My experience working in a chain pet store... it was bad

[@Emiology]

Just to address a few comments about my chinchilla so that I don't have to keep writing out the same replies: Could I have done more to prevent his death? Possibly. But I was not a legal adult with access to my own money / car, admittedly had limited knowledge on chinchillas compared to what I had now and was pulling together what I could for an animal I wanted to get out of a bad situation that he ultimately would have died in too. Why did I not take him to a vet? It's easy enough now looking back to say 'this is what I should have done different / maybe a vet would have been able to save him' but dwelling on it doesn't bring him back. He had months / weeks of illness in the store left untreated, and was seen by a vet that didn't find anything wrong, so an exotic / chinchilla vet would have been needed. I personally think the months worth of damage done by the store not treating whatever was underlying, probably couldn't have been unpacked in the 5-6 days I had him home. It takes a few days usually for vets to give you an appointment, and if there was any medication they could have given him I fear it would have been too late by that point. I also, back then saw no signs that led me to believe he was declining (small animals are very good at hiding illness), if anything he improved once I got him home, was eating, drinking, active and mostly alert, chinchillas diet should primarily be made up of hay, and in the store he had none, fed only on pellets, it likely contributed to his issues, as soon as I brought him home he had unlimited access to hay, and his pooping improved, although not as frequent as it should have been, but perhaps it was a little too late. There's a lesson to be learnt from everything and I certainly learnt mine, I'm always honest about my mistakes on this channel, and as a young adult I was swept up in the emotion of wanting to get an animal out of a terrible system, yes I could have done better, and these days as a 25 year old I would do better (by avoiding situations like these entirely), I did as much research as I could in 2 weeks but could have done more. It's a story I here time and time again, about impulse purchases, animals that were failed by multiple people, and many animals dying days / weeks after purchase. Moral of the story is don't buy animals from chain pet stores, even if they're tugging at your heart strings. He would have died alone in the pet store, instead he had a final few days where he got to experience his first dust bath, an appropriate diet, and love.

[@theonewiththehorse]

he was lucky you got him ❤️

[@mikoto7693]

In my opinion you did good to at least try to save him and you gave him proper love and care. At least he got to experience love and care because of you.

[@cyberpunkedgerunner2644]

It's a fucking chinchilla... Get over it. I bet you wouldn't talk so much if it was a dead roach... I'd understand if it was an intelligent animal like a cat or dog... Not a fuckin puffy rat that my cat hunts around for fun.

[@morgancohen634]

Thank you for this thoughtful explanation - it’s clear you have a big heart and the best of intentions.

[@wolfymudkips4266]

I'm glad he got to spend his past few days with someone who cared for him properly and loved him. You did a really good thing.

[@PetConnectionInternational]

I think we definitely need more regulations for pet stores - what they can sell, how they care for animals & the information they provide all need to be regulated in my opinion

[@Emiology]

I agree! Unfortunately the government standard for pet stores to follow is so low, and the only other people who would hold them accountable are the RSPCA, who aren't the best at times and are also now caught up in a certain chain pet stores business...

[@PetConnectionInternational]

@@Emiology yeah, and one of the problems with the RSPCA and the current law is that their requirement is that the care must be "suitable"... Which is totally not subjective at all 😑

[@MyCuteHamster00]

Pet stores shouldn't be allowed to sell animals at all, IMO. Only ethical breeders should.

[@PetConnectionInternational]

@@MyCuteHamster00 I agree!

[@d-padqueen1103]

Emiology is doing a great job, because the next best thing really is raising awareness while also raising awareness of good animal care - if people stopped buying from pet stores, it would require a less expensive lengthy wait for parliament to umm and ahh about legislation and force them into stocking acceptable products and animal care in their stores :)

[@lauracort9912]

I bought rats from a store pet chain and one of them had a hole in his foot and it had gone green. So I nursed him back to health with the help of my vet because I knew if I took him back he would die. He recovered completely and then I went into the pet shop with the vet bills and demanded they paid for it. They paid instantly because they realised they were going to get in big trouble.

[@Emiology]

omg! Poor guy

[@Panda-cute]

That’s horrific. I’m glad they paid

[@MyCuteHamster00]

Asking them to pay is so smart! If everybody did that they would think more about the care they provide.

[@Panda-cute]

@@MyCuteHamster00 it would, especially if they get sued a few times

[@d-meth]

You got very lucky that they paid instead of claiming the rat was fine when leaving the store.

[@dunnart7827]

I worked in a pet shop years ago. One day three teenage boys came in who were acting weird. They huddled together in an out of the way spot and were whispering about something, so I went around behind some shelves to eavesdrop. I'll spare everyone the details of what they said since it's bad enough that I know, but...they were discussing which animal would be more fun to torture. It was the worst experience I had working there, and there are plenty of other awful stories I could tell. The good news is that because this was a small business, and my Mum owned it, I was able to tell them exactly where to go and to never come back. Even so, it's one of a number of things that's completely put me off working in the pet industry.

[@Emiology]

Jesus christ! I hope they didn't go to another pet store :(

[@Panda-cute]

My jaw just dropped. What. The. Heck.

[@dunnart7827]

​@@Emiology It was in a rural town so there weren't any other pet stores anywhere they could have gone to. They could have found an animal some other way, of course, but we can always hope not.

[@jackwilliamtaylor5656]

Something similar happened with the ferrets at my college, some of the students on a non animal related course had apparently made a habit out of harassing them whenever there was nobody around, kicking the cage, throwing stones at them, jabbing at them with sticks etc. Nothing has given me more grim satisfaction than telling my lecturer about this, because she came down on them like burning hellfire (they’re both okay now, I got to spoil them for a few weeks to make up for it and now I’m one of the few people they don’t try to bite)

[@Panda-cute]

@@jackwilliamtaylor5656 thank you for being a good person

[@poppieisabella4728]

I find it disgusting how in this pet store animals are treated as a source of money rather than a living thing. It needs to stop.

[@mia250320]

just like how animals are treated in the meat industry, it's truly awful. and yet it's deemed more acceptable.

[@d-meth]

Just like most breeders =/

[@poppieisabella4728]

@@d-meth I know... when I was looking for a hamster to rescue/adopt, there was so many people who were breeding hamsters and not caring for them anywhere near properly. :-(

[@poppieisabella4728]

when I was looking someone wrote 'we would recommend older hamsters for toddlers and young hamsters for children.' PLEASE DON'T SAY THAT THIS PERSON GAVE A 2 YEAR OLD A HAMSTER....

[@invaderjoshua6280]

It’s why as a fish breeder I went from wanting to sell discus to pet stores to deciding to open my own online fish store soon. All the pet shops I go to around Tampa for the most part freak me out. None of them treat their pets like pets. A lot of them had tons of easy to care for dead fish, or fish in crazy small tanks. I want my fish to be happy till they go to there forever home. And even then I’m gonna putting videos on my home page on how to prepare your own natural frozen fish foods, and showcasing what an actual minimum tank size should be for discus/angels and how to cycle filters correctly. It freaks me out how so many places sell fish as pets but don’t have this info at the ready.

[@vixxenreigns]

I tell people all the freaking time "do NOT get animals from pet stores under any circumstances". And they always try to rationalize buying animals from pet stores as "rescuing" them. And it is like "NO!!! By continuing to buy animals from pet stores and thinking you are saving the animals all you are doing is keeping them in business and allowing more animals to be bred unethically and irresponsibly!!!" It sounds like your chinchilla had megacolon or something similar.

