Animal Stores.

[RMHmommy]

I recently emailed this message to a petstore near my house called barkworks.
To whom it may concern,

 I have entered your Barkworks store in the mall several times and each time I do so, I feel sick to my stomach with the thought of what these animals go through everyday. Do you realize that what you do it cruel and disgusting? NO ANIMALS should be kept in small glass boxes being oohed and awwed at each day. The amount of space neccesary for these animals to be comfortable is not provided and they need to be excercised everyday! These animals are over populated in their small cages and need to have more space to themselves. Thousands of animals are killed each year in animal shelters after being bought from stores like yours! People need to adopt animals from a shelter not from a store that buys their animals from overcrowded filthy puppy mills. This is a disgusting business you have running and I find it hard to believe that you can sleep at night knowing what you do.

Thank you for your time,

Meghan

[AMJ087]

Must be pretty bad huh?

[Ellimac]

Well said.

[Jaguar]

Unfortunately as long as they're getting food and water there's nothing that can be done about it.  One of the pet stores I live near is TERRIBLE - they keep the rats in tanks, mixed genders, on pine, and feed them a terrible seed mix.  They're friendly, but sickly - it's where I got Miles and he's constantly battling Myco and has a hard time keeping weight on.  The store is old, un-air conditioned, the ceiling is open/exposed and the store is full of dust and mold and extremely noisy and smelly due to 10+ parrots flying freely around.  I feel like sending them an email or calling anonymously to tell them about the atrocious conditions they keep their animals in.  Unfortunately I can't go in there and do it face to face as I have to go in there some times to purchase bedding (no where else sells YN and Aspen) and I am very recognizable.    Next time I am in there I am going to take photographs with my phone and compose something a little more thorough than your message and send it to them. 

[ema-leigh]

I think that when you send a letter like that, your not going to make a whole lot of change happen. I think going in and being friendly is the best option. Dont forget they have to be nice and polite with you. ALOT of people are misinformed about rats needs, thinking of them to be like hamsters or gerbils. So if you educate them and word it better your more likely to make change happen.

A very small pet store by me sells rats, they have 2 black does, a huge black hooded buck and a hairless buck that they breed themselves. Apart from not knowing the history of the parents they are breeding from  thy take good care of the rats. They are friendly and from my personal experiences have been healthy. The rats cages are always very clean (although they do use sawdust) they seperate gender accuratly and appropriatly. They feed a standard rat food, which before i joined this site I thought was a good quality. Now I've added Mazuri They are knowledgeable about rats as pets (minus the few flaws above). They give babies the full five weeks with mom and even make sure they are a good size before they sell them. All in all, classic case of just simply not having access to the right info. If i was going to buy from a petstore Id buy them from there. But so far, Ive used breeders just to be safe.

I would say that in this case, they would just need to be educated. Ive been thinking of going in and talking to the owner, hes a nice guy and Im sure he'd be willing to listen. But this way your actually making a difference. Does anyone understand where Im coming from?

[Kinsey]

That's sad, there's a place here that keeps puppies in tanks, drinking drugged water from hamster water bottles.

I hate it.

I recently also sent a complaint letter to Petsmart along with countless other PETA supporters about the treatment of the animals in their care, especially the rats.

[RMHmommy]

the post above me: barkworks keeps them in aquariums also. its disgusting! no one has emailed me back. hahaha

[Kiko]

I went into pet smart about 2 weeks ago and was shocked.

Pleasantly actually, I was always used to the rats being kept in small tanks with food and water on aspen.
These rats were in a gigantic glass fixture about the length of a 55 gallon tank, and about 4 feet high.
It had a single gender of only females they has Mazuri food, and hammocks and wheels. All the rats looked healthy, and required the signing of a pet contract, and there were only about 10 in the tank.
I would still not buy rats from a pet store, but I am glad they are getting better treatment.

I was very pleased with the upgrade for the rats, this was where the used to keep the chinchillas, but the chinchillas were moved.

[psycho_ash]

To be honest, I usually get rats from Petsmart... The one near my house is VERY nice with their animals, like you wouldn't even believe. I am good friends with two of the people who work there. They have a separate area in the back where they quarantine new animals and I have never seen an ill-tempered rat in that store. I will start to try to adopt from shelters more, but I really see no problem with the Petsmart in my area. It really just depends on the people - I'm sure there are some Petsmarts that are horrible, but this one is really nice. All the workers there like to socialize with the animals.

Ps. Petsmart is where Lemmi came from, if I am correct, and also Felony.

[AMJ087]

The petsmarts in my area are much better then a lot of petstores. I find that Petco in this area is very bad but its the only petstore for rats and the majority of rat stuff in a 20 mile radius.