Small Animal Pet Abuse

[Crouton]

Recently I have been researching the mostly shocking treatment of small animals as pets. It's really quite upsetting. I'm talking about a lack of information and knowledge leading to sickness and early death in animals like reptiles, fish, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs etc.

The biggest problem is people just don't know that what they are doing is wrong, and because pet stores keep enforcing the wrong way to keep and look after animals.

How many people in the world have ever kept golfish in a fish bowl? When I was younger my family did, we kept two goldfish in a fish bowl and didn't think it was wrong, that's what the store told us to do. Now however I know just how wrong that is. A fish bowl is day too small for any fish, especially goldfish. In reality they need a large tank with a proper filter. And then they can live for 20-40 years! Yet most people see goldfish as some disposable pet that dies quickly and is easily replaced. They are dying quickly because of the bowls!

Sorry for the mini rant I'm just really upset that pet stores keep selling goldfish and fishbowls, and that people keep putting fish in tiny tanks and bowls when it's essentially killing them and so many people don't know what they are doing wrong. 

[Liv the Librarian]

I understand completely. It's hard for me not to go into a fit of rage when I see people who are severely mistreating their small pets (especially reptiles and fish). I try to keep in mind that they don't know what they are doing is wrong though, and I give them the proper information. If they still don't correct it, I don't talk to them anymore.

Here's a good one though.. My LPS (local pet store) has had these two bearded dragon babies for a while. I was pleased when I came back to Lincoln from a year in Chicago to see that even though the owner had the two little guys together, they had a UVB light and a heat bulb (she is notorious for "forgetting" to give reptiles the proper lighting, or moving the lights and "forgetting" to put them back.) Well, about a month ago, I went in there and she had them without a heat lamp and without a UVB light. I figured that she was moving some stuff around or showing them to someone and hadn't put the lights back on. I checked them out and they seemed healthy/happy, so I let it go. Two weeks ago, I go in there, same thing. I give her the benefit of the doubt ONCE AGAIN. I went in there this Saturday and they STILL had no heat/no UVB. So I take a look in the enclosure and one of them (my favourite one because he's almost white in colour) is just laying there and I see his foot sort of twitching. Then this conversation happens:

Me: Hey, is this baby sick?
Sherry: No, he's doing great, I just had him out earlier *probably a lie*.
Me: Okay, just wondering, he's laying there kind of weird and his foot is twitching.
Her: Huh, that's odd *proceeds to open the lid and take him out, he didn't even look at her*
Me: Where is there heat lamp?
Her: Hmm... I don't know what happened to it! *Looks around* Oh! Here it is! I must have forgotten to put it back on.

At this point, I look at the little guy and his foot is twitching still and his head starts to shake. And I mean really bad. He looks like he has parkinsons or something. So I ask her if that's her hand shaking or the dragon. She tells me it's the dragon. I then try my best not to turn into a raging douche machine because at this point I am livid. It turns out that she was using JUST a heat lamp for them because the moron thought it was UVB. I tried not to point out her mistake without giving her any credit, so I told her she needed to be using the heat lamp that she has and a tube UV bulb. Thankfully, she immediately grabbed a UV tube light from the crested gecko cage (are you f*cking kidding me, they don't even need UVB you idiot, do you research) and put it onto the beardie tank. I told her that the muscle spasms she's seeing are most likely the beginnings of metabolic bone disease (which she's lost FIVE reptiles to because she wouldn't listen to me about their care). I gave her some good advice on how to care for him, but I know he's going to die if I don't take him home, which is why I'm going to talk my boyfriend into letting me get him.

Also, she's had them since DECEMBER. I saw them when she got them and they haven't grown any more than my other bearded dragon (Oody) that I got from her. They should be twice Oody's size by now. Like, even thinking about this makes me so angry that I could march in there and make this woman cry. She adores me though, so I try really hard to be civil, but she should NOT be caring for reptiles. She is PERFECT with birds but reptiles are where I come in and I wish she'd just hire me so her animals would stop dying. But she only accepts volunteers and I need money so there's that.

[TAZ]

but, volunteering for a reference would further your career, AND maybe your habbits would rub off.

[Liv the Librarian]

I already did volunteer there and quit because she wouldn't listen to my advice beforehand. Her husband kept telling her that the things she was doing were good and they were 100% wrong so I quit

[TAZ]

then maybe you should report her actions to deptartment of wildlife?

[Crouton]

Ugh that would drive me crazy Liv, who the hell keeps beardies without heat or light. I would get so angry at that woman.

Another big one for me is birds. Bird cages sold at pet stores are almost NEVER big enough for the actual birds. On of the pet stores near me constantly keeps huge cockatoo's in these tiny little cages. So small that if they even spread their wings a tiny bit both wings would hit the bars. It's very upsetting to see.

I think one of the biggest problems with small animals is that many people seem to view them as toys. People buy goldfish or a rabbit or a guinea pig or something for a young kid as a Christmas present when that kid doesn't have a clue how to properly take care of it. And every year thousands of goldfish and betta fish are forced into tiny bowls by college kids taking them to their dorm and then wondering why the fish die in under 10 days. It should be illegal to sell fish bowls.

