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What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

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What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

Postby Georginia » Mon May 01, 2017 10:40 pm

I know a lot of people here are big supporters of adopting, and so am I! I also know the truth behind pet stores, and I'm ashamed to say that I have supported them when I bought my two 'keets, but I'm also really happy I have them, even if they don't really like me, I still care for them a lot! But seriously, what about all the poor animals stuck in the pet stores? When I go to the pet store to get pet supplies for my feathered and furry friends, I feel bad for all the birds shoved in glass tanks, with hardly any toys and nobody to love them. Like I said, I ALWAYS say adoption should be the first option, and I'm aware that there are hundreds of homeless birds looking for second chances, but there are also those birds stuck in pet stores, most likely sick, lonely, and scared birds wondering when they'll get their chance at a home. There has only been one time where I have seen a bird actually look a bit happy at a pet store and it was at Petco. There was a Budgie, in a glass tank thing, climbing and hopping all around on the ropes and ladders in the tank. That Budgie actually looked like a trouble maker, lol, he had almost pulled the ladder apart from the cage. But anyways, my point is, yes there are hundreds, even thousands of birds looking for homes in shelters across the world, but there are also so, so many birds stuck in pet stores with sick people who don't care about the birds' well being. So I say if you can adopt, do it. But if you cannot, save a bird from a pet store, because they deserve a home and love, too.
I currently have two male Budgies, whom I love very much! I hope to soon expand my bird family and adopt more loving feathered friends into my home!
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Re: What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

Postby stevesjk » Tue May 02, 2017 3:41 am

Its gotten to the point now where any purchase of a bird is more or less a rescue.

The difference is how the money is recycled. So with a rescue your adoption fee goes back into supporting homeless birds, but with a breeder/petshop purchase your money funds more breeding of birds with a large amount ending up unwanted.

At one point or another we have all contributed to the problem but most using this forum have educated ourselves on the matter and are now aware of the crisis parrots are in.
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Re: What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

Postby liz » Tue May 02, 2017 6:33 am

I don't buy anything in pet shops. I buy from places that do not sell animals. (Just make sure you don't buy anything from China.) I do go in pet shops to make sure the animals that they have are being cared for. One time I saw one little Cockatiel in a dirty cage with no food or water. It turned out that the human changing them over to a clean cage got distracted and forgot about him. I got the situation corrected by asking if I could help. The clerk was sent back to finish.

I also talk to customers who are thinking about getting a pet. Those looking at birds get what little knowledge I have and theparrotforum written down for them to check. I am thinking of getting cards with the forums info on it. It would be easier than using scraps of paper. It would also give my words more authority.

If we do not buy from pet shops they don't have a market and it will not be profitable to have them.

I do not like breeders. I have an adopted sister who breeds English Bull Dogs. She also knows how I feel. She sells them for $2500 each which gets the buyer to consider it valuable and take care of it. But there are also people who buy expensive pets then treat them like possessions.

You opened a can or worms on this one.
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Re: What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

Postby liz » Tue May 02, 2017 6:43 am

Why don't your Budgies like you? You have kept them for years and cared for them the best you knew how. I did the same before I found this forum.
Many who are in this situation and join the forum are told to start over as if they just got their bird. There is a lot of info in here of how to "tame" your bird and it does work. There is proof of it in my flock. I have some who should never trust humans. I got them to put them in a flock so they would feel safe. The worst ones were Phoenix and Gimpy. Phoenix will now get close to my face and tell me secrets as long as I keep my hands down. Gimpy cannot get around that well and can only fly. He will land as close as he can to tweeter to me. He even sings to me.

Jackie came from a home that fed her good but not the right food. She was also in a dirty cage. She watched and followed the only pet Cockatiel that I had. Now she wants kisses like Tommy does.

Read up on taming. You may already have the perfect birds.
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Re: What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

Postby ParrotsForLife » Tue May 02, 2017 7:38 am

Well not all Pet stores are bad, I only go to two pet stores, One only sells supplies no animals and the other I know the people who own the place and the large Parrots they have there aren't for sale they are part of their family, All the Cockatiels, Budgies and Lovebirds that they do sell are in an Aviary and they feed Pellets,Veg and Fruit.Thats where I got Rocko and Loki and it didn't take long at all to tame them, Loki was basically fully tamed in one day we also got Tiko from there 9 years ago at 12 weeks old and Oscar was the first time I ever went to someones house to take a baby home.
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Re: What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores

Postby Trick or 'Tiel » Tue May 02, 2017 9:38 am

Agree with ParrotsForLife, not all pet stores are bad. I only go to one pet store, and they take great care of their animals. You can ask a staff member to take the birds out for you and you can play with them and everything. I even trained their Golden Conure, Mango, the bat trick and I'm trying to teach him to wave. They handfeed the birds right at the store and you can watch and participate. The birds are all fed veggies, fruits, and pellets so there is no seed addiction problem like with a lot of other pet store birds that are raised on seeds. The only bad thing about that pet store is that they support wing clipping and clip their birds before they really get a chance to fly. I got Ducky from this store, and if I could go back, I would get Bluebell from this store also, because they handfeed their budgies which is rare. Luckily, she was handfed by the place where we got her from, but she was raised on seeds and it was hard to get her off of them. Again, the only thing I would change about this store is the clipping. Ducky was clipped when we got him, but I'm pretty sure he learned to fly by watching Bluebell zoom around the room. He came home already bonded to me because I went there every week to visit him and play with him.
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Re: What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

Postby Pajarita » Tue May 02, 2017 10:04 am

I disagree with the 'some petstores that sell animals are not bad'. If a store sells animals, the owner (manager, employee) will always consider them merchandise and not living beings with needs and feelings. There is no two ways about this because, for a business, the bottom like is always profit and not the 'stock' wellbeing and will sell the animals to whoever has the money to pay for them. They will even lie to people about how easy it is to care for a bird ("low maintenance" - "just get a cage and some food and it'll be fine"). Petstores have been known (documented, mind you!) to put sick animals in a freezer to kill them so as not to pay for a vet.