[@ewhat10]

Exactly. When you buy a product... any product... you're giving the company permission to produce another one. For pet stores, their "products" are animals. When you buy one, you're giving them permission to breed another. When you adopt an animal, you're opening space for that rescue to save another one. It's terrible for those poor animals in the pet stores, but buying them is not the right thing to do. Buying = saving 1, condemning 1 to the same fate. Adopting = saving 2.

[@jadetheos8922]

There is a Guinea pig rescue near me that literally uses donated money to go buy out all the guinea pigs from chain pet stores as much as I feel bad for the guinea pigs in the pet stores you're exactly right and she is not helping the problem.

[@TheDolphace]

Yuuuuup if you must "rescue" from a pet store you need to hit their profits. Do not pay full price for a badly looked after or sick animal. Never.

[@kyliecrown533]

Yup! I work in a pet store and I won’t buy any more animals from there. I would much rather go to a local place. A place near me has great planted tanks and their fish are soooo much healthier!

[@itsKokonutMilk]

To be fair, selling animals isn't their main source of income. It's probably not even 10%. Buying or not buying animals will not make or break these chains.

[@theplushfrog]

I'm very glad that in highschool I worked for a small non-chain pet store. It wasn't the greatest, but it was a LOT better than the stories I hear about chain stores. The owner of my store was sweet and loved animals, so she tried her best, even if the store still suffered from not having enough space for some animals and misinformation for others (pre-internet era). Your story reminded me, that one of my co-workers fell in love with a beautiful adult blue macaw who was named Tequila. He had been abandoned at the shop and absolutely HATED people (I didn't blame him, what with all the dumb kids who tried to grab him even with all the signs saying he bites). My co-worker spent every break she had slowly gaining his trust and eventually his love. We all teased her (lightly) about being into "older men", but she was dedicated. She saved up every paycheck and the moment she purchased him and everything he needed, she quit. I'd like to think she and him have grown old together, healing one another in the process.

[@ThatOneKyoyaSimp]

Aww such a cute story! Glad she got the bird she wanted and nobody got it before her! ❤️

[@theplushfrog]

@@ThatOneKyoyaSimp Honestly, no one really even tried to get to know him. They would see how pretty he was, then try to pet him and have him rear up to bite them. Most people immediately backed off and they decided he was too much work for them. I don't blame them really, but it was rather sad. The other workers and I would try to sweeten him to us, but we always gave up before we got very far. Mostly we'd get to the point where we could handle him without being bitten, but we couldn't pet him. It made everyone happy to see him warm up to SOMEONE at all, even if it took a LOT of work on her end. In contrast, adult red macaw that was surrendered to us (can't remember the name) was very sweet and only stayed with us for a week or two. Tequila also didn't like the red macaw and we had to have them on separate ends of the store. We also had other birds but those were the two adult bird rescues/surrenders we had while I worked there.

[@lilbirdy2607]

I find pets or critters whose trust you have to gain are some of the best and rewarding. I spent some time at my sibling's home with their partner who had a few cats. However 1 was deemed "unfriendly" but I just knew she was afraid. She would hiss at anyone who got too close, and ran away, sometimes false swiping. Everyday I would look at her and just say hi, let her cross any path I was about to take, smell any veggies I was chopping since she was quite curious. I also fed the cats every morning, cleaned and filled their water too. And after some time she finally let me pet her. Only a bit at first but allowed more as days passed by. Her owner, my sibling's partner, was jealous that I was able to do that. I simply told them that all you need to do was take baby steps everyday and respect her space. They told me they "knew" and just didn't have time to do that. 😑

[@katlasdahgreat]

@@lilbirdy2607 I completely agree, gaining trust with an animal - especially when they were from the beginning untrusting of humans, is incredibly rewarding for both the human but also the animal because they can finally feel safe. I remember when I was 10 and my family got two kittens that were 12 weeks old. The problem was that they grew up in a barn on a farm in the middle of a forest with basically no human contact prior to them moving to our house which is in a neighborhood. They were understandably absolutely terrified and the first thing they did outside of the carrier was to find somewhere to hide for the rest of that day. My parents told me to "just act normal" and that they will get used to the environment soon enough. Me, being an animal-loving 10 year old hated the fact that they were terrified and wanted them to trust humans. what I did was to get lots of cat food, go to their hiding place and had patience. After a few days they could eat in front of us and after a few weeks they trusted all of us and had accepted their new home. Too many people are ignorant of animals' needs. They say they know what's best but either do it wrongly or not at all.

[@theplushfrog]

​@@lilbirdy2607 As a fellow cat lover, I was the only one to slowly coax one of my childhood cats out from her hiding spots and show her that the world wasn't all scary, as well as the only one to befriend all of my extended family's cats--no matter how antisocial. My own cat, while friendly, has some, if not PTSD, then PTSD-like behaviors that seem to point to trauma from his life on the streets before we adopted him. It's been incredibly rewarding to go from a friendly but aloof cat, to a cat who has just found out, not only what cuddles are, but that he likes cuddles, and wants to shove his entire body into yours while purring. It really is amazing when you can earn an animal's trust with your patience. Sadly I just didn't have enough time to get through to Tequila myself (I was incredibly busy with school and rarely could get hours on the schedule to work at the shop) but I was incredibly glad my coworker was able to and give him the love every creature deserves.

[@SmudgeWCUE1]

So my rabbit had babys and we were thinking of dropping it off at the local pet store, Now I'm definitely not. Thank you for helping.

[@aleisterlilywhite1109]

Look for local rescue shelters ✌️

[@SmudgeWCUE1]

@@aleisterlilywhite1109That was our plan right now, thanks.

[@fishlady7930]

Please find a rescue that is specifically with rabbits, not all places have actual knowledge about caring for rabbits but also young rabbits as well.

[@SmudgeWCUE1]

@@fishlady7930 Yeah that's what we tryed to do, and we found the best one we would. (Not saying the location, for my own privacy) Thanks for the suggestion thought. We longer have any of the babies but one we decided to keep.

[@fishlady7930]

@@SmudgeWCUE1 om so glad you found one! I have learned a lot of rescues may say they take any animals but doesn't mean they know how to care for them very well.

[@lizzie3075]

I love that your spreading awareness about this, it’s so sad that so many people don’t know about this it’s awful 😞

[@kaelamay320]

My hamster was terrified of everyone and everything when I got him, he's now the most confident little boy I've met and loves to get my attention for cuddles

[@diamondzzz3316]

Same here!

[@brioche8123]

That is so cute

[@eddie5940]

same!

[@heart6200]

Your so lucky! I wish we were allowed hamsters in other parts of the world :( It’s illegal to get hamsters where I live

[@kaelamay320]

@@heart6200 I’m so sorry to hear that I never knew that was a thing!

[@mousenation3867]

I’ve seen horrific videos of rodent mills in the States, didn’t think we had the same issues here. I’ll look for a breeder next time.

[@HappyLiz123]

Don't look for a breeder. Please go to a rescue instead. X

[@lunawolfheart336]

Yup supporting responsible breeders is the way to go

[@valkeakirahvi]

@@HappyLiz123 Rescues are not the best choise for everyone. Many rescues have behavioural or health problems that inxperienced owners are not equipped to deal with. Also at least where I live there are almost no rescue rodents (which is definitely a good thing). I recommend checking the options though, there are many rescues that are also suitable for beginners, but if not, go for a responsible breeder!

[@olecer]

Not even as a source of money... if they are getting around 10 dead fish per hour, and 2 resupllys a week, that's money going down the sink... I work at a pet store and I get about 15~20 dead fish a week at most, and those deaths are the agressive fish in small aquariums going at each other. It's clear that no one on that store knows about aquarium basics.

