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LedaHartwood

LedaHartwood

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2008
Messages
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Location
Kansas City, , USA
Before becoming knowledgeable about the world of rabbits, I simply thought that rabbits were just pet shop animals, much like the gold fish or hamster.

Now I know that the term backyard breeder or mill breeder applies to rabbits, much like it does dogs and cats.

So, how many of you knowledgeable rabbit world people have bought a dog or cat from a BYB, or pet shop, knowing that buying a rabbit from those people or places is wrong?
 
I thought the same, I just thought a rabbit was a rabbit, I thought there was straight ears, lops and what I called furry ones. Then I joined FR and my opinion has changed greatly!

You can't buy dogs and cats in petshops here and I've never spent money on a dog or cat, no need to. All my animals were strays. Whatever about rabbits, but every country has a dog/cat problem, the way I think about it is if you only want one for companions then there are plenty, needy free ones rather then paying big bucks to keep puppy farms open.
 
Well i dont know, might sound silly, but i got my bearded dragon from a breeder that owned a small shop and bred lizards, dont know if that is considered back yard breeder. That is the only animal that i have BOUGHT from a store, knowing what i know now.

I do however shop at petsmart and petsmart gets thier small animals from mill breeders also, so i do sometimes feel like a hypocrite. I do not EVER shop at stores like pets plus, or anything like that that has puppymill dogs. I support small mom and pop shops as much as i can but i have to look at a cost too. all of the an imals that i have, except the beardie, were adopted or taken in from owners that did not want them.
 
All my cats are adopted, and my pup Aiden is a adopted too. However, I will be going to a reputable Akita breeder for my girl in 2010.

Well, I suppose it depends on the pet shop. The shop here in KCMO, USA is called Miles of Exoctics. Mark, that owns it breeds his own snakes. He's no backyard breeder. But I would buy from him, sooner then from some online supplier, or other store.


 
I have bought hamsters and fish at pet shops. I don't agree with breeding (backyard or not) and there aren't many hamsters or fish available for adoption (or I would've done that!)

I have to say my cat is from a backyard breeder. She was a gift, and this was several years ago so I didn't have much say. Basically I asked for a cat, my Mum wanted one, a friend (who sorta let her cats breed but didn't stop it, and let them have one litter before being neutered) had just had a cat have three kittens. She only sold her cats to friends, and by the amount of cats she had (30) she didn't exactly sel that many or sell to pet shops. I wish I had got a cat from a rescue but I didn't. All our other pets have been from rescues. All threee bunnies are/were rescues and our other cat, plus are sadly departed cat Alan was a rescue.

Fran :) :hearts :brownbunny
 
Well as I have said before I know about the horror of some petshops but I would never say I wouldn't buy again. Ringo, Connor were bought before I knew to much about this stuff. Elvis was bought a few days before I got my first foster rabbit. Wyatt was bought a few months after. I love all four of my boys. Though Elvis was dumped at the petstore. So I can never say I wouldn't do it again. My dog was from a breeder but a respectable one. Awesome in fact.The rest are (all the animals)rehomes or adopted.
 
The sad part is, that some people don't know what a "good" breeder is.

Just because the dog as AKC, UKC, ADBA, or CKC (Canidian Kennel Club) papers, doesn't ensure that the breeder is ethical.

One of the members of another board I belong to had a good point with those papers. That it's like a junk car getting papers that say "I'm okay to drive", and in the same time a brand new Jaguar has the same okay.

In the dog community we have promblems like bogus registers like the APRI, CKC (Continental Kennel Club), UKCI, NKC, and and list of others.

 
Very true.
 
my fred was bought from a pet store. i got him after i had adopted two girls. i knew all about the bunny mills and stuff but he just looked so miserable. he was in a little 2ftx2ft glass pen thingie with another rabbit and a ginnie pig. (excuse my spelling) he wouldn't move when i touched him and he had poo stuck to his butt. i just felt soooo bad, so i bought him. he cleaned himself up as soon as we got home, and he seemed much happier away from that place.

I have never set foot in that petstore since.
 
i got liffey from a small local pet shop. i had originally found a lady on craigslist that was selling baby buns but when i went to the house it was filthy and the buns were in the rain outside and they had moldy hay. plus she said they were lops and they weren't and i wanted a lop. i was so distressed over the whole thing i just thought i'd not get a rabbit. but i was in getting millet for the canaries when i saw liffey. it was love at first sight. i didn't buy him that day but literally went in every day for a week before finally bringing him home. i like to call him a "pre-rescue"....basically i got him and loved him and gave him a home before some other family bought him and then dumped him when their kids lost interest......ok so he's not really a rescue but i love him so much that i don't regret it. but if i got another i'd go to the shelter.
 
The only animal I've ever gotten from a pet store/BYB was a Dwarf Hamster. The rest have all been adopted or rescued. Even the first dog I ever got that was purchased at a pet store was a rescue as they found her on the road, were unable to find her owner after 3 months and put her up for adoption at their store.
 
