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Marie5656 Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member  Just hanging out
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I have been given permission to repost this here, from another forum. TK, if you want to use it in your forum, I was also told it would be OK. To all Guinea Pig enthusiasts: Recently it was brought to my attention that Petco will be having a Hamster Derby on Saturday, September 8th, 2007. After the Derby there will be a critter run for rats, gerbils, guinea pigs, and chinchillas where those animals must be placed in a ball to race each other. As all or most of you know, those exercise balls are extremely bad for guinea pigs and Chinchillas. I have since written a letter to Petco informing them of this bad idea and hope they will reconsider their idea of having guinea pigs and Chinchillas placed in exercise balls. Please help me and all those guinea pigs out there and write a letter or call them about this. Let them know that they are promoting dangerous activities for Guinea Pigs and how bad those exercise balls are for the spines and feet of Guinea Pigs . If you don’t want or have the time to write a letter or call, please email me and I have a generic letter written up that you can send by just changing it to fit your thoughts at the end. I also encourage you to go to your local Petco on that date and let everyone know how harmful those exercise balls are for guinea pigs. Thank you, Jeremy Henle Crazy Cavies Guinea Pig Rescue crazycavies@hotmail.com ************************************************* http://www.petco.com Below is the letter I have typed up to send them on their website. Go to Petco.com and click on the about us tab, then the contact us tab. The easiest way to do this is to copy the letter and paste into word or straight into the box on the petco website. Make sure you delete the end and put your own thoughts and then your name. Letter: I recently learned that another Hamster Ball Derby will be taking place in Petco stores across America on Saturday, September 8, 2007. I however have one concern. I see that there will be a Critter Run after the Hamster Ball Derby. My concern is with the advertising/promotion of using a ball for Guinea Pigs and Chinchillas. The spine of a Guinea Pig is extremely delicate and can be easily injured when put in the position that the ball places it. Even the biggest ball forces the Guinea Pig to bend in a way that is harmful to their spine. Another hazard to the Guinea Pig and Chinchilla is the spacing of the slits in the ball for so called ventilation. A Guinea Pig or Chinchilla foot can easily get caught in the slit while the ball continues rolling, therefore causing the foot to break or possibly be severed. Both animals are sensitive to high temperatures and may overheat in the ball. Guinea Pigs have a different spine formation than a hamster, rat, or any other animal that may use a ball. Putting a Guinea Pig in a ball also causes undue stress to him/her and may cause illness. I urge you to reconsider advertising/promoting the use of a ball for Guinea Pigs in the Critter Run. Delete this line and type your own personal message. Sincerely, Your name
 
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Marie5656 Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Just hanging out
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Here is my two cents. The primary concern here is for guinea pigs, but there is a concern for chins as well, as mentioned here. The plastic exercise balls are NOT SAFE for chins or guinea pigs. The spine of the GP is not flexible, and could be hurt in the ball, despite what PetCo may say. The concern is they are sending the wrong message to owners of these pets that it is OK to use the balls. A comment based on my own experiences with chins..they do not like noise and can become over heated very easily. Also, being nocturnal, chins normally sleep during the day, when this event would probably be held.
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Twitchin Kitten Pioneer100© Member  Don't Dream It ~ Be It
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Don't get me started on PetCo and PetSmart and small animals! I highly suggest anyone thinking of a small critter to NEVER EVER buy one from them and look around for a small privately owned, clean and reputable pet store. These big stores get their hamsters, gerbils, rats, mice, guinea pigs and other small 'pocket pets' from mills. Yes mills, and these rodent mills are just as despicable as puppy and kitten mills. Everyone, use the info above posted by Marie and write!
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UsedToRide Original500© Member  ^^^That is LOVE!!^^^
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Ironic. I was just in Petco yesterday buying some Laxatone for my sister's cats. I don't like Petco and never have. I don't like Pet Supplies Plus either. I wouldn't buy an animal from any pet store, be it a puppy or kitten, or a gerbil. The staff is uneducated, the accomodations for the animals are questionable at best, and I have been given 100% erroneous information by one of their "trained" staff members. A little test I thought up just to see how much they know. They know exactly nothing. I wasn't aware that the pocket pets come from mills, also. Knowing what puppy mills are like, I shudder to think of what a mill for these tiny things would be like. 
Respect some, trust one, fear none ~~Bullet http://www.freeholbrook.com The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. ~~Dostoyevsky |
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foxglovepress Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member  NON-PC!!
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Marie, Thank You for keeping us informed with furkids information! I also won't buy a pet from those stores however......................I almost want to now, just to get the little guys out of the store!
Justice for Mark.....Imprison Employers Who Hire ILLEGALS! |
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Twitchin Kitten Pioneer100© Member Don't Dream It ~ Be It
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UTR and everyone else, I soon will be posting some really good information on the small animal mill problem on TK Pet Pros. I'll hot link it from here but I think I may wind up that it will be a part of the humane section on the main site and we can take discussions to the forums from there. It's shocking and horrible and the USDA guidelines for hamsters is absolutely disgusting. I hope I still have those hot links!
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Marie5656 Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Just hanging out
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Thanks for putting it in your forum, TK. We had ONE locally owned, mom and pop pet store that I went to often. Probably the ONLY place I would have trusted to buy one of their animals. They specialized in fish, birds and pocket pets. They were in business for over 25 years, but unfortunatly the Big Box stores forced them to close. I was really upset. I even trusted them to board Scooter, my guinea pig, when we went away for a long weekend. Scooter is no longer with us, having passed before we got Trixie.
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Luvdawgs Pioneer100© Member 
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I hope you have success in stopping the races. Last edited on 01:15 am by Luvdawgs |
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Marie5656 Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Just hanging out
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Sad thing is, I do not have alot of choice anymore when it comes to getting supplies for Trixie. Not allot places carry chin food and supplies around here.
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Twitchin Kitten Pioneer100© Member Don't Dream It ~ Be It
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I have no problem with the big chain stores when it comes to supplies and food. It's allowing them to sell animals that is the problem. The big stores buy from the mills. They RARELY buy locally and when they do, most times the breeder is in it for the $$ and not breeding for quality in the long run. I bet it starts out good, but the demand from the big stores becomes too much and they get too 'busy' breeding for quantity and not quality. I tried once thought about breeding and went to the local Pet Smart and the manager there gave me all kinds of crap about liability and stuff. I did some research from there, decided not to breed and went on a campaign to stop the mills. Unfortunately, my efforts faded due to the fact that the ONE good link I had to someone who actually visited and had pictures and descriptions of these mills didn't want to help me out to get this rolling. She thought that nagging her local stores and corporate was going to be enough. Unfortunately one woman complaining about the hamsters to the corporation headquarters only makes her look like the nutty hamster lady and not someone who has enough muscle to get anything done. I was working with her for a bit and I think once she found out I had doctors from the USDA and the CDC on my side she got 'gunshy' about the whole thing. What's really sad is that people are always willing to help out at first. But once the 'romance' of it wears off and actual legwork and more has to be done, they back out citing time, money or whatever lame excuse they can think of to get out of it. Often I am the only one left getting the job done. Sadly, this has happened to me too many times that now I pick and choose my 'battles' carefully. I try to give advice to let someone else do what they need to do and now I don't 'lead' the effort too much anymore. I know this seems callous but when you are with little funding to do what you need and get left holding the bag so many times, you get sour on it. I do get what I need done still as long as I can do it 'solo' now. Trust me, LOTS get noticed by my hand still and LOTS of wrongs do get 'righted'.
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