Hah..
PETA gets about as much sympathy as Green Peace does in my household. Bunch of lunatics wanting to get noticed.
Anyway, there is one decent mom and pop store around here, but they're too expensive even on rodent food so I don't usually go there. Their reptiles, birds, fish, mammals are all in great shape whenever I do go in, though.
But seriously, who pays attention to PETA, other than the media? People who say "Save the cows! Drink beer!" aren't exactly the brightest bulb in the chandelier.
While I'm all for treating animals properly and making sure that their needs are met and that they're comfortable in 'captivity'..I draw a distinct line between the needs of animals and the needs of humans.
If PETA and Green Peace ever took over, we'd be eating dirt and rocks, that is unless they made up some society to protect minerals.
If animals were meant to be treated like humans, then they'd look like a hominid and walk upright, bipedally. I'm not saying take any less care of animals or treat them as though they were disposable, but there is a distinct difference between us and the rest of the animal kingdom.
This whole situation is like a catch 22..you can't have one thing without the other. Then again, we can't humanize every animal and get along either.
"Pet ownership is an absolutely abysmal situation brought about by human manipulation." (Washingtonian Magazine, Aug. 1986)
Human manipulation takes many forms. It even takes the form of human breeding, and obviously whoever manipulated these individuals from PETA and other radical organizations, clearly shows the direct result of a negative influence on even our own species.
Different areas will have different management and employees in a chain store environment. The PetSmart here luckly is a good one. I don't buy anything but fish from there. I choose to buy my pets from private individuals, classified ads, or in the case of my dog, the pound.
I think the only thing PetSmart (and PetCo) has against them, is the fact that they purchase their stock from mill breeders. And that, is the only reason I won't buy from them. I want to know that my animals were produced with their health in mind, not the profit in mind.
The last pet I purchased from them was a guinea pig. I spent over $300 in vet bills on a $20 pet that ended up dying anyway. I think it had every disease a guinea pig could, and all because it's breeder wanted to make a profit on a sub-quality animal. That opened my eyes, and I have since never purchased from them again.
My favourite motto is: To each their own. And yes, that applies to pets and pet stores. If someone wants to give in and purchase the animal at PetSmart, it's their right to do so. I would hope that there is one of us on every street corner to point them in the correct direction to make a better sale. =)
