I work in a pet store and have for the past 5 years.  I am sick of all the
people who come in and ASSUME I have no idea what I am talking about becuase
I look like I am 16 (i am 20).  I'd say about 99% of teenaged employees in
pet stores give me a bad reputation and I am fuming mad that a pet store
would hire people so lazy to learn about what they are selling.
 
I've spent all my life raising and learning about animals and becuase of
that I know a GREAT deal about them, especially small animals and ferrets.
 
The first pet store I worked at was HUGE and I was there through a co-op
placement through my high school, which turned into a 4 year job.  After my
first month I practically took over...correcting the owners methods of
keeping animals and correcting the miss information they were giving out.
Needless to say I had a large number of my own customers, especially ferret
customers in a short period of time.  Unfortunately my boss started not to
like that I looked smarter than her so she sometimes made me look bad in
front of customers and of course the customers beleive a 40 year old woman
over her.  As I got to know my boss more I started to see the dark side of
her...which included animal abuse and murder!!  I kept that store CLEAN!!
The animals didn't have much space unfortunately but she was in control of
that.  Ferrets were especially improperly kept so at night I would take ALL
of them home to socialize and eat proplerly!!  They had monkeys and still do
which are far from healthy.  Needless to say I quit.  There is nothing I can
do about the abuse as I cannot prove anything and she continues to sell
ferrets telling people they dont' NEED vaccines etc...
 
NOW, I am working at a small pet store where once again I know more than the
owner, but this time it's working for me becuase I tell him how to keep the
animals and he does!!  I take ALL the babies home still.  So the ferrets are
kept in HUGE cages and if someone comes in I personally tell them EVERYTHING
I can about ferrets and most leave with a larger cage, although we DO sell
the stupid Hagen cages which I hate, but some people can't afford the larger
ones.  The other animals all have lots of room and get ANYTHING they need
including medical attention.  For those of you who don't know, most pet
stores..i'd say almost ALL dont' care or don't even know if an animal is
sick and a lot die.  My boss deserves a pat on the back becuase if I say
that an animal needs medical attention, he takes money out of his own pocket
to pay for it!!  He even pays for ferrets shots if they are at the store
until the time they are due!!  NO STORES do that!!  So many animals,
including ferrets, are put to sleep if they get too old in a store and
aren't sellable.  We keep everything for as long as we need and practically
give them away for free if someone can't afford them.
 
In conclusion, I just wanted everyone to know that NOT ALL PET STORES are
bad and neither are their employees!!
 
Sorry if this didn't have much to do with ferrets.
 
--
 
Truly,
Liz
http://www.norlink.net/~state/liz.html
[Posted in FML issue 1833]