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. 

[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.