To be disgusted with Pets at home?

[MadHattersHat]

I had to pop in there yesterday to get some food. I had my toddler DD with me so we had a look around all the animals. We got to the adoption bit and there was a gorgeous brown rabbit there called Thumper - if I could have taken him home I would. He was so friendly and kept trying to reach up to us - really friendly. However, his water bowl was bone dry with what looked like remnants of what looked like straw.

I went over to one of the employees to let them know he was completely out and was rudely told: "Well, I'm a bit busy at the minute!"

Fair enough, they might have been busy - but they weren't swamped and there were about 3 of them working in the store. But I found their tone disgusting. They seriously don't care - despite what they like to say.

I just hope he did get his water. I feel awful that I wasn't able to take him. If I could, I would have in a heartbeat.

Their guinea pig area used to be awful - pigs riddled with mites and respiratory infections.

The one near us is now much better, but they still insist on housing pigs and rabbits together.

Do you expect them to worm and flea your animals?
Should they do claw care free?
What about other maintenance needs?

Should they be financially responsible for them too?

the water might have just been finished for all you know. Sometimes my dog drinks all her water but I might not notice immediately and I'm at home all day. Give them a break, they can't watch it ALL the time

Personally I would ban the selling of any animal in a pet store. There are thousands of all types of animals in rescue centres, where one would hope that they are at least cared for properly.

Our two stores are good.We've bought a hamster and 2 gerbils from there in the peak of health,very helpful and knowledgable staff too.Good with kids.

However I would say the size of cages they sell for hamsters and gerbils are shockingly small.We had to buy cages from Zooplus as there just wasn't anything big enough in Pets at Home.

I understand people may not have the space but then sorry rodents aren't for you.It's like buying a huge dog and living in a flat.Pets at home shouldn't be encouraging it.Germany has a cage size law,don't understand why we don't have one here.

If Pets at Home want to message me re our store names,feel free.

Ours even carry masseeeeve bags of wood shavings out to your car whatever the weather.

Have just heard accounts of people complaining about water bottles being empty and when checked they are actually full - they haven't noticed because water is see through.

Bury St Edmunds store is superb.

Our Syrian hammy has a smallish cage, but she goes into her ball a couple of hours a day and seems happy. She gets lots of cuddles and attention.

Their rabbit supportive adoption is becoming one of the biggest in the UK and they are currently trialing the sale of rabbits that have been vaccinated and neutered because so many miserly people seem to expect the shop to provide the care that the owners should be doing.

If you adopt a rabbit you are given a voucher for free neutering. Agree with glass castle about owners should pay for the upkeep but surely this is a good thing?

Also the rabbits are fed primarily hay with a very small amount of pellets which is often why the bowls are empty as they have had their pelleted food for the day.

Yes that is a good thing Sparkle. They offer lots of support to adopters of their unwell, disabled or challenging animals.

They go in to clean at 7 a.m every morning - every animal is cleaned, fed, checked for signs of illness, given medication and preventative treatments and cuddled if it likes that. The checks occur throughout the day. A vet is called instantly if there's a problem and our local store is shortly opening an ins tore Vets. This is nationwide policy where appropriate.

They are going to be offering rabbits for sale at different stages of their life cycle - so not only babies but older vaccinated and neutered rabbits. The price will go up to reflect this but that is a good thing because any of oyu who have got a rabbit cheaply are perpetuating abuse and devaluing of a living creature anyway.

Local figures show that between 60-70% of animal sales are refused because of ill preparation or unsuitability.

I know an employee. He asks you not to judge the whole chain by a few people who will only be weeded out if you bother to complain in real life instead of just on an internet forum.

Ours has an in store vet and we got a free hamster check over when we bought him.

One more comment - female rabbits can and do get on perfectly well together.

We have had five pairs of females over the years, no fights and blissful domestic harmony.

My experience of our local PAH is that the staff are well meaning though not particularly knowledgable. All of the animals have food, water, bedding and toys, and an acceptable amount of room.

There are signs above the rabbit pens saying 'rabbits need to live in pairs'- fair enough. However, what they don't tell you is that the best pairing is generally a neutered male and a neutered female. Someone who bought a pair of entire males would be unlikely to have a happy outcome, even if they subsequently got the animals neutered.