[@4evawoohoo]

Whenever I'm in the shop near me that I think you're referring to, I can always see the very obvious difference in care standards. People obviously love cats and dogs but I don't think that should mean the effort and care standards between say a dog and a mouse should be different.

[@Emiology]

It’s quite obvious from their social media and particularly their Instagram account when you look that they’re very dog and cat orientated as that’s all they post, unfortunately it just feeds into people viewing them as more than compared to the smaller animals they sell, if they just stuck to selling products, but safe ones it would be a better place for everyone.

[@sherilynwong3989]

I work in a specialist fish store and since then, I've always bought from speciality stores. If you're going to buy a fish, buy from a LFS. If you want to buy reptiles, find a place that specialise in reptiles. The amount of people who come to me with bad or just plain wrong information that they hear from chain pet stores is astounding. The workers are not trained and usually just assigned to an animal group based on some arbitrary experience with the animal. You've kept a goldfish in a bowl alive for 3 months? Here, take charge of our entire fish section. Also, theyre not allowed to say no to a customer who wants to buy a fish in an inappropriate setup. I however, have flat out refused people who want to keep fish in miserably small setups. Support stores that have your and your animal's interest at heart, not a corporation that only cares about money.

[@tannerolafson3619]

I always buy from my lfs. It’s more expensive but the fish are much better quality

[@marylock3105]

I did get 2rats when I was a tenager they were girls I noticed they getting bigger especially the belly I ask pet shop is there a possibility they pregnant they said no then early in the morning I heard crying and saw pink thing's I noticed it was 2litter of rats

[@xBloodxFangx]

I know this took place in the UK but this is also very common for pet stores (probably even worse with the pet mill being legal) in the usa. Lets call them “PetDumb” and “Petno” are the biggest offenders and should not be supported when it comes to buying small animals.

[@Emiology]

Petdumb lol

[@ThatOneKyoyaSimp]

PetDumb and PetNo really do sum them up pretty well..

[@dh.151]

I think it's so crazy how every pet store even w in chains is managed differently. Some US pet store chains will sell reptiles and know nothing about them, and it really depends on the employees themselves to care for these animals and do research on their own it seems, which is a lot to put on employees. They should have more training about the animals they sell.

[@Sophieivy1_]

This is absolutely disappointing. You would assume that a pet store could be trusted but no. All they care about is making profit. I can’t imagine what these poor animals has been though. I knew pet stores weren’t good but this is horrific. Edit: I appreciate the likes ty.

[@Panda-cute]

I worked at a petstore for awhile (rhymes with setso) that was okay, but I’ll tell you that I would never buy animals from them due to personal moral choices and because the animal are literally almost never handled

[@gidol3790]

I’m glad my local pet store is good. They sell big cages, c&c cages and good products in general. They don’t sell any living animals and my guinea pigs LOVE their hay :)

[@rowdyrats7035]

Years ago I bought a budgie from a chain pet store, my first and only time doing it. He lived around 5 years and had health issues from the start, so he had a lot of vet visits. When I got him he was underweight, had digestive issues and he had scaly face mites. I couldn't really see him that well from the distance when purchasing him and they actually told me that he's a female because the mites had turned his cere brown. He passed from a tumor sadly. I hate that I supported a chain pet store with buying him, but I'm glad he was able to live 5 years with me and my flock. ❤

[@carlyh283]

So with the hamster, I was working at a pet store where we had radios and headsets and at the beginning of the shift I overhear that a hamster has escaped. I’m at the register so I can’t go looking for them, but I get to listen to my coworkers looking around and eventually I hear my boss say “Got him!” I radio back asking if she caught the hamster and she quickly radios back “Hamster? What hamster I caught the snake?” And I had no words.

[@SilverDemon456]

haha omg I hope the snake didn't eat the hamster. At the pet store I used to work at somebody kept letting parakeets escape. So we always had parakeets flying around the store. We left food and water out for them, and customers helped to catch them. They probably had the time of their little lives.

[@mllnx]

i’ve had some awful experiences with this pet store. i’ve been a hamster owner since i was around 10 and most of them have been from this pet chain. my first two hamsters were sold to me as “social animals” and i was encouraged to keep them together in a TINY cage which they told me was a good size for two hamsters. obviously, i had no bad intentions at all and wanted to give my hamsters the best life possible but because of the advice they gave me and their handbooks, i didn’t take care of them adequately. after the FIRST night of having my two hamsters, one had passed and after going to the vet they told me it probably had a heart issue from birth. after this, i bought another hamster to keep the other one company as advised and they both ended up fighting. i separated them and they lived for a good while. this comment is already too long but i have WAY more stories about the advice and traumatic things that occurred as a result of the misinformation this company is spreading.

[@TeriyakiDior]

My condolences on your pet Chinchilla 😞❤️

[@20dabarr58]

The first hamster i ever had was sent in a tiny cage, with *sawdust* bedding and poor quality food --- I was eight-ish, with no experience, and we thought that me and my parent thought the pet shop knew what they were doing :( The silver lining was that she was from a previous home who couldn't look after her due to ill health, so she was a lovely pet, but i didn't give her the life she deserved :( Godspeed, Amber Edit: she was about two years old when I got her Edit x2: I have a lot more experience and knowledge. I have rats (I've got a four tier cage with more climbing opportunity than a mountain, plus my own mix). I'm able to look after animals far better now

[@peachrenard2320]

I don't think any child is able to give their pet the life it deserves. Even though my hamster when I was 7 had two large, multi-story cages with lots of freaking tubes. But I also didn't seem to get that just because you can feed something to your hamster doesn't mean there's not a limit and Popcorn ended up so chubby he could barely make it through the tubes. (If the snack I had was on the list of things you COULD give your hamster he ended up getting more than a few bites. It seemed really nice then but looking back on it, that was really bad.) Maybe your Amber rest in peace.

[@LordOfTheWigs]

I worked at a pet shop for work experience for my course (it wasn’t a chain store, just didn’t have owners that listened to staff that were educated) and worked there once a week, I was the only one that cleaned the enclosures, it was honestly awful, the small animal enclosures were cleaned only once a week when I went in, which was disgusting because of how small the enclosures were. Every week I took out around 1-3 dead animals (mostly hamsters and mice), and this was a small business, they didn’t have as many animals as pets at home would. But honestly it was disgusting, I recommended a few things to help them with them losing the animals and they never listened. The fish were a different story, they didn’t get them from good breeders until another person was employed (which she helped a lot) and I would have to scoop loads of dead fish out a week. I remember when the axolotls were all sick, they were dropping like flies, it was so sad. They luckily had stopped selling exotics when I joined but i can’t imagine what it was like when they had reptiles.

[@LordOfTheWigs]

Oh, they also had guinea pigs and rabbits housed together. Which isn’t good because they have different dietary requirements.

[@pokabrows]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Like I knew it was bad but hearing how bad it really is still sucks. At least the chinchilla got a good last week with you.

[@kirstenberlin9285]

I agree. You should never buy animals from a chain pet store, I have bought multiple mice and a hamster from a chain pet store and they all died in less than a month and that just broke my heart.

