send the winner on a shopping spree at Pet Warehouse.

So don’t be shy! For details, see the left column on this page under the heading, "Your Turn."

Pet-store abuse
Since last issue’s sidebar on how to help abused animals ("Mistreated Animals: How you can help,"), I’ve come across a couple of other organizations concerned readers might want to check out.

The Stop Pet Store Abuse Club addresses the problem of mistreated pet-store animals and provides a complaint form you can fill out online.

Likewise, Mickaboo Cockatiel Rescue offers an online petition to change poor conditions at Petco chain pet stores.

The new Avian Protection Society offers advice on how to help neglected birds in other public establishments, homes, and breeding facilities.

Send a message
These sites remind me of something important. When we witness pet-store neglect, we can do more than shake our heads and walk away.

We can do more, even, than report the offending store to the local humane society. We can hit ‘em where it hurts and stop giving that store our business.

Some people advocate going further. They refuse to shop at any store that sells animals, even if, like my local Petco, it happens to do a good job.

Why? Because they believe the entire industry is tarnished by the behavior of the majority of pet stores and must be sent a message.

Sick animals for sale
A part of me agrees with this hard-line approach. Concerned only about the bottom line, the vast majority of pet stores seem loathe to spend money on a vet when animals fall ill.

Adding insult to injury, these same stores often knowingly pawn diseased animals off on unsuspecting buyers at full price.

At the family-owned pet store where I worked as a teenager, the manager tried for days to sell a litter of kittens with distemper. He finally let me take them home instead of drowning them as planned.

Since then I have come across many pet-store proprietors like my old boss; all have turned a deaf ear to a customer’s concerns about sick animals for sale.

Because of pet-store owners like these, sometimes there seems to be only one way to convince the pet trade that it needs to do a better job of regulating its treatment of animals and customers: Stop patronizing all stores that sell live animals, period.

On the other hand, we’ve all known great pet shops, ones that take proper care of their animals and go the extra mile to educate customers.

It hardly seems fair to advocate driving these stores out of business as well, just because of their unethical brethren.

A radical idea?
So what to do? Perhaps the answer is to simply reward the good shops by continuing to patronize them and punish all the questionable ones by staying away.

Unfortunately, this means avoiding the majority of live-pet stores, including the big chains.

A radical idea? Not really. Inconvenient? Sure, it’s a pain to find a new place to shop, at least at first.

After I swore off Petco, I found myself driving miles out of my way to two separate pet-supply stores to purchase fish food and spray millet. Now I shop at an aquarium store near my house and order most of my bird food online.

Another question that furtively crosses our minds is if pet stores stop selling animals, where will we shop for pets?

We conveniently forget that millions of perfectly acceptable birds, dogs, cats and other animals languish in this country’s humane and rescue organizations, waiting to be adopted.

But it’s tough for pre-owned pets to compete, isn’t it? It’s hard for us to ignore all those bright shiny new pets down at the local pet store.

What a wonderful world
Still, just think of what might be.

Wouldn’t it be great if all unwanted pets had homes before breeders churned out more animals--so many of them that pet stores can afford to simply throw away the ones that become inconvenient?

Wouldn’t it be nice if empty cash registers made pet stores realize they must clean up their acts before we will buy more live animals-or any other item-from their shelves?

I don’t kid myself. No matter how many new animal-rights groups hand out flyers or how many articles armchair activists like me write, changing ingrained shopping habits to save animals is about as likely to happen as finding a home for every orphaned child. And yet…

The next time you dash into your local pet store to grab a bag of dog food--and find yourself guiltily avoiding that cage in back with the ailing bird--think about it. If we all made one small lifestyle change, we could put an end to bad pet stores.

Bad pet stores-and the bad ones far outnumber the good ones-would rather stick sick inventory in a back room to die or unload it on you than budget the money to properly care for their animals.

Unethical pet stores let living creatures suffer and rip off trusting customers because you and I let them. By shopping there. Think about it. Outrageous, isn’t it?

They said recycling and suing big tobacco would never fly, either.

When it comes to dealing with the shameful sub-society of irresponsible pet stores, it bears repeating: Together we can make a difference.

Carla Thornton, Editor

ParrotChronicles.com

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