P@H Selling their 'Guinea Pig' cage for rabbits, ignoring my complaints

[~ILoveMyBunny~]

If this is against the forum rules please forgive me and delete the topic
I'm just so uptight right now...
Last Saturday I went into Pets At Home (Farnborough branch) and noticed they had placed a small hutch in front of the rabbits. It's not normally displayed there so has obviously been placed there for easter. It was nowhere near the guinea pigs and was clearly aimed at people who are interested in rabbits.
The hutch in question is this one: http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/p...a-pig-and-rabbit-hutch?pageSize=25&orderBy=1# Now, on the website it is listed as suitable for guinea pigs - no mention of rabbits. It's name online is the Poppy Den Guinea Pig Hutch. However in store is is simply labeled 'Den' - no mention of species.
I made a complaint that day online and five days later I have still not received a reply from Pets At Home (they responded very quickly to a complaint I made about a year ago and had already addressed the issue by the time I returned to the store a few days later - so I know they're intentionally ignoring me)

Today I was in the store again and disappointed to see the hutch is still there and is still not clearly labeled. I brought it up with a staff member politely and just asked 'the hutch over there, what species is it for?' I expected her to say guinea pig but to my surprise she actually said 'it's for rabbits'
I told her, politely, that it's not really big enough for rabbits, and went on to tell her the RWAF's recommended minimum and she changed it to 'it's suitable for juvenile rabbits'. Long story short she wasn't at all interested in what I had to say, and just said that 'unfortunately that's what the law is in this country (what does that mean?!) - we recommend to customers that they purchase a bigger hutch for adult rabbits but can't help it if they don't listen'. Now even if that were true, who is going to buy a small hutch at £60 for only a few weeks use and then purchase a second hutch? I told her that I found it very disappointing after the stand P@H are taking over easter to not sell rabbits that they are now marketing this hutch to rabbit owners. I said it's promoting cruelty and she said she 'begged to differ'

I'm really disappointed in this as although I know P@H is controversial, I've always found them better than any other pet shop.
Their latest e-mail mentions the fact that they're not selling rabbits over easter, with the tag 'pets before profit'. Clearly that doesn't extend to housing for the animals they sell.

I don't know if all stores are doing this over easter or if it's just my local one, but the reason I'm posting this here is that I'm hoping perhaps some other members can check their P@H stores and/or make a complaint. Maybe if enough people complain they'll take some notice? I am going to send them another message and, if I can work up the courage, also phone the store manager.
As I said earlier, if I'm not allowed to post this please forgive me and delete the thread. I'm very sorry. I'm just so uptight right now - I've never made a complaint in person in my life and it took everything out of me to just approach a member of staff (I'm not very social or confident ) so to be honest I'm still a bit dazed at the moment. If I'm breaking forum rules, please forgive me.

 

[Mackers]

Well done for complaining - the member of staff you spoke to sounds quite rude and determined to contradict you whatever you said. If you can pluck up the courage then a letter or e-mail to the manager sounds like a great idea. Or just copy and paste your post here onto the p@h facebook page? That would get a response, I'm sure.

 

[~ILoveMyBunny~]

Thanks Mackers. Unfortunately I don't have a facebook account but if I can't get anywhere with online complaints directly to the company I will consider opening one and posting it for all to see. I may post on twitter too but find it hard to condense things down!
I've written out another e-mail. I'm not very good at this sort of thing, so hope it doesn't sound too rude or difficult to understand

Hello,
I sent an e-mail to you last Saturday but have not yet received a response.
On Saturday the 19th of March I was in the Farnborough branch of Pets At Home and noticed that
a hutch had been placed in front of the rabbits that were for sale. The hutch in question is called
the Poppy Guinea Pig Den (product code: 22470P), however in the store it was labeled simply as 'Den' with no
information as to what species it is intended for. I made a complaint about it that evening as it had been placed,
not by the guinea pigs, but right in front of the rabbits. Sadly I never received a reponse to my e-mail.
This is misleading as customers walking into the shop who don't know any better will think that the hutch
is intended for rabbits (as it is displayed in front of the rabbits - not near the guinea pigs - and is not clearly labeled).
Sadly I visited again today to discover the hutch is still there and has still not been labeled more clearly. I spoke to a member of staff, (have removed the name for now as it's an online public post), and asked her what species it was intended for and to my surprise she told me it was
for rabbits. I politely said it's not really big enough for rabbits and she disagreed with me. I told her the Rabbit Welfare
Association (RWAF)'s recommended minimum for a rabbit hutch is 2ft tall x 6ft long and she didn't seem interested.
She then changed it to being 'suitable for juvenile rabbits'. I told her politely that by selling a hutch that small
to new rabbit owners was encouraging cruelty but she was clearly not interested.
I told her I found it very disappointing given Pets at Home's recent stance on selling rabbits over easter, something
that many people have been praising the company for. Unfortunately the marketing of such a small hutch does not go along
with Pet's at Home's recent claim of believing in 'Pets before Profit'.
Although I was very disappointed with the staff member's general attitude of it's-not-my-problem through the
whole conversation I would like to say that my complaint is not directed at her but rather to whoever made the decision
to market this hutch, which is clearly marked on your website as being for guinea pigs with no mention of rabbits, towards rabbits.
I would be interested to hear why Pets at Home, who I have always praised in the past as being above the standard of other
pet shops, have decided to market these hutches that are clearly too small for rabbits and encourage both cruelty and
neglect of rabbits towards rabbit owners who generally won't know any better. Surely if pets really do come before profit this is something
that you will want to rectify very quickly? Doing so would not only benefit the health and welfare of rabbits, who are the most neglected
animal in this country, but also improve your reputation as a retailer.
I look forward to hearing your response

