OMG say it isn't true!?

greenmoneysaver_2

Companion Care are one of the new breed or franchised vet groups. They rent the space from PAH.

It all seems to be going well, and is expanding rapidly. I know people that work for them and it seems like a good set up.

I think some people still have a stigma against them due to the positioning in a pet shop, but business wise it makes sense as the vet can recommend food/toys/training aids and the client is more liekly to buy them at the time and the practice doesn't have to have staff and cash tied up selling these products.

Stephb1986_2

Pets at home have always had vets in them since i've been going in them

Steph xx

moomin5

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Petsmart never had veterinary practices in them. They were bought out by Pets at Home about 10 years ago.

I'm sure the peterborough PAH store had a vets in it when it was still Petsmart as i took my mice there once, my friend worked there as a vet nurse so i got a discount. The service was fine and better customer care than i've had from some other vet practices.

I don't really see why they should be seen as inferior when its staff will be just as qualified In some ways its a good thing as its location is very accessible for people to get advice, who perhaps wouldn't of bothered going along to a vet practice until it was an emergency.

tiamai_d

[EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] have vets, yes. And they will be in more and more stores as time goes by. Being honest, I was a pets at home 'team member' and only left due to personal circumstances (my son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy), as a pet shop they do care for the pets (pets not livestock) better than most other pet shops, but with everything there is still problems.

The stores with vet centres usually have a far better standard of pet care as ill pets can be seen by a vet instantly. Also the pets bought from companion care stores are checked by the vet before purchase so you know you are getting a healthy animal.

I would like my old store to get a vet soon, would much prefere to spend my waiting time 'shopping' than sitting on a hard seat!

Besides, as most vets are turning into pet shops recently why should the pet shops not turn into vets? :rotfl:

pboae

ALFlem wrote: »

I too have never seen a P@H with a vets in it.I have been to a number of different stores over the years and never seen it!

My local one now has a 'rescue centre' for small pets. Heartbreaking because I so wanted to bring home the 3 baby rats that were in there! You do the same thing as if you were buying a pet from them except it goes to a rescue charity...not usre which. May have to go and give something a loving home when I get back from hols!!

Except that the pets they've 'rescued' are mainly either old stock that won't sell now, or animals that were returned by owners who should never have had them in the first place.

If the likes of [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] where a bit more interested in where the animals they sell where going, rather than just after a sale, there wouldn't be so many small animals in rescues to start with.

So please, if you do have room for some little 'uns, go to a proper rescue and don't encourage [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] charade.


With regards to the other posts on vets in [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] everytime I've been into one I've ended up having to complain about the conditions at least one of the animals have been kept in. Rodents with no water, multiple dead fish floating in tanks, a budgie with it's foot trapped in the cage, etc. Maybe I am just really unlucky, but it seems more likely to me that a lot of their animals are kept like that. At least in the stores I've been too, maybe some are better than others. But for the stores round here, the vets that are happy to work there are presumably happy to see animals in those conditions every day. I wouldn't let them anywhere near my dog.

Emmabeth

I was recently in a P@H and yep... the rescue section is just a nice fluffy way of doing a reduced shelf for pets, pets that all too often are 'damaged or soiled goods' because of their own inadequacies in selling them to people without a clue and housing them badly.

They have been given correct advice as well (and Im not talking about on a vague 'customer harangues store worker' level, i do mean various organisations specialisting in some of the species they sell, approaching the head honchos with the relevant information and asking why its not carried out) but refuse to follow it because it isnt the absolute cheapest way they can do things.

Some of the people who work for them try their best .... but i wouldnt take a pet of mine to a vet who would be happy to be associated with them!

