In comparison to 'what could be' PAH could well be the lesser of the two evils.
They certainly listen to what people tell them. Since I originally contacted them, rabbits and guineas are now seperated by sex and will soon be seperated by species too. They take on board suggestions about hutch size etc and they're more aware of the problems facing rescues and are keen to help.
I'm doing all I can to make sure that they take rescues and the advice they receive from rescues as seriously as possible. If we all work together, we can really make a difference. We wouldn't be able to do that if we were faced with countless and faceless 'backgarden, unregulated and unknown' breeders.
In the meantime, can everyone stay vigilent? If you see a problem in your local PAH, report it to the manager - and ask for the manager, don't just tell the floor staff. Then make sure you report it to the Head Office (you can contact them through the PAH website) Tell the Head Office that you did report it to the store manager first. All complaints are supposed to be passed on from the store to the head office anyway, so if anyones not doing it, they'll be able to tell.
If anyones not satisfied with the answer they receive, send it to me and I'll get in touch with PAH from here.
Remember though that Rome wasn't built in a day. It's going to take time for all the changes we want to happen. I'm confident though that we can make them happen

I've been into my local P@H this morning and they had a Giant in there. They also had the hutch that they're selling for the giants to live in and it is HUGE! I know nothing about Giants but the one they had in store would have looked a little lost in the hutch!

I've been in P@H today and they do stock some huge hutches that look suitable and roomy - but expensive - if only they'd insist on a homecheck to see if the hutch the customer has is suitable. Also, they don't sell large enough runs, I bought one to use whilst I'm building a large run, but it is only suitable for a very small rabbit or guinea pigs. My rabbit can't stretch fully up on her legs. Maybe they could sell plans to make a bigger one?

(building one this weekend myself)

omg! my friend bought a mini lop from p@h and i ended up with her as she is a giant! admittidly she is very parcial to biting and scratching anyone but she is already huge at six months! what a pile of crock! p@h just wanna sell more pets to make money

Hi KayJay - totally agree with you about the runs. I don't think they're big enough either. I seriously doubt we'll ever convince them to do homechecks. For a company as big as P@H it would be a logisitical nightmare and run into all sorts of health and safety issues. Easier to get them to stop selling rabbits, and sadly we're not going to do that either. (At least not in the forseeable future, who knows what might happen after that!)
Inka dinka doo - :wave: Hello! Don't think we've 'met' before Could you send me details of your experience with P@H? I can't think of any good reason for a rabbit sold as a mini lop to end up as a giant. If you let me know the details of the store, and what was said at the point of sale, plus details of the rabbit (piccy's too if poss, but only cos I love pictures of rabbits ) I'll flag it up to P@H. You're quite right that P@H is only interested in making money - but that is the reason for their existence. We're never going to get away from the fact that it's a major company who need to keep making a profit. We can however make sure that the way they treat the animals they sell is as good as we can get it. It will just take time...and a lot of 'taking to task' over stories like yours.

Well done Kateco, it gives me hope to read of your success, too many times people feel that they can't change the world.

Jx

Thank you Apache, you're very kind.
KayJay, P@H tell me that they are aware of the runs being too small and are looking into 'extension' kits so that they can be made bigger. I'm still working on the 'selling giants' issue. P@H want to know what specific problems people have with the idea of them selling giants. Feel free everyone to post the answer to that here
On the brighter note, it's not definitely been decided yet that all stores will carry giants as a matter of course. Still in the 'trial stage' so we might be able to stop them yet.