I drew a few points nearer the end from the template on the RWAF's website. I hope it sounds okay. I'm a bit too tired to concentrate and probably should have left it until tomorrow but it's really bothering me that people might be buying those hutches over the easter period for rabbits they intend to purchase afterwards or from another store :/

 

[tulsi]

Well done. I hope they do respond to you.

 

[~ILoveMyBunny~]

Just sent a tweet to the RWAF about it, within 2 mins got a tweet from P@H asking for details :roll: funny how when something's made public they can respond very quickly.
They asked me to DM the details but twitter doesn't seem to allow me to as they're not following me? I don't understand twitter

 

[Horace the Bold]

Reply to their twitter account asking them to follow you to enable a DM.
Do send your twitter replies to the RWAF as well to keep the pressure on P@H

 

[~ILoveMyBunny~]

Good advice. I will keep the RWAF informed as it were. P@H won't like that sort of thing going public so hopefully that will motivate them to do something.
Going to make things difficult if the staff member recognizes me (pretty sure she will) or I get a bad name with P@H as I'm in there all the time. I use Companion Care vets inside too and I'm always up and down with the bunnies so it's going to make things difficult.. But I just can't stand by and watch them selling such a tiny thing for rabbits without at least trying :/

 

[Kipper]

Well done to you. The amount of time I've stood in PAH listening to the advice they give out. Some of it is correct but I do interrupt when they start giving out the wrong info. I was speaking to one customer whom I'd I reheard talking to a salesperson about her 2male Bunnie's she'd bought from them. Apparently they'd started fighting (no surprise there) & she had gone in for advice. When she bought the buns they'd told her the 2boys would be ok together & encouraged her to buy a little hutch. I advised her they needed to be separated immediately because they could really hurt each other & advised her on neutering & hutch size. She was really surprised by how big the recommended hutch should be. If only people would read up about the animal they're buying rather than assuming they already know it all "because I buns as a child so already know how to look after them". Aargh Animal husbandry has really changed since the 70/80s

 

[~ILoveMyBunny~]

Too true Kipper
But while people do need to learn to put more effort into researching a pet before getting one, a large amount of responsibility still rests on pet shops, seeing as they're sadly allowed to sell animals. Pets At Home do after all claim they believe in 'Pets before Profit'.
To be fair there is one staff member working at our branch at the moment who is very good. She ran us through quite a few things before letting us adopt Honey a few weeks back (coming up on two months now I think? Wow that went fast!). I saw her a few weeks later having a very lengthy conversation with two customers who wanted one rabbit from a bonded pair in the rehoming section (...). I overheard bits, all the usual 'we've had rabbits before' stuff. When the staff member mentioned about them not liking to be picked up and cuddled she loudly stated that she disagreed. In the end we had to leave but it went on for a long time and I get the feeling the staff member refused to let them have the rabbit in the end. She was really doing a good job with two rather difficult people.
I guess it's down to who you get to a degree, but in the case of this hutch Pets at Home know what's going on, they're not stupid, they know full well that it's not an accident - it's been placed there for easter marketing. Ignoring two e-mails from me now only makes them look like they've got something to hide.

 

[catslovelycats]

Just to pick up on your comment about P@H not selling rabbits over Easter. Does that apply to all stores?
When I 'showed an interest' in a couple of their rabbits on Saturday, they didn't tell me they weren't available immediately...

 

[Clarekg]

Well done ��

 

[walsh366]

I just clicked on the link in your initial post to look at this and its title is now Guinea pig and rabbit which is a step in the wrong direction!