pets at home scandle

[kelly]

Sarah,

I always Demand to speak to a manager! if they give you the lie that s/he is not present then dont believe them. they will not let a shop run itself, there will always be someone in charge e.g supervisor etc.

Put your foot down!

If it is a bad incedent then you can tell them that you will be taking the matter further..... head office etc.

You can also tell them you will be informing RSPCA or even the local newspaper (they will do anything not to get bad press)

Hope this is of some help..... you just have to be strong girl!

Kelly xxx

 

[Nix]

:? I wish I was closer to Stoke so I could go and have words with P@H and get that poor bunny out of there.

I hadn't seen this rabbits-in-seperate-cages thing until I popped into the one in Canley, Coventry yesterday. They had a fabulous looking rabbit in a cage on his own (with a guinea pig :evil: ; the piggie had somewhere to hide but he didn't, he just had people all around him all day the poor thing). I asked why he was on his own and they said because they were having some new buns in and because he was older he'd "bully" them :!: .

Having seen photos of the Guardian Angels buns, I think he was a castor rex!!! I was so tempted to buy him, but I'd only have been encouraging them to "stock" more.

 

[aliceechamberlain]

Hi, one of the questions we ask people when they give their bunnies up for adoption is 'where did you get it from?' If it was from our local P@H we expect dental problems at least.

One of my friends bought 10 bunnies from another local pet shop the weekend before Christmas. 4 of the babies went straight to the vet as they were dehydrated, lacking vitamin A and extremely sick, one died that day another a few days later. Of the remaining 6, 3 were netherlands needing nursing, one of these has died, and the older 3 came to me. 2 were at least 4 months old, males together - fighting of course. Luckily I was able to get them neutered very quickly so they are now the best of friends, however due to bad breeding the one does not have any tear ducts and will therefore need daily attention for the rest of his life having his eyes bathed and eye drops administered, not easy to find the right home for. Anyway they are called Cuthbert and Dibble.

The 10th bunny (Egg Nog) at least is alright. He bonded extremely quickly with a very distressed, aggressive neutered chocolate brown rex doe and I think she is more content with life!

My friend went back to the pet shop to read the riot act but they were most disinterested. They feebly agreed they may list previous owners of rabbits they sell, and they may feed them with hay, but this makes the pens look untidy. Also, as I told her would be the case, they were already fully stocked again with more bunnies. She insists she will keep visiting the shop to check the situation but I have had to ask her not to buy any more as (a)small rescues such as ours cannot cope with the vet bills, and (b) we then have no room for abandoned/unwanted pets. The RSPCA have made a few visits to this pet shop but it appears to no avail. All we can do is keep chipping away at the terrible situations and know every little life saved is special and worth the effort. Alice

 

[luvabun]

Hi, one of the questions we ask people when they give their bunnies up for adoption is 'where did you get it from?' If it was from our local P@H we expect dental problems at least.

One of my friends bought 10 bunnies from another local pet shop the weekend before Christmas Alice

This throws up "chicken and the egg" conundrum. i.e. if she didn't buy the buns, what would happen to them and by buying them, she has shown that there is a demand. Its very difficult to know what to do for the best.

 

[Bertie]

Can't you force the shop to pay the vet bills? Sorry to sound mercenary, but there's a law in this country that goods have to be suitable for the purpose for which they're sold. In this case the goods were clearly faulty, i.e. the bunnies all needed to go to the vets and were not suitable to be sold as pets. Therefore the pet shop are in breach of their contract. Maybe the RSPCA isn't the way to go with this. Has anyone ever reported the situation to Trading Standards? They're pretty good at cracking down on shoddy business practices. The pet shop is essentially selling damaged goods and then refusing liability. That's illegal. If Trading Standards say that the bunnies count as livestock then Andi reckons DEFRA instead. Seriously, the pet shops are treating them as product not animals, so play them at their own game. When I buy a toaster, I don't expect to have to take it off to be fixed before I can make toast with it. When I buy a brand new rabbit I shouldn't have to take it to the vets before I can take it home and play with it.


Trading Standards have a lot more time and money than the RSPCA. If they haven't been approached before then how about a letter campaign to bring it to their attention?

