Yesterday I went to two pet stores...Buz n bees on W 26th Street and the
pet store in the mall.  After that, my bf vowed never to take me into
another pet store again!  I was all into *free the ferrets* mode after
going to these places.  First of all, they were in wood chips...I'm
guessing they were cedar, and we all know how *very not good* they are for
ferrets.  But even if they weren't cedar, they were still dusty and things
like that.
 
Second of all, there were 8 or so ferts crammed into tiny cages in both
places...nothign to sleep on besides the chips, or the litter pan.. :/
I was so sad seeing the lil babies sleeping in their litter pan at buzz n
bees.  The mall pet store ferrets were out of food, and i think water
too...unfortunately it was closing time and they were going around feeding
everyone, so no one would have cared what I had to say.  Might as well save
the ranting for when it can be more constructive.
 
It looked like the buzz n bees ferrets were in an aquarium type thing...i'm
sure that protected peoples fingers, but it doesn't do much for air
circulation.  One side might have been wire, I can't say for sure...It also
looked like they were being fed rabbit pellets.  Of course, I guess some
ferret food looks like rabbit pellets, so I could be mistaken.
 
I guess what is really annoying is the the stores put the care, energy, and
money into making sure that the lizards and fish and so forth have fairly
adequate living areas, but they do next to nothing for the ferrets (same
could be said for the puppies and kittens, seeing them makes me sad too,
but at least they have a gratuitous toy in their too-small pens...).
 
So i guess the next question is...what can we do that the pet stores will
actually listen to?  The ferret education days are a good idea, but how
much will the employees pick up on from that?  Some sort of employee
training would be good, but is it even feasible to expect the pet store
to give up some of their time for us to teach them how to handle their
animals?  And do they even care how they are treated?  You'd think with
the price they are charging for ferrets, they could at least make their
enclosures look a little more appealing, if for nothing more than increased
sales. :/
 
jeepers, where did that soapbox come from?
 
:)
brenda
[Posted in FML issue 2757]