[@alp4315]

I agree, I adopted mice from one and all though they were the sweetest they were all VERY sick and I spent over $600 on vet visits in about 3 months

[@artisannoteworthy]

I bought my hamster buddy Nugget from a chain store. He's a Syrian Hamster, so he's pretty big. Almost the size of a full grown rat now. He's mostly grey and white, with a little Cresent moon white shape on his forehead. He was the only one left in the tank. I went through the whole checklist, and the clerk was SHOCKED when after she asked if I had a cage for it, I replied with "yes. I have a 40+ gallon sized enclosure for him." Getting him home, and after he got acclimated to his new forever home, he warmed up to me pretty fast. He was scared at first, but I figured it was just because he was in a new place. I'd like to add he never tried to bite me- always such a sweetheart. When I did hold him, I noticed he had a few scars on his back. If anyone doesn't know, Syrian hamsters are solitary. My guess is he was bought before with other hamsters but when they fought they returned him. Either that, or he was left in the store with others. He's now my little fuzz butt, who loves running around and napping on my lap. I'm working on teaching him to stay on my shoulder. Recently a friend and I had to go back, and the amount of dead and dying fish floating in the tanks was so sad....

[@TheRisingIcarus]

Omg I'm not ready for this video

[@Creatureexotics]

I love your impression of a ‘big muscly guy’ 🤣🤣

[@Emiology]

That's how men with muscles walk apparently lol

[@tricia3710]

I got so angry at this story, you can refuse the sale of animals if someones being dodgy or doesn’t seem interested in proper care :((

[@Preppy_Duck-hb4en]

@@Emiology hi! Is it okay to do blankets with rats? If so what blankets?

[@honeymoonaddict5000]

@@Preppy_Duck-hb4en most people use fleece because it’s soft and can stretch a bit :) but be careful because if your rats are not littler trained then the fleece will smell bad and get gross

[@zoestafford9193]

@@Preppy_Duck-hb4en It’s much better to use substrate, it gives rats the ability to dig, it has better odor control, it provides enrichment, you can scatter feed, and so much more. Blankets smell really bad and can cause ammonia build up and respiratory infections unless they’re changed every day- they also get chewed up by the rats and the threads can wrap around their necks or toes. Overall, definitely go with a substrate 😊

[@4my4blessings]

My daughter is studying animal care at college, and in their animal care unit she is constantly shocked by the bad husbandry the students are exposed to in their TEACHING environment... so it is no wonder that pet store employees are giving poor advice and not caring for animals correctly. It is so sad. Hamsters in the big "home pet" store in the UK hamsters are kept in enclosures the size of an a4 sheet... when they need a minimum of 100x50cm. Then people wonder why their hamsters are neurotic and bitey. 🙄 DON'T BUY PETS FROM PET STORES. And DO YOUR RESEARCH, never trust the minimum wage off the street employee for husbandry advice!

[@stephanie22345]

I worked at a pet store and I had a couple kids being in a mason jar full of danios. They were buying a gallon tank for them. They absolutely would not listen to me that danios need a bigger tank because their zoology teacher had told them that a gallon is plenty big

[@tattedbaddiiee802]

Your chinchilla story had me in tears, those pictures were making me cry. I feel so so bad for you, I know how it feels to lose a pet. They’re so important to us it’s like losing a huge chunk of your heart!

[@bjorkfangirl]

When I got my rats I bought them from a local pet store here in Idaho and they were so awful when getting my babies out. The man had grabbed them by their tail and threw them in a box and then dropped their wheel on the other rats, it was SO awful and so sad to me I was absolutely enraged.

[@Emiology]

Local pet stores can be just as bad if not worse sometimes because they don't have any standard, no matter how small that they're held to. One of my local ones has put chinese and campbell dwarves in the same enclosure, and their rat care sheet still says to keep them in tanks... it's 2022.

[@Panda-cute]

@@Emiology The breeder I used for my girls would only give me one, so my other rat is a pet store baby. I feel really bad because I love them and wouldn’t trade them for the world but I should’ve backed out. Breeder didn’t communicate well and I’d already paid so I felt obligated.

[@TheRussianBillionair]

Reminds me a lot of the little ratties I've got now. The man had a lot of knowledge about proper care, food, whatnot - I'll give him that - but the way he handled them was just awful. He first stressed them out SO much by chasing them around the cage with his hands, then he picked them up by their tails and pretty much forced all three into a small carrier.. It's been two days and they're still freaked out by sudden movements and noise. One is veeery slowly warming up though. I'm just glad that they're not there any more... :/

[@bjorkfangirl]

@@TheRussianBillionair That's exactly what happened to me. They're VERY slowly warming up and are doing a lot better now, but I think it is no secret that their background at the pet store and with a breeder had something to do with that sadly. I definitely will not be buying from a pet store again, regardless of if it's local or not.

[@GreymanWalking]

@@Panda-cute If they only gave you one and you didn't have other rats, than that was not a reputable breeder. All the breeders I know will only adopt in pairs or more, unless you can show proof of owning other rats already. Most will still encourage you to purchase two rather than just one.

[@UnlikeVarjak]

I remember on my 18th birthday, I went to a pet store to buy a Leopard Gecko, what really shocked me is how skinny she was and I just had to get her back home. I named her Kerrie Anne and she lived a lively healthy life till she passed in. Missing her everyday x

[@Jemmaj]

Unfortunately I know exactly where you mean and I worked in one myself for about 2 years and honestly I feel so guilty looking back at how horrendous it is there... as you say all the DFCs, the deliveries, the conditions of the deliveries and quiet room, iso... severe anxiety thinking back to this! Its why I quit in the end, I just hated it so much :(

[@GalaxiiBunnii]

I used to work for this company. My store was pretty good, the isolation room had the correct signage and we were told to wear PPE (gloves, an apron and, in some cases, a mask). We definitely had to remove all of it and wash our hands before going in to the "quiet room"/quarantine, or before going on to the shop floor. The iso room was always cleaned out last every morning because of this, to avoid possible contamination. Luckily, I didn't see anywhere near as much death in the 4 years I was there. The fish seemed to be the worst, but not as often as 10-20 per hour, although there was a period where the "stock" that came in must have had issues, because we kept losing so many of one particular type. There was an incident with a batch of hamsters that we think had wet tail, I think we ended up losing all of them because the treatment didn't work. Like it seemed like wet tail, but was worse :/ I agree the no natural light in the quiet and iso rooms is horrible. The DFC being changed to FHC (fish health check) cracked us all up for how poor it was. Me and my colleagues were passionate and did try our best to educate people correctly, referring them to resources for them to do further research. We did refuse sales to people we felt were sketchy, but sometimes if the customer called customer service, customer service would contact us and tell us to "just sell it to them" >.

[@little.animals]

I hate big chain pets shops... especially pets at home and the new updating. Some of the products are OK but avoid buying animals.

