Frustrating pet store experience

[olliefolyfe]

So today I went to buy Ollie a new water bottle at the pet store at the mall. Bad idea. They had a cage out front with baby guinea pigs and TINY very young baby rabbits. There was a woman at the counter buying a rabbit and you could tell she was hesitant. The woman helping her couldn't have been older than 19 and sounded like she had no experience with rabbits. I made the decision to tell her that I have Ollie and that they are expensive pets that can live up to 10 years old. I also mentioned that the require fresh veggies and fiber to keep their digestive tract moving or it will get clogged w/ their fur from grooming themselves. I don't feel like the pet store people probably told her ANY of that so I felt bad for the bunny! My friend was with me at the time so I tried to end the conversation but he later said he was glad I said something. I wish I would've gone on to talk about how vets charge a lot for rabbits and what not. The lady said the rabbit was a gift for her child and had to be hid until xmas

 

[whitelop]

Thats one of the terrible things that happens in pet stores and with pet store rabbits. Unfortunately that rabbit will only be fun for a month or so and then it will probably wind up in a shelter somewhere or passed on to someone else or neglected. Its sad that parents buy their children pets like that and then they think that the child is REALLY going to take care of it completely. Then when the kid gets bored with the pet and doesn't take care of it, the parent doesn't want to do it so they pawn it off on someone else instead of taking responsibility for the pet that they bought and brought home. Then it teaches the kid that pets are disposable and you don't have to take care of them unless they're interesting, that you can just pass them off to someone else instead of taking care of them yourself.
Thats the reason I have my baby bunny now. She was too young to be sold in a pet store, especially after I watched the women who owned the store sell a woman a guinea pig and they watched her put the guinea pig in the cage and into the back of her little SUV and drive away. They let her drive away like that. Then when they sold me the rabbit, she taped up the box. Thats ridiculous. Now, normally I don't condone the purchase of pet store pets, but this baby bunny was tiny. Just too young.

I'm sorry I just went on a rant on YOUR rant. I'm irritated with these things though. I hope that rabbit that the woman got today gets a good life. I really hope so.

 

[cassnessxox]

They hire people like that yet noone will hire me!! I've been trying for the past 4 months to get a job in a pet store, I don't have any formal qualifications but I have kept almost every pet you can buy at a pet store at some stage of my life and do extensive research on all of them. It doesn't count for a thing! What must they be thinking? =_=

 

[Imbrium]

apparently it makes too much sense to hire people who actually KNOW about animals to work at a pet store >.>

one time in petsmart, I saw a guy looking at little hamster cages and told him all about bin cages, lol... was looking over my shoulder the whole time to make sure some employee didn't come over and get mad at me for talking him out of a sale . I explained that bin cages are WAY bigger (and hamsters need 360+ square inches), cheaper, and easy to make... told him to google "bin cages" and that it was easy to find a tutorial. he seemed very appreciative for the advice. if I ruled the world, bin cages would be sold for hammies and mice and NIC cage kits would be sold for bunnies and GPs at every pet store.

 

[fuzz16]

It really amazes me too why they dont hire animal savvy people...

i go to petsmart to get guppys and i say i dont want really prego ones. they stress and die easier. he goes, none are pregnant, their not housed with males. uhm...ya well i didnt mean to sound condescending but the guy said it like i was sucha doofus....you know those big fat bellies and the giant black spot near their ventral. those are BABIES...then he got me a danio and said well shes not pregnant....dude its not even a guppy!

and i know a local dutch breeder...he is a great guy and always one of the super nice guys at shows, but all his DQ dutch go to pet stores. everytime i see a dutch i literally UGH. and i saw a "crocodile lizard? at a store in a tiny cage for 1100$...thing was expensive and was in a horrid cage. i just honestly dont get it sometimes. they loose more money than they make majority of time bc they dont know or dont care.