Jellicat

As much as people go on about "supporting" bad shops like Pets at Home, I really dont see the difference one sale makes. I rescued two rats from them as well as bought my original rats from them, I felt sorry for all four, some bratty kid was asking her mum for my first two when I asked if I could buy them, god knows what kind of care they'd have ended up in otherwise. When people go on about not supporting P@H, it doesnt take into account the poor creatures that ARE sold by them. They didnt choose to be a P@H pet and deserve just as much love and attention as a pet from another pet shop. Personally I think all pet shops are as bad as each other, including those that purport to care for their animals...almost all pet shops get their small animals from mass factory breeders which breed and breed and breed with no regards to anything other than colour and litter size until the poor mothers drop. I'd quite happily see selling pets in shops banned and only licensed breeders allowed to sell pets. In the mean time I'm afraid I wont turn down an animal I can give a good home to if I see one in P@H or any other store. Sure, if nobody bought from them they'd shut down but that's never going to happen.

pboae

Jellicat wrote: »

As much as people go on about "supporting" bad shops like Pets at Home, I really dont see the difference one sale makes.

That's the argument that stops people doing anything. Why bother making the effort if you are the only one doing it? There's 2 reasons, 1) you do it for your own conscience and 2) if enough people were willing to put their money where their mouth it all those '1 sales' would add up.

I have a chinchilla I bought from a pet shop years ago. I still regret the act of buying him, although I don't regret him being here. He was way too young to be seperated from his Mum, had obvious health problems and the sales assistant was encouraging a kid to torment him, letting him run and then grabbing his tail and swinging him. I could claim I 'rescued' him from them, but I didn't, I just bought him, and they would've had another one there within a day or two, ready to be tormented by the next passing child. It just increases the number of animals subjected to it.

The more people buy them, the more the pet shops will buy in, and the more the rodent farms will breed. Some people have no issue with that, that's their choice. I do have an issue with it, and I don't want to be part of the problem by encouraging the trade. But for them to sell these animals and pretend it's 'rescue' work, is revolting. It is demeaning to the animals that suffer because of them, and is insulting to real rescues who are interested in the animals rather than profits.

Jellicat

And those one sales add up to what exactly? Compared to the billions of idiotic parents buying their kids the "latest" blue dumbo Ratatouille, "Nemo fish" or supercute sugar glider (cannot WAIT til shops start stocking those babies), exactly sweet FA. Until the keeping of reptiles is either banned or starts to abate (cant see that one happening any time soon), rodent farms are going to increase in number regardless of pet shops, even then we're a long way away from the respect for animals we need to get rid of factory farming of any sort.

Personally my own conscience speaks to me more when I find myself with a pet I know I will love and care for to the best of my own ability, than imagining I am hitting Pets at Home where it hurts. Its all down to what you believe in, and I'd rather give two rats a loving, caring home for their altogether way too short lives than deny [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] £12 which means absolutely jack all to them in their multi million quid enterprise.

And with regards to rescue centres, almost all of them are profit making ventures now anyway. You get small local rescues that do the real good work, but the likes of the SSPCA and such are more interested in spending their donation fees on brand new gas guzzlers (this is knowledge gained from working for them). If you ask me these people are demeaning animals just as much as [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL]. The only animal shelters I really respect now are usually "one man band"s, the big ones are as full of crap as your average big corporation.

Emmabeth

It is fairly simple business... people wont stock what doesnt sell. If those of us in the know can direct people towards either not owning unsuitable animals, towards rescuing them instead of buying (where that is appropriate for those people im not into forcing people to rescue 'or else'), or towards reputable breeders then we can stop pet shops stocking the animals.

If your conscience is speaking to you when you buy an animal from pets at home or any pet shop that doesnt have the animals very best interests at heart ... what IS it saying to you about the one that will replace the one you bought?

No its not the nicest outcome for the individual you leave in the shop, no ones claiming it is but by buying that individual you are saying 'i think this is acceptable', not just the store that keeps them badly and misadvises people as to their care, but the big rodent 'factories' that produce them as well.

And believe me... big businesses do care about every last penny, if they didnt then they wouldnt begrudge providing more suitable accomodation for the animals they stock.