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Pets at Home Adoptions

Azraelm

Wise Old Thumper
Just been reading about this on another forum.

Apparently Pets @ Home are currently trialing a scheme in a few stores, with the idea of going nationwide soon where people bring their unwanted pets in to the store for Pets at Home to rehome. People adopting them pay a donation which goes to an animal charity.

On the face of it, it seems quite good in that they are taking responsibility for some of the rescue problems they themselves have caused...but they obviously wont do homechecks so an animal could go from one bad home to another, and it does give people the impression that its ok to give up their pets once they are bored of them.

A bit of a PR excercise it seems. What do you think?
 
Sweet Jesus!

P@H doing animal adoptions?! Could you imagine the advice they'd give...

"Yes Mrs X, not only can you home your rabbit with a guinea pig but they can also live in harmony with a python"

Whatever next!

It had disaster and bad idea written all over it and I agree it does seem like you can give your pet back when you've had enough.

Maybe if the staff had some decent training on how to care for and house the animals it would be a little better but without the homecheck you may as well forget it as people can have the best will in the world but just not know how to house a rabbit properly.

Ooops. Rant over... Sorry :oops:
 
Sweet Jesus!

P@H doing animal adoptions?! Could you imagine the advice they'd give...

"Yes Mrs X, not only can you home your rabbit with a guinea pig but they can also live in harmony with a python"

Whatever next!

It had disaster and bad idea written all over it and I agree it does seem like you can give your pet back when you've had enough.

Maybe if the staff had some decent training on how to care for and house the animals it would be a little better but without the homecheck you may as well forget it as people can have the best will in the world but just not know how to house a rabbit properly.

I agree
 
Depends how it's run. A similar scheme runs very successfully in the US with Petco (the equivilent of P@H). The House Rabbit Society Shelters provide the rabbits and train the staff in their care, they also set the rules of the housing/diet/exercise/equipment etc. to be used while the bunnies are in store. Anyone wanting to adopt fills in an application form which is then faxed to the HRS who put people through there usual adoption procedure.

It's been great for the rescues, it's upped adoptions and lowered intakes, it's also been good for the stores because there sales figures haven't been negatively effected by stopping sales and they get the extra publicity.

If P@H could do similar I think it would be a great step forward in rabbit welfare. Not just because of the individual rabbits it could help but the message it sends to the public.

I'm not going to knock them for trying and I hope they suceed :)

Tam
 
I think the problem is that they are not working with a rescue. If they were that would be great.

Basically, it says on the other forum, someone brings their pet in, signs it over to P@H and then it goes up for resale....new person pays a donation and then takes it home without any homecheck etc...however some rescues dont do that anyway :?

obviously this could be heresay and it may work slightly different, but a lady has just adopted a guinea pig this way.
 
I think if it works like the one Tamsin metioned then great, sounds fab and wouldn't it be great if it meant they stopped selling babies. On the other hand if it doesn't work like that I think it does give the worng impression. "ooops, this ones broken, lets get another".
 
Will they neuter?

Or will it just condem various buns to be shunted around more easily instead of a person approaching a Rescue & getting a bun checked over & rehomed to a forever home?
 
I think it would be great if they worked with a rescue like Petco does. Also in the US Petsmart does the same thing with cats. Both have greatly increased adoptions and make more people aware of how many animals are in shelters and that rabbits are there too. But I'd prefer to see a rescue overseeing what the store does. I don't like the idea of a for-profit business getting into rehoming animals. I'd be very concerned that it would be for the money and not necessarily in the animals' best interests.
 
It would be diasterous for all rescues if pets@home started doing it as Mandy said. Anyone wanting to dump their rabbit just pops into pets@home, and anyone wanting to rescue, pops into pets@home. Diaster for rescues, and just is an easy way out for irresponsible owners! :evil: Bad bad BAD.

I thought they were just going to put pictures up of available animals in local rescues. :( But that wouldn't make money would it! :twisted:
 
Somebody's gonna be rubbing their hands together if they can sell the same bunny over and over again!

Makes me sick :evil:

If pet shops really cared about rehoming they'd give donations to the people who know how to do the job properly - the rescues!

Rant over :oops:
 
I feel it is a great idea and I hope it goes well. If they rehome unwanted pets rather then selling babies then people are less likely to breed. my P@H have always been good with advice and caring. They have done the adoption thing for awhile.
 
three problems i see

1) People will see this as an ok for changing pets when they feel like it..and/or handing their pets in when they go on holiday then buying a new one when they return...and they won't feel guilty cos PAH will allow them to do this.

2) PAH will not neuter or homecheck so does not really help out the bunnies who may end up being shunted around from one dreadful home to another.

3) What happens to ill or old rabbits? If the man who asked me to take oin the 19 buns a fortnight ago had taken them to PAH, how many would have been PTS instead of treated? Can't see PAH paying out for medical treatment for any ill bunnies given in :(

May be thinking in the right direction but needs an awful lot of tweaking..again agree would be better if they advertised rescues rabbits.
 
On one hand its a good idea as what would happen to pets if sceam was not run. but on other it saying to people its ok to sick of your pets.
 
If you have a P@H near you it might be worth approching them. I looked into the US scheme and thought it was great but it really needs a rescue near a branch to want to be involved and I can't organise that.

Tam
 
honeybunny said:
3) What happens to ill or old rabbits? If the man who asked me to take oin the 19 buns a fortnight ago had taken them to PAH, how many would have been PTS instead of treated? Can't see PAH paying out for medical treatment for any ill bunnies given in :( .

Very true! I guess some stores have those companion care vets so perhaps they will check them over before 'adoption', but what about some that may need long term care like dental problem bunns? Its unlikely the average person going to a pet shop would be interested in an unhealthy bunn, so will P@H just PTS? :?

And what if someone brings in a bunn with myxi?....with all those baby unvaccinated rabbits on the shop floor! I expect they will say they'll quarantine them away from the other animals, but in practice I can see that not working.

Will be interesting to see how it all works :?
 
Is this not what Kate was talking about back in May? http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=22548&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

If anyone has an adoption store near them, it might be worth going in and asking them a bit more about it.

All we're doing on here is speculating and winding ourselves up about it :lol:

Because we don't know whether they are actually working with rescues, or whether they're just taking in from the public or anything...it's just internet chinese whispers at the moment :lol:

But, from KateCo's meeting, it sounds like it's more rescue-orientated. :?:
 
cute_fuzzies said:
Is this not what Kate was talking about back in May? http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=22548&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

If anyone has an adoption store near them, it might be worth going in and asking them a bit more about it.

All we're doing on here is speculating and winding ourselves up about it :lol:

Because we don't know whether they are actually working with rescues, or whether they're just taking in from the public or anything...it's just internet chinese whispers at the moment :lol:

But, from KateCo's meeting, it sounds like it's more rescue-orientated. :?:

Its not exactly speculation as the lady on the other forum actually adopted a pig this way. Heres the link:
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4680.0

Off to read Kates post as I didnt see that originally.
 
When I went into my local PAH to complain about the unexpected litters from supposedly same sex pairs..the manageress had not heard about any of the working with rescue schemes..she also promised to ring me the next day but didn't :(
 
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