[@Eliza_woods04]

We once adopted a rabbit from THE pet store,her name is hovis.Hovis wasn't taken care of badly in the store she had a play pen outside her cage because she had breathing issues and they wanted her to get fresh air. The employees were actually very good and you could tell they loved her. When we saw her she was the sweetest rabbit and trying to every one's attention and just wanted to get petted. We took her home as she also happened to be very drawn to us. When we went back the employees were asking about her and we were notified and her vet care history and that it was genetic. And within a couple of months we took her to the pets store vets (Big mistake,don't ever go there it's terrible) and they charged us a ridiculous amount. Put her on oxygen and said that they can't euthanasia her even though she could barely breath.they said she would die that day, and we took her home and said our goodbyes honestly it wasn't the employees fault but the store and the vet and it was no way for hovis to live because she was suffering I hope she rests in peace now 💖

[@clorby22]

I bought my hamster Pluto from THE pet store and have owned him for about 7 months. He seemed perfectly fine... until a few weeks ago. Don’t worry, he’s still alive thank fucking God, but he became extremely unwell over the course of just a few hours. The moment I noticed something was very wrong (he was violently trembling, could hardly move, couldn’t seem to stay awake and had a bit of a head tilt) we took him to the vets immediately. Before we even arrived I was already in tears convinced he was going to die and that it was my fault because the previous night I had been talking about how lucky I was to get such a friendly and healthy little hamster. We went in, the vets examined him, then we were brought into a private room from the waiting area and one of them told us that he’d be lucky to make it through the night. If I wasn’t already upset before, I was a fucking mess at this point. It was ugly believe me. I was sat there sobbing holding my baby believing that these next few hours were going to be his last. I already had one traumatic hamster death happen so this experience was like reliving that Hell all over again. We were presented with the option of euthanasia, or to give him a chance with medication. The vet told me it wasn’t likely it’d do anything except provide pain relief, but I just couldn’t let go. To make an already long story short, Pluto miraculously survived and recovered. Costed me about £100 in total but that doesn’t matter to me. I’m just so glad he’s okay and even just typing this out is bringing tears to my eyes. The reason I bought him in the first place is because I wanted to rescue at least one of the animals in that store, I know it‘s still not a great idea to do that but I was thinking more emotionally rather than logically. I don’t regret it though. He’s one of the best things that happened to me in a long time

[@teaandbiscuits1803]

I did two weeks work experience there too. I took a Guinea pig home who’d had an ear infection and was left with head tilt. I was told he was absolutely fine but I ended up spending hundreds on him on vet care for him to pass away 3 months later. I agree there was positives such as the vet care etc but overall it’s just sell and don’t think of the consequences. I work in a vets now as a veterinary assistant and it’s such a better job

[@d-padqueen1103]

Thank you for sharing awareness - I don't think any chain pet store is squeaky clean when it comes to selling live animals. I'm not sure about not much that can be done about animals with genetic problems - they're obviously animals sourced from "factory" breeders and its something that occurs far more commonly in factory breeding than people who do breed animals as a hobby with better care and knowledge of genetics when they breed animals. Simple solution, don't support factory bred animals, support hobbyists who are far more likely to supply more affectionate and beautiful animals. If you don't mind taking your chances there's a bunch of rehoming centres you could make an unwanted animal happier :)

[@mf-ws3cj]

Expose them queen 🤝

[@apss5736]

That's the reason i have never bought fish from pets at home. The tanks are dirty, have sick fish, the stocking advice is abysmally poor ( I do get occasional supplies). Even the feeder insects are not fed ( even though there is literal insect food right next to them). I go to my local maidenhead aquatics and a family owned business called sweet knowle aquatics with excellent fish. I leant a lot from this video. Thankfully mine stopped selling reptiles

[@Emiology]

Maidenhead generally seem to have much healthier fish with cleaner tanks!

[@jadetheos8922]

I bought four neon Tetras, a Betta a nerite snail and one corydora from a chain pet store then I realized Cory doors needed a group and and I wanted more tetras so I ordered some from an online store. Every single one of the ones from the chain pet store we're dead within a month and all of the other ones are still living (and breeding and breeding and breeding) over a year later

[@pokegirl302]

I was moments away from adopting a couple of macaws from a infamous pet store chain when I walked by the front and I saw two macaws and a cockatoo stuffed into a tiny table top cage that they could barely move in without touching another bird. The birds were showing signs of plucking and as much as I am against impulse buying animals I nearly made an aception that day.

[@cuhurun]

Pet stores everywhere shouldn't be allowed to keep animals in store. Instead, a booking system should be made law, whereby folk can order the pet they want in advance.

[@dandywaysofliving]

This right here. Or set a 6month notice or only breed a couple times a year. 2 locations each breeding twice a year with a 3 month gap between locations. That way corporate still has a chance to make consistent money and people never have to wait more than 3 months to adopt a new family member. But I think the most important part is pre-ordering. No refund policy. Or u only receive back 40% if the pet is already born. . Tbh keeping animals in store makes me sad. Especially when I pass by the kitties/cats. But they're all kitties to me

[@cuhurun]

@@dandywaysofliving : It crushes my heart to see them stuck in tiny boxes/cages waiting to be sold, too. Especially if they end up being sold to someone who might be a bad owner. It's all a damned nightmare for the poor, innocent little things, an unnecessary nightmare that should be stopped, immediately.

[@SmudgeWCUE1]

Off-topic but I love your enclosure in the back, it's very well terriformed!

[@SmudgeWCUE1]

Omg- thanks for hearting my comment thats never happened to me before!

[@lu3791]

I saw a little cage - maybe an armlenght x armlenght big - with around 30 mice in a local pet store... Only 3 houses to hide, it was awful

[@mongoliac1158]

Pet stores abuse their animals. If you plan on getting a pet, do research and find a reputable breeder or rescue group. Quite a few years ago, I bought two pet rats from a pet store. They were far too small to have been away from their mother, but I was a new rat owner, so I didn't know. The male rat, named Peter, died after less than a week. He had an upper respiratory infection and was too exhausted and in too much pain to move at all. When I confronted the pet store about it, I was told "That's what you get for trying to make a pet out of a feeder rat." The other rat was named Bentley. I later found out she was a female. That feeder rat was as sweet as could be. I could feed her soup from my finger and she would just lick it off. I could scoop her up and cuddle her. Every time I walked into the room, she would run to the cage door. I loved that rat so much. Because of her time at the pet store, she dealt with spontaneous upper respiratory infections every few months for her entire life, even though her cage was kept very clean. She lived to be two. A year or so after I lost Bentley, I found a Facebook post where someone was surrendering some rats. The story of how they got the rats was unclear, but they claimed that they were from the same pet store. A mother and three babies. The mother looked exactly like Bentley, and one of the children looked like Peter. I took them in. Mamacita was what we named the mother. She was a small, extremely fluffy, grey and white hooded dumbo rat. She looked so adorable, I wanted to pet her so much. But I couldn't. She was extremely human-aggressive and would attempt to bite me whenever the chance arose. The only thing she wanted more than the blood of humans was food. Though her children didn't seem to have any brain cells, Mamacita was extremely smart. She knew her name. She knew the sarcastic tone of voice I liked to use with her. She knew how to make eye contact, and gave constant death stares. She knew how to look nice and pettable. Any time there was a plastic glove near her, she would viciously attack it (more so than any of our other rats had done). Her children, Gracie, Feta, and Gouda were all very sweet. They weren't affectionate, but they were always happy to see people and just kinda vibed. Gracie got mammary tumors at age 1, and Feta and Gouda both got what was suspected to be brain tumors at around age 2. Mamacita outlived all three of them. The difference between Bentley and Mamacita was jarring. Bentley had been at the pet store for only a few weeks, meant to be a feeder rat. Mamacita, on the other hand, was a breeder rat, believed to have had at least four litters in the first year of her life. One was a sweet angel, while the other was nicknamed Cujo. Every other rat I've had have been rescued. Some have been traumatized from their previous homes, but nearly all of them have been super sweet, and all of them have been incredible pets. Although buying rats from pet stores may feel like a rescue, it'll just lead to more demand, leading to more rats suffering. The pet stores don't care what happens so long as they get their money. I've heard people say, "Oh, there are regulations though!" Pet stores don't follow them. Don't give them money. Don't let them continue this. I'm sorry for this being such a long comment, but I'm tired of animals suffering.

