Don't Buy Your Pets, Adopt Them

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time in various pet stores. As we looked at the animals in all these pet store chains, my heart sank. I knew all of those little guys needed homes. I knew they deserved to be loved. I also knew in some cases they were being treated poorly by the pet stores. They had way too many animals in one cage. Many of the animals did not have toys to play with. Granted, this was not the case with every animal in every store, but still it just made me sad. These animals were under socialized and in many cases going to be in bad shape by the time some decided to pay an over inflated price to take them home.

Now I'm not just making this up. Go a Petsmart store, any Petsmart store, and you will discover they are not currently selling birds. Why is this? Well you see Petsmart was selling sick birds to people. Yeah and it gets better...the bacterial infection the cockatiels had, can be spread to humans. Yes, Petsmart is trying to make things right by halting the sale of all birds and putting them all on antibiotics. However, it still makes me wonder how the birds got sick in the first place? Usually, birds who get this disease have been kept in unsanitary conditions. Now this may not totally be Petsmart's fault. I could be that the store isn't taking care of their cages, but it also could be an issue with the facilities that the birds or other animals are being bred. These kinds of things happen all the time.

I'm not anti all pet stores. I actually know of one Bird Store that does all the breeding and socialization on site. I take my boys there for grooming. I love the level of care the animals get. Yes, I still think the process they charge are too high, but I would rather pay that sum for a bird I know was well cared for than one that I'm not sure of where it came from.

When I look at my boys, I am glad I rescued them. If I had just bought a bird at the pet store, I might have gotten cute cuddly bird, but I might have gotten one with tons of attitude too. I could have gotten a sick bird. Instead I adopted Batty and Beaker from a cruel woman who bred just about any animal she could get her hands on. Then she would let her four year old grandson terrorize them. If I hadn't adopted them, who knows what would have happened. The lady even said on the day I picked them up that a couple of families had stopped by, but no one wanted them. Seriously? DUH!!! These two little guys were so shell shocked and terrified, no wonder families didn't want them. If a family didn't know any better and would have taken them home any way, they would have been back up on the adoption block our even worse, bound to their cages for the rest of their miserable lives. I have given them a good life so far. It took me months to get them to come out of their cage, to learn to play with toys, and to even know what treats were. Still they are happy and they know they are loved. Yes, they aren't the most affectionate birds. I've said it before, they are like their mom, they don't like strangers, and they don't like to be touched. Still, they know they are safe and loved.

Popcorn and Skye weren't as abused, but they were neglected. For one, their owners moved out of the apartment and just left them behind. You can tell they were not handled much because "the hand" still sends them into a panic. Popcorn's screaming habit (which may I add I have pretty much been able to break him of 80% of the time) tells me that he was probably ignored and used screaming to get attention. That is probably why they bought him the parakeet to keep him company. Seriously that is like saying, "well junior is lonely...so lets have another kid!!" Yeah, instead of taking care of your bird properly, just buy another one to ignore. I still have some work to do with all four of them, but at least they have bonded with me. Some of them have even bonded with some of my friends and family. I think if Batty had a choice, he'd stay with my dad.

Not all rescues are going to be hard work like my boys are. Many of them just want a good home and a second chance. Many of the dogs in pounds are already house broken, you do not have all the puppy destruction to look forward to. The cats are usually already box trained. No, they aren't the cute little puppy or kitten of your dreams, but they are still worth your time and love. Who knows why the owner didn't want them anymore. Maybe it just wasn't cute enough anymore, or the novelty wore off, or the kids who *had* to have it lost interest. There are many reasons why they need that second chance and it far from makes them substandard pets. Before you go and buy that puppy at the pet store, look into adoption. It is a great option, and the money you save on the animal, gives you more money to use to give them a wonderful home.