i don't normally go into pet stores... especially the ones found inside malls. i've been trying to school my 12 yr old niece as to why they aren't good places even though they have cute puppies but she still can't see past the cute faces.

the first store we went it wasn't too bad but it was bad enough. the puppies looked happy and healthy and so did the kittens. the birds, on the other hand, had me a little upset. all the birds were in the big bins in the middle of the store... the ones where you can reach down and touch them all.

there had to be 100 budgies in the one bin and 50 tiels in another. too many birds in too small a space. they had 3 quakers that were relatively tame and looked healthy... as did the 2 suns and green cheek. the last bin is what had me wanting to scream.

in it was a baby greenwing macaw... it was almost fully feathered but still big and strong. my niece couldn't believe it was a baby lol in the SAME bin was a male eclectus AND a small timneh. the greenwing was so much bigger than the other 2 and they had to keep running away from him. they all looked healthy though so i didn't say anything.

the second store literally took my breath away... in a HORRIBLE way. as soon as we walked up to the store i turned to my sister and told her i didn't think i could go in. she said she knew i wouldn't like it but i made myself go in.

this store had so much in it that i don't agree with i didn't know what to do. it had exotic animals... lemurs, skunks, porcupines and baby pigs. almost all of the puppies were in glass aquariums inside walls and they were dark and too many puppies in one tank. one tank had 3 chocolate labs and 1 pug. in the middle of the room, inside a 2.5 foot fence was a fully grown pot bellied pig.

the baby pigs were her babies and i think they just keep her in her pen for breeding purposes. she was beautiful. she stood in the middle of her pen just making piggy noises. people were looking at her but no one touched her so i reached in and rubbed her behind her ears. i scratched on top of her head and down the side of her face.

she literally fell on her side so fast so i could rub her belly. that made me cry. she was obviously starving for attention. i don't know if people don't pet her because she's a pig or if they think she'd bite but she made me wish i had a house so i could have taken her home!

i really, really need to not go to those places anymore. i did google the names of the 2 stores and they all have favorable reviews so i'm not going to do anything except not step foot in them again... unless i'm going to visit Olivia the pig.

There's only one pet "store" in our mall and it's really the rescue organization. They have some dogs and cats and you have to go through an adoption process to get one that takes about a week or even two. Then there are two freestanding pet stores, one is part of a chain and they're really pretty nice in there. The cages are clean and the animals seem healthy and well-cared-for and there's a vet on the premises. The other is a mom-and-pop kind of store, and some of the animals look well-cared-for and some don't. I don't know how they decide which ones to take good care of which ones not to. Some birds are up front and get to come out of their cages and be handled, and some are in a separate room and don't even have toys. If my hands and house weren't already full, there's one bird in particular at that store that I'd love to bring home and take care of.

I suppose some places just think of the poor creatures as merchandise and not as living things.

The first store you mentioned sounded like the pet store in the mall in South Bend, Indiana. Except for the birds. The birds were kept in the bins like you talked about, but they didn't have any big birds.

My father-in-law wanted to look at the puppies, and I was like, I don't want to look (but I did anyway). When we left, he asked me why I didn't want to look at the puppies, and I told him that about 90% (probably more) of puppies sold in pet stores are from puppy mills, and it makes me sad to see them.

Your comments of petstores and the bird section brought back some ugly memories. Remember when they kept rabbits & guinea pigs in the same enclosure as parrots? We had a chain store that had a Macaw in the enclosure and their Scarlet Macaw decided the bunnies & guinea pigs were a new part of his diet.

I feel you. I went into a local Pet store... and seen a Sun Conure... It looked NOTHING like it should.It looks HORRIBLE. I felt so bad for it.

i try to stay out of pet "stores" because it breaks my heart. but i do go to one in particular to buy my pellets. i went today and as usual i went in the bird room. they have 3 beautiful GCCs in there, and i always go talk to them, kiss at them and click and what have you. they eat it up! make kissy noises back at me, etc. i feel so bad leaving them because i know they are destined to live there a while because the prices are so ridiculous.

i had to stop at the customer service desk today to tell them one of their GCCs had a bald spot on his crop area, which was somewhat surrounded by pins. he was such a sweetie too. they already knew, but didn't say they were getting him a vet visit. so tomorrow i'll go back and check on him again, and if he's still there i'll ask them about a vet visit.

in a perfect world people wouldn't perpetuate the animal mills that stock these places. living beings with feelings are NOT inventory.

kris

I like the way some frienmds did the one i worked for although it took some errors to get it to where it was they would buy thier birds from breeders all thier birds were hand raised and fed from known breeders they bought as many as they thought would sell in a 3 day period and mostly because they were special orders any not sold although they lived in an apartment they had one wall in the living room actually hlaf the room with a built in aviary and sold from home also all birds were socialized and taught to step up and fully weaned when they were sold we had military macaw that was thier personal companion bird he owned them his name was seargent and when someone came into buy a bird they were not given the bird immedatly they were asked to come in for 4 days to get to know the bird if for some reason seargent had a real aversion to the person we usually told them the bird was spoken for no money exchanged before the intitional bonding I wish all pet stores were like this one it cost them a little more because they were not breeders and they sold the birds at a loss it was thier love for these birds that motivated them not money or greed and thier wish to educate people on the virtues of having a long term companion this was a flea market store where the animals were taken home every nite at closing.We sold birds only sometimes we almost didn't have room for the people in the car that did not matter the humans came second to the comfort of the birds the potential owners were given instructions on clipping the wings and the correct feed for the type of bird