[Gpdd] [MISC] Piggy Patrol

[Rebecca Jones]

Hi All
 
I am so annoyed at the moment that I wanted to share with people who would understand why.
 
I went to our local garden centre today to buy some pet supplies.  They have good hay and have recently started selling guinea pigs, rabbits and hamsters.  While I'm there I always go round and check on the animals.  They have some in big runs and the last time I was there they had a guinea pig in one of thos big plastic indoor hutches, the ones with the metal bars on top. Well, I went to check and the plastic hutch appeared to be empty, there was hay in, but the food bowl was almost empty and the water bottle was lying on the floor half filled with green slime.  I was about to walk away when I heard the hay move and I realised there was a guinea pig in there.  I looked back at the slime filled waterbottle horrified.  My blood boiled.  I opened up the hutch, got the water bottle out and marched to the checkout.  I told the man at the desk who said he would get it sorted.  I told him that wasn't the point, the point was that whoever was supposed to be looking after the pets hadn't
 been near that hutch for days.  You do not get water to turn to green slime in a day and it was obvious that water bottle hadn't been touched for best part of the week.  On that basis it was unlikely that the poor creature had been fed either.  He agreed about the slime and said that the person responsible would be reprimanded.
 
I feel so angry about it.  I wanted to just scoop up the hutch and animal and walk straight out with it.  Only my mother stopped me doing it.  This is animal cruelty.  I work for our local Council and I will be making an official complaint to the animal welfare officer on Monday.  Shops have to have a license to sell animals, I inetend to make sure it is not renewed!!
 
Becuase I stormed out of that shop, I still needed pet supplies so we went to another garden centre where they look after the animals properly.  I was just looking at the guinea pig supplies when in horror I spotted a large metal wheel, the kind with the slatted surface which was emblazened with the words guinea pig wheel!!  I'd just come out of one big row with the other shop and didn't want to do it again, but I couldn't just leave it.  So, politely, I approached one of the assistants and said that I had just spotted this product and did she know that guinea pigs could not use wheels as it could snap their backs, and also that NO small animal should have a slatted wheel becuase they can get their feet and tails broken in them.  Thankfully she was very helpful, said they had told head office about this and had relabled the remaining stock as hamster wheels.  I pointed out the packaging saying guinea pig wheels and how innocent but uninformed pet owners would presume they were safe. 
 She then took all the packaging off them.  
 
I left feeling a little shaken by the afternoon, but happier that hopefully I had saved at least one animal from suffering.
 
Mom doesn't want to come shopping with me anymore:-)
 
Beki
Faith, Hope and Charity
 

		
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