 

[aliceechamberlain]

Hi, Yes thanks luvabun and Bertie for your inputs. Personally I do not buy pets from Pet Shops 'cos as you say the old chicken and egg scenario, however this particular friend would make herself ill thinking about those animals she saw if she didn't do anything about it. I have to admit twice I have bought long haired guinea pigs from shows to prevent someone else I know buying them so to an extent I can understand how she feels. It is a very diifficult situation.
Good point about the Trading Standards. I know my friend was writing to the local Council to go down this route, I shall give her a nudge to remind her. I know the RSPCA investigation cannot do anything, the rabbits have been 'saved' in one way or another, the only thing I can hope is that this will put the Pet Shop on its toes abit!

 

[taylor v 109]

I agree that trading standards may be worth contacting , also perhaps the local council that must supply a licence for them to sell livestock, check out the guarenty that comes with the animal i think it is very sort say 24 hrs in some small pet shops.The only way to rearly hurt these people is by not going there. Perhaps one of you on here would like to start a protest about them. say a petition or something along those lines ? val :evil: :evil:

 

[Bramblespack]

As for the RSPCA I have mixed veiws with them. They are very good in cases of prosecuting ppl that have neglected animals but as far as the rehoming etc, well...... when I was a veterinary nurse a few years back, we actually took in the stray cats for the RSPCA. the cats would stay with us for a week and then on the 7th day the RSPCA inspector would walk around and point out which ones would be PTS as they had not been claimed.
So as far as I am concerned all of this "we never put a healthy animal to sleep" is utter b*******! :x
This was so heartbreaking for me and so therefore my mother ended up with 6 beautiful cats.

I would like to say that it actually depends on the centres nearby. All the actual centres for rehoming anaimals are individually run (not by the RSPCA itself) therefore some are better than others.
York for example has yet to put a rabbit to sleep who has had any chance of rehoming (this does include ill bunnies) (THe last one pts was by the vets without permission) and the one before was flopsey who had been at the centre for over a year and had major teeth issues that got really bad.
THe same applies for cats and dogs who have heated kennels and lareg runs

Other centres do not follow the same policy

Ant

 

[mad about bunnys]

Not all pet shops are bad

hi i work at the pets at home in Blackpool and we do look after the rabbits propperly as if any do get ill we always take them to the vets no matter how much it is going to cost. The staff there are very caring and know a lot about rabbits and give out propper advice. We always advise people to buy the biggest hutch possible and give them advise on how to properly care for them. I am sorry that you have had a bad experience at the london store but not all pet shops are not as bad as the one you mentioned there are a lot of good ones out there its just the few bad ones which give pet shops a bad name.

 

[mad about bunnys]

Not all pet shops are bad

hi i work at the pets at home in Blackpool and we do look after the rabbits propperly as if any do get ill we always take them to the vets no matter how much it is going to cost. The staff there are very caring and know a lot about rabbits and give out propper advice. We always advise people to buy the biggest hutch possible and give them advise on how to properly care for them. I am sorry that you have had a bad experience at the london store but not all pet shops are not as bad as the one you mentioned there are a lot of good ones out there its just the few bad ones which give pet shops a bad name.

 

[FunnyBunnyRunny]

After I left P@H (then Pet City) in '96 I heard from my brother who still then worked for the company that some former work mates had been caught throwing baby hamsters and mice at the floor to kill them as they were unwanted and were to be used for snake food and also of a member of staff who dropped a Syrian hamster on the floor from waist height while showing it to some prospective purchasers, the hamster was clearly badly injured but the salesperson just put it back in the tank and said the buyers should choose another.
I was shocked as one of the members of staff involved I had considered a close friend.
I reported the incidents to my local RSPCA and also the BBC Watchdog program, the staff members involved were dismissed.

 

[FlipFlop]

This is really horrible and shocking I have to say though my local p@h is good, the staff are friendly and give advice, and I regularly go to check on the animals and other than sme being the only ones there (generally black bunnies ) I find them good. If a little expensive :lol: :lol:

It's so shocking what goes on in these places though

 

[Phill]

Our local pets@home have never been to bad the only really poorly bun i ever found was a little grey lop (about 6mnth) he had small bruises and lumps all over his back i told a member of staff that i knew and she said they would take him to the vet, i asked her to ring me and let me know how the bun was but she never did. I later found out that the manager wouldn't let her phone me and i never saw the bun or the girl again!!!!

 

[Mikeymoo]

I went in to my local pet shop at the weekend (not P@H) and they had a little long haired bunny ( oh so cute) :evil:
Instead of having shavings, which is bad, they had tissue paper. I thought this was progress. Saying that they really shouldnt sell long haired bunnies to begin with

 

[kelly-louise]

it make's me so sad to hear about this i wish i could do something for all the bunnys that are like this

kelly-louise