[@Creatureexotics]

One thing I have noticed is that ermm….. Sets Cat Roam…. near me have stopped selling rabbits thank GOODNESS!

[@Emiology]

That's good, death at home seem to have stopped selling chinchillas in most if not all stores too thankfully

[@Creatureexotics]

@@Emiology yes definitely I haven’t seen one in a long time thankfully. I remember going as a child they used to sell BIRDS like finches and budgies 😔😔 thankfully that stopped. 27 now and still disagree with pretty much every set up they have it’s such a shame because they could have a huge impact on pet care standards if they tried! My local sells reptiles and amphibians though 😳 leopard geckos on reptile carpet, snakes with a single coconut hide, the lot

[@platannapipidae9621]

no surprises. i fancy myself as a bird enthusiast and every time i see parrots in the pet stores, i want to cry and to commit violence to store owners. like, i see parrots who literally can't breath, i see them poop in their food and water. they eat grain instead veggies and spices. they die faster, then people buy them. it's awful and shouldn't exist. government should look after the breeders.

[@kedj9380]

I love u and your content so much xxxxxxx

[@crazygirlontheblock311]

At the pets at homes near me they had some enclosures which had animals for adoption in. I have never bought live animals from them but seeing as these were for adoption we decided to adopt 2 baby bunnies. They ended up having a deadly parasite which should of been picked up far sooner. One of the rabbits (flopsy) was really poorly and how she went un noticed for so long was just ridiculous. The vet thought they wouldn’t last a week,but I wanted to give them a chance and we started medication they lived for another 2 months and then sadly snowdrop passed away. And flopsy a month after. If the parasite had been picked up sooner they probably would of survived as a lot of their major symptoms wouldn’t of happened. It’s so frustrating. There’s also always dying reptiles and insects. They should not sell live mammals let alone live reptiles that need there environment to be specific otherwise they will get sick. Hamsters are a little more hardy then crested geckos kept in a tiny enclosure with barely any humidity or places high up to hide. They should be banned from the selling of live animals.

[@molliejameson]

that place makes me feel sick 😞. honestly don’t understand how all this is able to happen.

[@diane9693]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I’d considered working for a chain pet store as I’d love to work with animals safe to say I won’t be applying! Pet stores shouldn’t sell animals of any species! Support responsible breeders.

[@skibidicat10]

Before I knew how bad pet stores were I bought two rats. The pet store employee grabbed them by the tails and threw them in the carrier. Never again.

[@milirodriguez8493]

Most of them are most definitely NOT trained. I got my chinchilla from a chain pet store and although the lady was very sweet, I dont think she was handling him nicely. He made a crying noise. I have held them(I know chinchis dont like to be held alot) to clean his cage and though he likes to move ALOT, he never made that crying noise with me.

[@Silentgrace11]

As one of the many people who have been traumatized for life as kids from misinformation about hamsters being “social animals”, yes, this is such a horrible issue and I can’t believe that misinformation is so common. Well, I stand corrected - I suppose I can believe it, but purely by virtue of the fact that pet stores probably let it continue because a) people buy more hamsters that way, and b) they may end up giving any resulting babies back to the pet store, resulting in even more profits

[@mf-ws3cj]

Omg I'm early! I love you!! My family owns 2 small pet supply stores and I hope to take it over someday, the holistic pet industry is filled with some amazing people❤

[@missoli]

Yep I’ve been there. Not a chain pet store but a breeder that’s actually well known in the reptile community. i also don’t wanna say who bc I don’t want a lawsuit either 😂 It’s heartbreaking to watch animals die and having a boss really only care about making money and not providing the proper resources to keep the animals happy and healthy. :( it has definitely traumatized me. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss

[@Emiology]

Unfortunately when it comes to making money in the animal industry if you want to make a good profit from it you have to cut a lot of corners. Knowing what goes in to breeding rats ethically and how most times good breeders are at a loss, it makes me question any large scale business / breeder that's managing to make a hefty profit from it.

[@missoli]

@@Emiology where I worked, 13 of us quit within the same week because we were fed up with the way we and the animals were treated. it makes me so sad to know that animals suffer because greedy humans who don't care about anything but profit :(

[@rated-pg7644]

I knew pet stores were bad, but I didn’t know how bad they were. As an animal lover, hearing the horrific conditions, I’m very sad. My sister has been wanting a guinea pig that she found at PetSmart and I’m trying to tell my mom not to buy one for her. (She hasn’t said anything recently but I’m worried my parents will buy one for her( My sister and my other sister share a room, so that really limits the space she can provide for the guinea pig. And she’s going to turn 9 soon, and personally I don’t think she’ll be able to provide the proper needs. I’m going to send this video to my mom.

[@Nakia11798]

Pet stores should not be allowed to sell pets that they themselves cannot maintain.

[@hannahhammond1993]

I wasnt working at a big chain i did a work experience at a family run pet shop( no longer in business) one morning i went into work to find that we had a couple gerbils that had a fight a lady came in just as i was getting round to cleaning up blood and fur etc and removing injuried gerbils the lady wanted one of the injuried gerbils i said im sorry i can not sell you that animal due to it was injuried and needed treatment i said im happy to sell any other gerbil just not that one i took that animal upstairs put it in a pen to clean wounds etc unfortunately by lunch time the gerbil had passed away then the owners contacted my college teacher for them to inform me that they were firing me for this interaction and they also made alot of bs claims blaming me for things that another work experience employee did they also told my lecturer that i was not welcome in their store ever again and this was all over me refusing to sell a injuried animal to a customer which died with 2-3 hrs of being placed upstairs

[@EJ-yk3gd]

Always love to see your transparency in your experiences!! Your experience is pretty similar to what I’ve seen of the animal side of the place I work. I can only feel a small bit of relief and ease working at a chain pet shop here in Texas. In my shop if the vendors send any kind of ill animals or fish the animal person will stop ordering from them until they can improve the health of their animals. Every animal gets to see the vet and gets all the medication they need. Their habitats, while some are not the most incredible, are adequate to my personal standards and maintained twice a day. I still encourage everyone to stop supporting these places and buying from them. Personally I’m in the merchandise position and my job is to stock the shelves and account for all the items in the shop since I couldn’t stomach working with the animals bcs my standards of care are too high. I am comforted only by the fact that our animal expert is an actual qualified expert who takes great care of our animals. And even he is like don’t buy animals from us this place sucks. Great video as always, despite the grim topics.

[@Irisicaaa]

The rabbit thing sounds bad, but some people have large exotic snakes that prefer to eat live food. :( So yes, it's cruel, but also other animals need to eat.

[@Emiology]

Live feeding isn’t legal in this country unless prescribed by a vet.

[@meadowbird2523]

I was the 1000th like- :D

[@twoofeleven]

That chinchilla story makes me curious, my cousin had a very similar experience with hers. I don't think she did anything wrong with their care, the first chinchilla she got ended up living for 15 years at least, but the two times she tried getting her a friend they would mysteriously drop dead after a month or so, though they weren't bullied :( The pet store animals are quite a conundrum, it's not something I want to support but it also feels so bad to leave them as is... What about rescue rodents/bunnies? Of course they might come from different backgrounds, but should the staff's experience be enough to let you know about their personality and issues?

[@e.w9641]

I used to think working in a pet store would be fun, but then realised pet stores would probably not want me since I would be honest to people about pet care and I wouldn't even try to sell people too small cages and such.

[@Emiology]

Definitely! Anyone I know who's applied with actual animal qualifications has been turned down because they know too much, and they favor retail experience instead. Anyone who does try to make positive changes or drive sales away from unsafe products usually gets in trouble :(

[@SilverDemon456]

I worked in both PetSmart and Pet Supplies Plus and this sounds so much worse than both of those stores.

