HA! Advice about cats / dogs from petstores?
Never, EVER buy a cat or dog from a petstore. My dog is from a registered breeder - dogs in petstores more often than not come from puppy mills, go to homes who have NO clue what to do with it, and end up in the SPCA. Cats, not so much, but there are often problems - illnesses etc... that cats come home from petstores with. One of mine was adopted from the SPCA and the other was a friend's barn cat's kitten. Anyone and their monkey can go and purchase anything they want from a petstore without any advice whatsoever. They have no screening process for people purchasing these animals. They're more concerned with the cheque you hand over or the credit card you're wielding than the welfare of the animals they place in these homes. This is a topic on which no one should ever get me started because I could go on for hours. If you have ever seen the pictures from inside a puppy mill you would understand. It breaks my heart everytime I go to the local animal shelter and see all the cats and dogs that people were too irresponsible to look after. Thousands of cats and dogs get put to sleep every year. I'm willing to bet $1000 that the majority of these animals were from the local pet store. People who are willing to put the time and effort into researching their animals before purchasing one never ever get one from a pet store. Just like those people who go and throw in a bunch of incompatible fish into their 10 gallon, and are surprised when one of them eats all the others, people go to pet stores, and it's usually the case that they get a big, agressive dog that they cannot handle when it's an adult because they have no idea how to train and treat a dog, and they throw it into the shelter because it doesn't behave properly - meanwhile, with a little WORK (yes WORK!!! GASP!) the dog, even though it may be a more agerssive breed, could actually be a perfectly nice family dog. Rottweilers are one - very cute as a puppy, but grows into a 150+ lb dog, and people buy them thinking they're all macho - and then proceed to treat the thing like it's a junkyard protector dog, and then get UPSET when after they've bullied it for years & it finally turns around and bites them, or worse, their kids. I've known plenty of beautiful rotties, who have WONDERFUL personalities, because the people who bought them knew what they were getting into and got the dog because the breed was right for them and their situation, not because they wanted to eb seen with a big dog.
Sorry for the rant. I'm passionate.
Fish are seen as 'expendable' because they don't cost that much and because they take more work than people think they should, so people who don't put the work into it think that fish are only meant to live three months. Ever told someone who's had an aquarium for a short time once and lost all their fish in six months that you have a fish that's two years old? See the look on their face? Do you get asked 'Wow how did you do that? Isn't that abnormal?' It's unfortunate. I can't get as attached to my fish as I do to my cat - they do, afterall, despite trying your best, sometimes get sick and die - but I get almost as attached, and all my friends laugh at me when I say 'My fish are happy today' or something. Heck, they're still lifeforms, no matter how quickly they die, and it's still a big responsibility to have to look after all the needs of another living creature. Pet stores don't drill that into their customer's heads enough.
Never, EVER buy a cat or dog from a petstore. My dog is from a registered breeder - dogs in petstores more often than not come from puppy mills, go to homes who have NO clue what to do with it, and end up in the SPCA. Cats, not so much, but there are often problems - illnesses etc... that cats come home from petstores with. One of mine was adopted from the SPCA and the other was a friend's barn cat's kitten. Anyone and their monkey can go and purchase anything they want from a petstore without any advice whatsoever. They have no screening process for people purchasing these animals. They're more concerned with the cheque you hand over or the credit card you're wielding than the welfare of the animals they place in these homes. This is a topic on which no one should ever get me started because I could go on for hours. If you have ever seen the pictures from inside a puppy mill you would understand. It breaks my heart everytime I go to the local animal shelter and see all the cats and dogs that people were too irresponsible to look after. Thousands of cats and dogs get put to sleep every year. I'm willing to bet $1000 that the majority of these animals were from the local pet store. People who are willing to put the time and effort into researching their animals before purchasing one never ever get one from a pet store. Just like those people who go and throw in a bunch of incompatible fish into their 10 gallon, and are surprised when one of them eats all the others, people go to pet stores, and it's usually the case that they get a big, agressive dog that they cannot handle when it's an adult because they have no idea how to train and treat a dog, and they throw it into the shelter because it doesn't behave properly - meanwhile, with a little WORK (yes WORK!!! GASP!) the dog, even though it may be a more agerssive breed, could actually be a perfectly nice family dog. Rottweilers are one - very cute as a puppy, but grows into a 150+ lb dog, and people buy them thinking they're all macho - and then proceed to treat the thing like it's a junkyard protector dog, and then get UPSET when after they've bullied it for years & it finally turns around and bites them, or worse, their kids. I've known plenty of beautiful rotties, who have WONDERFUL personalities, because the people who bought them knew what they were getting into and got the dog because the breed was right for them and their situation, not because they wanted to eb seen with a big dog.
Sorry for the rant.
I'm passionate. Fish are seen as 'expendable' because they don't cost that much and because they take more work than people think they should, so people who don't put the work into it think that fish are only meant to live three months. Ever told someone who's had an aquarium for a short time once and lost all their fish in six months that you have a fish that's two years old? See the look on their face? Do you get asked 'Wow how did you do that? Isn't that abnormal?' It's unfortunate. I can't get as attached to my fish as I do to my cat - they do, afterall, despite trying your best, sometimes get sick and die - but I get almost as attached, and all my friends laugh at me when I say 'My fish are happy today' or something. Heck, they're still lifeforms, no matter how quickly they die, and it's still a big responsibility to have to look after all the needs of another living creature. Pet stores don't drill that into their customer's heads enough.