One man in Australia recently paid $200 for live saving brain surgery on his goldfish. With the surgery the fish has a chance of living up to 10-20 more years, and I thought it was wonderful that this man clearly loved his pet.

I was reading an article about it, then I scrolled through the comments and almost everyone said something like "waste of money, they are only 50cents at the store", "first world problems", "should have flushed it and just bought another".

That's the problem that most people have this mentality of small pets being disposable. If someone spent that much money to save a dog or cat most people wouldn't think twice about it.

[Liv the Librarian]

I paid more than a thousand dollars all together to ensure that my iguana had a complete recovery from his cat attack when most people would have just euthanized him. I would have paid another thousand if I could have saved him the second time.

I do not and will not ever understand the mentality that a pet is disposable just because it's small. I hate people who think that way. "It's just a fish" "It's just a lizard". Like, I seriously want to throat-punch those people. I now have six lizards and a snake and each of them are treated as though they were people (if not better hehe). I would give up my own home before I ever let one of my animals go without one, and I'd go without food before I let an animal of mine starve, which I did in college when I had my fish (his name was Psycho and he was my best friend and I was devastated when he died, though nowhere near as devastated as when my iguana died, but that's another thread).

I think you should seriously have to prove that you know your shite before you go and buy a pet, ESPECIALLY A REPTILE OR A SALTWATER FISH.

[Crouton]

I agree 100%, always know what you are doing before you get any animal at all really. I think many people assume dogs and cats are "hard" pets, while things like fish, rabbits, budgies, hamsters etc are "Easy" pets. There's no such thing really, every animal needs a huge amount of time, money and research, no matter what the animal is.

I've read reports of every year at Christmas time pounds get overrun with animals that were given as presents that people don't want. That's another huge problem. You should NEVER give an animal as a gift, unless you talk to the person first and they have done their research/ want the animal.

[TAZ]

well, i for one will have to admit to being in the ill informed with regards to fish. fish to me are food, not pets. my nephew had fish(2 and 2 suckers), my niece currently has fish (2), i (and my family) didnt even know the filter needed to be cleaned. when my buddy who does keep fish came to visit while i was visiting mums, he made me clean the tank and filter. he is also the person who made us get sucker fish.
I neither knew, nor cared, enough about the fish to realise anything was wrong... a fish dies, meh, $5 for a new fish, parker never even noticed they werent the same animals.
i've never had any fish of my own, since, as i said, i have no inclination to stare at a tank full of "bait" all day

[TAZ]

ps, i didn't mean to offend anyone. take it as a "yes", pet stores should educate fish buyers more before selling fish. had i known they were this much work, i never would have allowed my mother to get them for the kids.

[Liv the Librarian]

There's a big difference between being uninformed and being a jerk who doesn't care for their animals. That responsibilty lies with the pet store. They need to be educating people on the animals that they are purchasing BEFORE they get purchased.

[Crouton]

Sept 18, 2014 8:27:20 GMT -6 TAZ said:

ps, i didn't mean to offend anyone. take it as a "yes", pet stores should educate fish buyers more before selling fish. had i known they were this much work, i never would have allowed my mother to get them for the kids.

Your reply doesn't offend since you are not the one keeping fish as pets. If you were I'd be worried haha. Pet stores indeed generally have so many problems. They very rarely educate anyone enough, especially on birds and fish. EVERY animal needs LOTS of research before purchase, every single one. 

[sjfaerlind]

In my opinion there need to be regulations about who is allowed to own / operate a pet store. There are regulations for running a restaurant for example: they even have to be inspected so that food is prepared safely and hygienically. Having the money to open a pet store does not automatically grant a person the knowledge needed to care for the animals they sell. Regulations could guarantee that owner/operators have suitable training and/or knowledge before they are allowed to open their doors.

The other problem with a lot of exotic animals (ie: not domesticated ones like dogs and cats), is that in many cases the requirements they have are simply not known. This is especially true of rare reptiles. Many of their needs are extrapolated from what is known about other, related species or guessed from the environment they were found in. The only good thing about a species becoming a popular choice for a pet is that much more becomes known about their care with the more people that keep them.

The other problem is that people put their own ideas and values on what a pet must want to have or eat. Guinea pigs are a great example. They are adapted to eat poor quality grass. As such they are very good at extracting nutrients from their food. The mainstay of their diet in captivity should be plain grass hay (NO ALFALFA!) (with some fresh veggies like spinach and red bell pepper for vitamin C added in). Instead, they are often raised on compressed green pellets, which are not the same thing nutritionally. Pellets were originally developed to feed lab animals for only a short period of time but became popular as a convenient and profitable food for the pet trade to sell.

Raised solely on pellets, some GPs won't even eat hay. I also roll my eyes when I see guinea pig foods laden with things like seeds and cranberries and the "treats" that are seeds stuck to sticks with honey. Guinea pigs are like tiny little horses with respect to their digestive tracts. They just can't handle high amounts of sweets or grains without having problems. The bacterial balance in their intestines are affected by all that sugar and starch and that's really bad for them. People shouldn't apply their own ideals to their animals. Just because we like grains and sweet stuff for treats doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea to give it to our pets.

[Crouton]

I've heard that apparently Australia does have a lot of regulation on pet stores, but from some of the stores I've seen I find that very hard to believe.