[@miah2400]

Where I live I happen to have a locally owned family business pet store that actually gets their pets from approved responsible breeders and seems like they genuinely care about the animals and don't just treat them as merchandise. However, after watching this video and knowing how small animals are shipped to pet stores it makes me a little hesitant to support it. Especially since they had rats displayed in glass tanks which I've learned from your channel is unacceptable considering they have respiratory issues. I feel safer buying from a breeder or shelter regardless until pet stores can take better care of their animals.

[@Minecraftergirl17]

Pets at home in Oxford is incredible with their rats, and I know most of the staff there have rats or were breeders. Still not ethical but it means when I bought my rats from there, as I was uneducated, they have fab temperament!!

[@reptileclub8681]

One time when I was at petco I overheard a store employee telling someone that single tail goldfish could, and should be in a fish bowl... no fish can survive in a bowl, and single tail goldfish need a pond, while double tail goldfish need a 20 gallon.

[@Lucille_ili]

Brb just going to delete my CV for the pet shop I was interested in😳

[@edithsmith4485]

I tried to tell my boyfriends mom that pet stores are not ok but she said her firneds own and work there so they are good people, and I tried to explain that the workers do not alwyas try to hurt the animals. It’s just the buissness in general that is never going to keep the animals that healthy or happy

[@SysterYster]

My brother had a chinchilla when I was a kid. My dad built a large cage from an old wardrobe with lots of shelves for him to jump up and down, and a middle floor with two holes in so in case he fell, he'd only fall through half the cage and not from the top to the bottom. He loved it. He was so cute and cuddly. I don't remember how old he got, be he died from old age.

[@imacookie185]

wow. I never knew. I will never purchase from a pet store again. This was a very helpful video 😊

[@aidapatak]

This is truly horrifying but sadly no surprise. Even in Switzerland we are facing similar issues with chain pet stores. I tried to reach out to the media and police but they just told me that these aren't news and they can't do anything about it. After this video I have realized that giving up is no option. Pet stores NEED to improve! PS: As a chinchilla owner myself I can confirm that it isn't always easy to look out for them or even find a good vet. My chinchilla almost died because of a vet who just had no idea how to handle chinchillas. Sending you and your pets lots of love

[@pale4146]

Another problem with these pet stores is putting more than one Hamster in one enclosure. I had one instance where my coworker who started the same time I did was opening with a manager, and she went to look into an enclosure to see if everyone was still okay. It was also her first day opening the small animals herself. She ended up discovering a beheaded hamster next to a hamster covered in blood. And this happened more often than it should have. I hate chain pet stores but one thing that would need to change is overstocking live animals. Its absolutely NOT okay.

[@everettshanklin5785]

When I was little PC sold me a Guinea Pig that turned out to be pregnant with twins. My mom went to the store and they refused to help out at all :/

[@leedya02]

Having just left the company you're talking about...I've had many similar experiences, I took home 2 rats because one came in pregnant. I do believe the company are trying to better themselves for example PPE being mandatory in iso and Q and hamsters being sold singularly, I have found every store varies, the store I worked at has very educated staff who advise customers off their own knowledge and not company policy but that's down to the staff and their love of animals not the company. Other stores I've been too have very poor standards, it's actually frightening.

[@Emiology]

Glad to hear there’s PPE now at least!

[@leedya02]

@@Emiology I'm not sure if other stores are as strict with PPE etc, the store I worked at was smaller and a nice team of people, who all cared about the animals greatly so we all did our best by the animals and many times ignored company policies to ensure the animals did well, other bigger "destination stores" (Kylie stores as the company call them) I doubt are so thorough and thoughtful. Our manager was wonderful, he always let us know we could refuse to sell animals if we felt it was wrong. Unfortunately he was moved to a different store as we weren't performing on KPIs, the new manager is more about product over pet and that was a push for me to leave. In ways they're trying to be better, changing signage to say hamsters must be sold alone, that rats have to be in groups, making it so adoption pets have a minimum donation etc but in other areas it's becoming more about meeting targets, getting people onto the app and signing them up to subscriptions of flea and worming, products over pets and not pets over products like they like to preach.

[@CounterCultureVegan]

Adopt don't shop!

[@monarchscried4915]

id see dead fish in pet stores all the time, just there, no care in the world to remove them, nothing :l

[@jase123111]

I think there is care, but the shops employ the minium number of staff. I often was the only one on the shop floor and had to man the cash register and was not allowed to leave it due to the security risk. If a customer saw a dead fish they would tell me, but I was not allowed to go and get it out. The other staff might be dealing with other customers so can't leave that customer too.

[@galacticnerd3243]

"So many died within 2 weeks" "i can't say who" Petco. She was talking about Petco. Daaamn petco

[@Emiology]

We don’t have petco in the U.K.

[@margalothegreat_hams]

no Petco/petsmart in the UK, it's Pets at home. If by home they mean death trap.

[@pencilpauli9442]

Stack em high sell em...cheap-ish? The whole concept of a live pet supermarket is abhorrent. Really sad stories

[@jase123111]

The problem in these large chain pet shops. They look good on the surface, but where the animals are bred and the farms they are bough in from are horrific. They put all the small privately owned pet shops out of business. A small family run pet shop is much better, they have the passion and knowledge for the animals they sell and specialise in. The big chain ones are only interested in targets and money... so they buy mass produced, inbred, low 'quality' animals to stock their shops as they are the cheapest... and will make the most profit... so in many die they don't care as they cost virtually nothing to begin with.

[@e_e_eli]

I got my first rats from a pet store, which I knew was a huge mistake. I just looked into that breeding box and bonded with them straight away. One ended up developing cage agression. Got him neutered, and he passed away after the neuter. Please never make the same mistake, I know we want to save these poor animals, but saving some will only result in the torture of others. Please never buy a pet from a pet store.

[@WGarita2001]

You gave the chinchilla his best last days 💗

[@janenightreadsandwrites223]

We got a hamster from a chain store. By the 3rd day of having her home she developed wet tail (a very serious diarhea in hamsters). Luckily, we were able to save her but that definitely opened my eyes to the fact that the stores aren't invested in the animals as sentient beings.

[@catdragonrose2155]

I worked at a chain pet store. Our fish system was messed up and corporate refused to fix it. We had entire stocks of fish die within ours because our system was messed up.

[@mrmagot98]

I guess you might be talking about pets at home because that's the only one I know of.

[@mrmagot98]

I went to try and get a rat from pets at home and it was hiding under a wooden block with some bedding in, it was alone and in not even a 1ft by 1ft cage with nothing to climb on, it was sad. Didn't end up buying it because it said it was sold.

[@theXxgajxX]

Jeez that’s sounds horrible. I worked at a chain store in the US and it’s not nearly as bad. Same sex delivered only, any sick animals has to see a vet within 72 hours, PPE is a huge must, we would grill people on where the animals are going and how they take care of them.

[@Emiology]

Some of these things may have improved in recent years as it’s been a while since I was there but it’s still not the best!

[@LuluTheCorgi]

Honesty Id rather wait a long time for a responsible breeder or not have any pets at all instead of going to a pet store again I think it's insanely unethical to shop there, they will only stop this animal abuse when they don't make any money. So stop supporting this animal abuse people, please Honestly I don't even know how this is all legal, Germany technically has an animal welfare law but it's apparently more like a suggestion, because pet shops just don't care at all It's not worth it to get your rats or mice a little earlier just for them all to get cancer a year later and be traumatized from being picked up by the tail in the store

[@Emiology]

Same, I often get a lot of comments saying “well I don’t have a breeder near me, only a chain pet store” personally I’d rather not own an animal at all than know there I’ve supported an industry like this, it just makes the entire experience of an already short lived pet much different.