I dont think I've ever gotten an animal from the petstore. I got Magic & Autumn from my friend who kept about 10 rabbits in a dog cage, but he wasn't a breeder. He used to be, but I didn't know him then. From what the told me, though, it didn't sound like he really cared about the rabbits other than to make money. :(

I dont really think that buying an animal from a place like that is wrong. You're bringing them into your home to care for them. It's just like buying a pet from a breeder, adopting from a shelter, etc. The important thing is that you're going to give your pet a great home, no matter where they're from.

And no, I don't support backyard breeders. It would be nice if they didn't breed animals to sell in petshops, etc.

Emily
 
I've never bought a pet at a petstore. I did get my redfoot tortoise at a reptile show here. I checked out their website once and they seemed ok. (No way to really know, as they had come here from Omaha. All their tortoises on show seemed very healthy and active.)

When Jason and I first considered rabbits, we were going to buy one at a petstore down the street. We felt so bad for their baby bunnies, crammed 5-10 per little wire cage. We decided to read up on rabbits as pets first, though, and one of the books had a reference for the main HRS website, which linked to our local chapter. We went to a couple meetings, learned a bunch of stuff, then adopted Nick and Amelia from them.

I try not to go in that petstore, it's pretty awful.
(We always say, if we won the lottery, we would pay that petstore to not sell bunnies anymore.)


 
We bought Toby from a pet shop. There were three reasons for that...

The first is that it's really quite hard to find a rabbit at the shelter here in Adelaide. They seem to get snapped up so quickly, and you can't ask them to hold animals for you or anything. I've been checking every day since Toby was neutered, since ideally I want a neutered adult female of about the same age to be a friend for him... and I've seen ONE female rabbit in that time, who had already been adopted by the next day.

The second is silly, but we really wanted a baby rabbit. I hadn't had a pet of my own in so long I just wanted that 'watching them grow up' experience.

The third is that my petshop is good, in my opinion. They refuse to stock cats and dogs, and direct people to breeder registries if they want to buy one. They display the adult bunnies with their babies so you KNOW what kind of rabbit you're buying, and they only sell after the age of 8 weeks. They give their girl bunnies a decent break between pregnancies (they have 3 female buns and only one will be pregnant at any one time). They also give you a voucher for one of the bunny-friendly vets in the area when you adopt one of their rabbits, which gives you a calici-virus (VHD I think its called in the US) vaccination free.
They sell all the vet recommended food varieties and they seem to know their stuff about most animals. I bought three female mice from there that were all actually female XD.

So I don't feel bad about bringing home a bunny from a pet shop in this case :)
 
pumpkinhead wrote:
So I don't feel bad about bringing home a bunny from a pet shop in this case :)
Click to expand...
Liffey is such a joy to me i could never feel guilty about getting him from a pet store. besides....i saved him from someone's bratty kids that will never love him like i do!!
 
Most rabbit breeders here would be what you'd call backyard breeders, in that they do actually breed and own rabbits in their backyard I guess :p. Sakura came from someones backyard, the breeder has a rabbitry but isn't a member of the rabbit council that I know of or have a stud name.

But she doesn't breed for profit and very rarely actually does any breeding.
 
NZminilops wrote:
Most rabbit breeders here would be what you'd call backyard breeders, in that they do actually breed and own rabbits in their backyard I guess :p. Sakura came from someones backyard, the breeder has a rabbitry but isn't a member of the rabbit council that I know of or have a stud name.

But she doesn't breed for profit and very rarely actually does any breeding.
Click to expand...

Haha you could call me a backyard breeder than too. I have a rabbitry name and all, but I'm not a member of ARBA (yet), and my rabbits are in my backyard :p

Emily
 
To be honest I think the term 'backyard breeders' is a stupid one since the majority of breeders breed in their backyard for lot's of animals and it puts out a negative message to the public and makes them think that all breeders who breed in their backyard are bad.
 
We bought Saydee our female yellow lab for a pet store. I didn't think about it then, I don't know why. I knew buy a dog from a petstore was wrong but we did it anyway.

Her breeders name is Sharron Munk, she is a breeder and a broker. A broker is someone who buys dogs/puppies from other puppymills and turns around and sells then to petshops.In 2000 she had over 1,500 dogs and puppies on her property.She has been sited numerous times for not providing basic care for her animals.

I so wish that I would have known all of this before we decided to buy her. But you now she is a great dog, So I really don't regret getting her. I do regret the fact that we were taken in and we fell for the "Doggie in the window".

I will never buy a dog at a petshop again.

But Sherbert is from a petshop. So is my hamster Winnie. I can't say I would never buy a small animal from a petshop, again. Though, in the future I would try my best to adopt or get and animal from a good breeder.

~Hayley
 
I don't think the term 'backyard breeder' is meant to be taken so literally. Reputable Good breeders don't usually advertise being backyard breeders even if their rabbitry is in their backyard because these days 'backyard breeder' is associated with negative breeding practices, etc.
 
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