Most of the cages sold aren't big enough for rabbits- some are labelled as 'suitable for two guinea pigs or one young rabbit'- what use is that? I believe it is possible to order in a 6 foot hutch (which would be suitable for 2 rabbits, together with a run) but there are rarely any on display.

However, I will always be grateful to PAH for saving the lives of our tropical fish when our 180L tank started leaking at 7 in the evening. They took in our fish with no notice at all, and a few weeks later we were able to buy some of them back, having set up a new tank.

We were so impressed with the employee who sold us our hammy that I wrote to the manager and emailed headquarters. He had real concern for the animals. We LOVE Syrian hamsters.

Their gerbil cages really are too small.

The hamster cages they sell in store are ALL under the minimum RSPCA size. People don't realise how much room they need

My oh worked at pets at home for 3 years and is disgusted by how they treat animals and as a result we won't shop there and definitely wouldn't buy pets from there!

I spend a lot of time in Pets at Home. They allow me to fund raise for the charity I volunteer for, so I spend days at a time there with a stand and a bucket so I get to see an awful lot of what goes on. Generally I'm really quite impressed with them. The staff all seem to really care about the animals and I've often seen them refuse to sell an animal to someone when they are not convinced that they can offer it a suitable home. I've also witnessed them 'telling off' (for want of a better expression) customers who are obviously treating their pets shoddily in one way or another. The culture there seems to be 'the animals come first' rather than 'the customer is always right', which I heartily applaud.

I'm against the selling of any pets really but, as it's legal and is going to happen anyway, PAH seem to do it as ethically as they can.

Also they are not obliged to have an adoption/rehoming centre. They choose to and good for them for doing it. And certainly the animals in my local PAH are looked after well.

It is also a company which supports animal charities in a variety of ways. Not only do they allow myself and reps of other animal charities to regularly fundraise there, they also have frequent fundraising drives such as the 'round to a pound' drive (where customers paying at the till are invited to round their bill to the nearest pound and the excess goes to a local animal charity (such as Romford Greyhounds, Battersea or Celia Hammonds). The staff in my local PAH also organise various raffles and other initiatives to raise money at Christmas for local rescues.

Furthermore they have now introduced the VIP scheme (a bit like the Tesco Clubcard) but in this case the points customers raise go towards animal rescue centres.

There will always be the occasional 'bad apple' when it comes to staff but, as a company, PAH does seem to at least try to 'do the right thing'.

I don't think those of you singing their praises would be quite so impressed with what goes on behind the scenes. Some stores are better than others and they're definitely improving but they're notorious for using dodgy breeders. Many of the animals they buy die in transit or are so poorly they don't make it on to the shop floor.
Personally I'd like to see the banning of animals being sold in shops, not least because people are more likely to buy on a whim or after badgering from their children without researching the species properly.

I work for PaH but am commenting on this thread in a personal rather than professional capacity. I have worked for the business for a year and honestly the 'pets before profit' ethos really holds true, everyone in the business is animal crazy, the business has raised over £5m through its charity which funds all types of animal welfare projects. 96% of colleagues are pet owners themselves, all srores have a feeding rota where feesh fruit, veg, hay and water is given to the animals frequently throughout the day, op may have just been there prior to the next feeding time, any animals are treared by the vets until they are well, including the various animals that sometimes fer dumped on the doorstep! Its a great company to work for ans everyone I have met is without exception passionate about animal welfare

We are really pleased with the service we got in ours, how the animals are treated and our lovely hammy.

That's awful :( I hope he got his water :(

PAH have had a very bad press over the years with regards to animal welfare. There was a tv programme showing hamsters etc being v badly treated. Since then, they claim to have cleaned up their act and developed better practices.

I would write and complain.

I think you're generous in your views. I see it more that as the company grew it realised it needed a strategy for managing unsold stock and that euthanasia wouldn't be good pr and off loading to over stocked rescues little better.

Their involvement with fundraising and having other charities in to fundraiser is also great pr and generates more footfall and sales.

I am not likely to praise them for trying to get me to donate my money or points to charities they choose.
I wouldn't want a free health check from their over priced onsite vets which is really a way to sign me up and sell me packages rather than to reinforce animal care.

They could sell only rescue animals, the could neuter rabbits and sell at a higher price, they coukd sell appropriate cages for all stock. They coukd stop modelling poor care with tiny cages, incorrect food and animal groupings that are inadvisable.