[@nwyk153]

i work at a small family owned pet store years ago. same shit. so it's not only the big chain store. not sure why you are against it. everywhere is the same.

[@Emiology]

Why are you not sure why I’m against it when you just agreed all of these things occur?

[@jase123111]

Well, that is bad of that shop. But, you can't judge all of them the same. When I was young I worked in several small pet shops and they were fantastic. The owners really were interested in their animals and we took great care of them. Some pet owners treat their pets badly... but that does not mean that all pet owners do, for example.

[@carieevans3787]

Well, I guess its a good thing that there aren't even 10% of the pet stores that there used to be when I was a kid. I'm 45 now, but when I was little.....they were EVERYwhere. I remember walking through my mall, and my mom deliberately avoiding the wing of the mall that had a pet store with all the cute little dogs and cats in this glass cage built into the window facing out into the mall. I would make her stop every time so I could hold a dog, they would just get them out for anyone to hold. & they had every animal you could possibly think of. All breeds of dogs & cats, a huge tunnel of all fish breeds, tarantulas, ferrets, lizards, snakes, parrots and all the talking birds (even huge "pirate" parrots), seahorses, just everything. It was like a zoo right in the mall. Now, there are hardly any who sell pets, and if they do, they are very limited. I was looking for a gerbil so my sons could have a mate, and it was very hard locating one in Columbus Ohio.

[@jase123111]

I am not sure its a good thing at all. Now people get their puppies from adds in the newspaper or online... many from horrific puppy mills. The puppies in the pet shops were treated better than on a puppy mill. Also if the animals in the shop were being treated bad, or in dirty small cages, the public would see it and report them. All the backyard breeds and animals 'farms' are out of sight and no one can see how the animals are being treated or housed.

[@BexEtcArt]

Was it pets at home? I’ve just started this video but I used to work there and experienced the same thing LOL they wrote off hamsters like they were fucking cardboard.- edit I have my answer I watched on 😅

[@Ayato666]

When I worked at superpets an employee decided to kill a bunch of animals. The manager did nothing cause dude was his drug dealer. Pissed me off if I was there I would have stopped him. Bastard killed a kingsnake I wanted. Hope karma got him.

[@maybeitsmolly4994]

One of my little hamsters came from a chain pet shop and he was so nervous and jumpy when we first got him. I know this could be due to a change of environment etc but it was so heavily linked with human interaction and it was so sad. He had a multitude of health problems too, which we’re treating accordingly with the vet. He’s so much happier now, a lovely little man who comes right up to you asking for cuddles. I’ll never again buy from a large pet shop chain, only locally now.

[@ginamau5]

At pet land. Before the store opened I would get paid $5 for every dead fish I removed from the tanks. It’s sick. I only worked there for a a week or so. Edit: puppy mills are real, and are still being used.

[@Emiology]

Wish I’d been paid $5 per fish I’d have had loads of money for the emotional trauma 🥲

[@lilamjazeefa9466]

Owning a pet of ANY kind should require a license acquired by passing a breed-specific competency test. Yes, meaning that the overwhelming majority of people would be outright banned from owning pets and most pet stores and, yeah, even rescues, would immediately go bankrupt. Humans should barely be interacting with other animals in general given our specie's obscene cruelty and technological superiority.

[@leonardpiittinen9946]

I believe I bought my first ever pet (a cute hamster) when I was about 10 from a chain pet store, I don’t regret buying him because he was wonderful but I still remembered how they chased him around the huge cage to catch him which later probably has made him scared of humans (more than before) so I could never really tame him :( and now I’m planning on getting rats or gerbils (wishing for money to get rats/gerbils for my birthday) and I don’t know ANY breeders in my country so I will have to buy in a pet store but I will buy in a pet store where I’ve seen that the cages are set up properly, the animals look healthy and I’ve never had a problem with the fish I’ve bought from there :) (even though I’d much rather buy from a breeder but I don’t know where to find them and so on)

[@raven_andnikola9305]

If you are talking about P.A.H. I totally agree- No Experience At All!!!!!!

[@sealink129]

I know there are lots of awful pet stores (mainly those of a franchise chain), but I think a lot of them are trying to do better for the animals, but can’t due to corporate rules and regulations. I own reptiles, and The Petco and Petsmart where I am, really seem to try and do good. While the tanks are small, they put enrichment in there, and I have yet to see any dead or particularly ill looking animals. They also are changing the info they have readily available for pet buyers to be more accurate, even if it’s still a bit off. However, they house some reptiles together, that under any circumstance SHOULD NOT be together. And perhaps I’m not seeing what goes on behind the scenes, but I’ve seen stores that don’t even attempt to hide the lack of care they give their animals. And it’s a real shame. Because I can tell that a lot of the workers love animals, but the corporation they work for is greedy and doesn’t care about animal health as long as it makes money.

[@FlowerWhiskers111]

One of my hamsters was abused in the pet store. I still can see that man grabbing hamsters in a horrible way... I don't know, if he's still working there, just hope karma returned to him. It was long years ago

[@Emiology]

One of the hamsters I bought as a kid was a screamer whenever someone opened the enclosure, didn't help that the employee scruffed him to get him out, poor guy :(

[@FlowerWhiskers111]

@@Emiology so sorry to hear that!

[@Panda-cute]

One of my rats is a pet store baby and when I was looking at the babies the man was yanking them all up by the tails :( she’s fine, healthy and friendly, but that was hard to watch

[@FlowerWhiskers111]

@@Panda-cute Doing something with tail can be painful, but not only - my hamster and his siblings were taken by fur and THREW from a bigger height back to that tiny space

[@Panda-cute]

@@FlowerWhiskers111 gah whyyyyy that’s just so mean 😭

[@Strike-fv1ei]

i remember getting my hamsters for my birthday and being so excited. (bearing in mind i was like what? 8? when i got the little guys so i didnt really know what was good and bad) and they brought out this cage which had the bare minimum (food and water) there was no bedding, no wheel and there was 6 little baby dwarf hamsters in there. now i think back on it i hope the 4 i couldnt adopt got into a great home and wasnt stuck in that horrid store.

[@Shannonn_]

How many birds should be kept in one cage, the guy I work for currently for experience he keeps like 10 budges in one cage and it just looks so full these cages look fit enough for 2 budges. I disagree but I can’t seem to see any info on pet shop requirements. Iv worked there twice now and iv seen a fair few dead fish, iv had to separate a a hamster due to his eye, iv been treating an adult Syrian with hair loss on his nose..which apparently wasn’t there the day before but it was obvious it’s been there a while, iv been treating that and it’s hair is now growing back but this one hamster was just shoved in the back in a lab rat cage which I wouldn’t even put a single fish in. Search up lab rat cage, you’ll know what I mean. I took one of the hamsters that was shoved in the back home with me as I didn’t want it there and I wanted to take the rest but I haven’t got the money and I also don’t want to invest in it either. He mentioned how he gets them for free as well. Iv treated 3 birds as well, one is dead now because they didn’t listen to me when I said the cage is to small. The budgies wing had been clipped(this was the same day a new batch) it was bleeding like crazy so I was trying to treat it and separate it from that cage. Like i don’t even know man!!!