As to the poor animals stuck in there... It is truly sad, no doubt about it! But it all comes down to on which side of the overpopulation problem you want to be. If you don't care about so many birds not having a home, they you would not mind patronizing them and contributing to the problem. If you do care, then you would not patronize them and only adopt. AND, if you go even deeper into the dilemma, it's also a matter of whether you are a true bird lover or just a bird enjoyer. A true bird lover would care about all the poor birds out there, a bird enjoyer would only care about the birds that bring him/her pleasure.

I stay away from stores that sell animals. I buy my stuff mostly online or in places where they don't sell animals. This doesn't meant that I never use them. If there is an emergency and I need something immediately and cannot wait for a delivery, I would use them (the baby squirrels formula was one of those cases because I couldn't wait a day or two, I needed it right away so I had to go to a Petco to get it). And it doesn't mean that I have never, ever bought a bird at a store, either. I once bought two cockatoos from a terrible petstore in Pennsylvania. They had been there for two years on 'consignment' from the previous owners and they wanted the same price that two babies would have cost even though they were 19 and 23 at the time and one of them plucked and self-mutilated. I was part of a dog and cat rescue group and one of the volunteers, knowing that I had a bird rescue, told me about them so I went to see and was horrified at the conditions they were being kept (a medium size cage in a dark corner and eating only seeds - they were both umbrellas but Coco, the one that self-mutilated, was so small, so plucked and so dirty that I couldn't even tell what species she was! -she had been kept in a closet for two years before she was given to the petstore because she hated her owner's new husband). So I pooled together my birthday and Mother's Day presents (I asked everybody for cash) and I bought them.
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Re: What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

Postby ParrotsForLife » Tue May 02, 2017 10:40 am

Pajarita wrote:I disagree with the 'some petstores that sell animals are not bad'. If a store sells animals, the owner (manager, employee) will always consider them merchandise and not living beings with needs and feelings. There is no two ways about this because, for a business, the bottom like is always profit and not the 'stock' wellbeing and will sell the animals to whoever has the money to pay for them. They will even lie to people about how easy it is to care for a bird ("low maintenance" - "just get a cage and some food and it'll be fine"). Petstores have been known (documented, mind you!) to put sick animals in a freezer to kill them so as not to pay for a vet.

As to the poor animals stuck in there... It is truly sad, no doubt about it! But it all comes down to on which side of the overpopulation problem you want to be. If you don't care about so many birds not having a home, they you would not mind patronizing them and contributing to the problem. If you do care, then you would not patronize them and only adopt. AND, if you go even deeper into the dilemma, it's also a matter of whether you are a true bird lover or just a bird enjoyer. A true bird lover would care about all the poor birds out there, a bird enjoyer would only care about the birds that bring him/her pleasure.

I stay away from stores that sell animals. I buy my stuff mostly online or in places where they don't sell animals. This doesn't meant that I never use them. If there is an emergency and I need something immediately and cannot wait for a delivery, I would use them (the baby squirrels formula was one of those cases because I couldn't wait a day or two, I needed it right away so I had to go to a Petco to get it). And it doesn't mean that I have never, ever bought a bird at a store, either. I once bought two cockatoos from a terrible petstore in Pennsylvania. They had been there for two years on 'consignment' from the previous owners and they wanted the same price that two babies would have cost even though they were 19 and 23 at the time and one of them plucked and self-mutilated. I was part of a dog and cat rescue group and one of the volunteers, knowing that I had a bird rescue, told me about them so I went to see and was horrified at the conditions they were being kept (a medium size cage in a dark corner and eating only seeds - they were both umbrellas but Coco, the one that self-mutilated, was so small, so plucked and so dirty that I couldn't even tell what species she was! -she had been kept in a closet for two years before she was given to the petstore because she hated her owner's new husband). So I pooled together my birthday and Mother's Day presents (I asked everybody for cash) and I bought them.

Well if I owned a pet shop I wouldn't think like that and neither does he, His daughter comes in too and plays with all the animals especially the Bunnies which she loves and they don't give their animals to just anybody, Some pet stores would even sell an animal to a child! And these are people who own birds themselves so they know very well that Parrots are not low maintenance.
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Re: What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

Postby Trick or 'Tiel » Tue May 02, 2017 11:29 am

The pet store that I go to cares about the animals and takes them to the vet. I've seen them give the animals medication if they are sick. They even told me which vet they go to, and it's an exotics vet that only treats birds, small mammals, and reptiles. As to the overpopulation issue, I really didn't know any better when I got my birds because all I wanted was a loving companion. When I feel it's time to add another member to my bird family, I will definitely adopt from a rescue because like you said, there are so many birds without a loving home. But that doesn't mean I think the pet store is bad! I will still continue to buy products from that store and sometimes go there just to socialize and play with the birds. Clearly, the store employees love animals and do their best to take care of them. I never go to Petsmart, Petco, or any other chain pet store that sells animals because I am aware of how poorly they treat them. But this is a small, independent pet store that gets their birds from breeders and takes good care of them. They would never tell a customer that birds are "low maintenance" pets because they care about the birds and where they're going.
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Re: What About All the Animals Stuck in Pet Stores?

Postby ParrotsForLife » Tue May 02, 2017 12:50 pm

Parrot Rescues don't even exist here lol and thats a good thing, I have even checked rescues that are for all animals and never see any Parrots.But if I ever want to adopt an older Parrot such as a Macaw I don't have the option to go to a rescue.
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