>From:    Lara Tyminski
>Subject: Pet Store Babies
>...This Monday I went to Super Pet, in London Ont.... They had about 7
>babies there and they were tiny.  The woman working in small animals told
>me they came in a week ago and were supposed to be 5 weeks old then.  Of
>course they were already altered, and you couldn't even tell that they had
>had surgery.  This is way too young!  Heather, the employee agreed but
>neither of us are in charge.  There was also a beautiful cinnamon female
>about 2-4 months who was just starved for attention, as she was alone in
>her cage.
>
>The breeder is Real Canadian Ferrets, also known as CDC in, I believe,
> Manitoba.  This store also had a huge shipment of bunnies just in time to
> be bought for Easter, and discarded 2 months from now.
>
>Just want to inform everyone in Cyber space, these kits are getting younger
>and younger.
 
i used to work for PJ's pet centres which is actually the same company.
they are *terrible*.
 
used to be that there was variation according to stores, but they have been
reorganising the management system and installing livestock "buyers" lately
and it has gotten unbeleivably bad.  my old boss has just resigned her
position at the yorkdale store because she was being forced to handle
entirely "factory" breeder stock and no longer had any say in it.  i
wouldn't worry too much though, because the head office management is
really bad and mainly concerned with giving good jobs to untrained
relatives so the chain will go under sooner rather than later.
 
CDC used to occasionally ship us babies with their eyes not fully open and
teeth not fully erupted.  they also ship the ferrets it plastic dishtubs
full of shavings wired closed with galvanised mesh, and no food or water
for the flight or the wait ( a total of 4-9 hours).  a breeder identified
one of the young kits we handfed as being 4 weeks.  we were considered to
be absolute geniuses as we had only 2 ferret deaths in a year.  sad,
isn't it?
 
b.t.w., many of the animals at the stores (particularly the 'easter
bunnies') are sold without legal minimum sized cages.  thankfully my
manager refused to do that!
 
just out of curiosity was the managers name Cheryl?  she was the old
manager at the store i worked at.  Angie is another of the really bad ones.
 
if you decide to do anything about it, good luck.  they pay hefty bribes to
the spca inspectors.
 
siani
[Posted in FML issue 2628]