Why not to buy from pet stores that sell animals
Unfortunately a lot of people out there still aren't aware where animals come from that are sold in pet stores and what people support when they buy pets or supplies in these kind of pet stores. There are also risks involved when buying a pet from a pet store. It is extremely important to us to educate people about it and we hope that once you know you will stop supporting this industry and will educate your family and friends.
Where pet shop rats come from:
Pet store rats are bred in huge ratty mills under filthy, overcrowded conditions. No consideration is given to breeding for health, longevity or temperament. The rats are kept in inadequate conditions, don't receive any vet care, the rats are bred over and over again until they are too old to breed and are either sold as snake food or get killed.
The babies get weaned too early and don't receive any socialization during the important first few weeks.
The pet stores and people who breed for pet stores do not care about the wellbeing of the animals, all they care about is the money that they make from the sale of these animals.
Should the pet store become overstocked with rats, the excess animals are often thrown into a freezer alive, or killed in some other inhumane way.
When you buy a rat or other animal from a pet store, you support this horrible industry!
An excellent article on ratty mills can be found here: Rodent Farm
"Rescuing" from pet stores:
We all know the horrible conditions rats and other animals are often kept in pet stores and it's hard to walk away however there is no such thing as "rescuing rats from a feeder tank" or "rescuing rats from a pet store".
All you are really doing is voting with your money to support an industry that perpetuates horrific animal abuse. Every time a rat is purchased from a pet store, it only encourages them to breed even more rats under the same horrible conditions, most of which will be condemned to a painful and terrifying death.
As long as there is a market (i.e. people people buy animals in pet stores), the suffering will continue! In order to break the vicious cycle once and for all people need to stop buying the animals! It's even better if people boycott pet stores that sell animals all together - If these stores don't make any money, they will be forced to reconsider their practices!
Here in the Vancouver area we are lucky enough to have many wonderful pet stores that don't sell animals such as Tisol, Bosleys, Van Pet etc. so there really is no need to shop at pet stores that sell animals.
Pet stores do not guarantee the sex of the rats
We could write countless stories of people who went to a pet store two buy a pair of same sex rats only to wake up to a "surprise" litter a few weeks later because the same sex pair has turned out to be a male and a female rat.
Pet stores do not guarantee the sex of the rats that you buy. A lot of them can't properly sex the rats or simply do not care.
Even if you are "lucky" enough and manage to get two female rats, chances are that the females are already pregnant. Pet stores often do not keep the sexes separated and female rats can get pregnant as soon as they are 5 weeks old!
Although baby rats are incredibly cute, people aren't prepared to keep a litter of rats (and rats can have huge litters, up to 20 babies!). Hoping to get support from the pet store where you bought them? Wishful thinking! Pet stores will go as far as denying that they ever sold rats or they already re-stocked and don't have any room for the rats. And in the rare case a pet store actually does take the babies in, chances are they'll all end up as snake food... or the next gullible family buys them and by then those females might be pregnant as well.
"Knowledgeable staff"
A lot of people blindly believe what the "knowledgeable" staff tells them in pet stores that sell animals. Unfortunately often the information you get from the staff is not correct.
Often we see people spend a fortune on cages, food and bedding that are all not suitable for rats. A lot of the "rat cages" sold in pet stores are generally too small or don't have adequate bar spacing. Most of the "rat food" sold in stores is the completely wrong diet. Pine and cedar are not appropriate bedding. Although the care sheet of a well known pet store chain claims that rats live 5-6 years, this is not true. The list could go on and on and on.
Please do your own research before getting rats, there are some wonderful online sources and we are always open for questions as well!
The health of pet store rats & possible risks
As we mentioned above, the pet stores and ratty mills don't pay any attention to breeding for health, longevity or temperament. Rats are often inbred and sick or aggressive rats get bred. The filthy conditions often lead to illnesses and because it is over crowded they can spread like wildfire.
Unfortunately there are no vaccines for rats but there are some dangerous airborne viruses out there such as SDA or Sendai that can kill rats and other rodents.
When you buy rats in pet stores, you could very well end up with sick rats. Be prepared that you might have to take your new pet to the vet sooner rather than later.
It gets even more complicated if you have other rats or pet rodents at home as the new rats could bring in a fatal virus. If you are bringing home pet rats from any source and you already have rats, you should quarantine the new animal(s) for a minimum 3 week period in a separate building where there are no other rats or rodents.
If you already have rats or other pet rodents at home, there is always a risk involved when visiting a pet store or shelter that has rodents. Because SDA and Sendai are airborne you don't even have to touch the rodents or come near them. If you do visit a pet store or shelter that has rodents, stay away from your own rats for a minimum of 3 hours!
For more important information about proper quarantine and the 3 hour rule please visit: The importance of proper quarantine
Pet stores & rescue
After years of doing rat rescue we have gathered some powerful statistics as to where the rats come from that need to come into rescue. 99% of all rats that needed to come into rescue can be tracked back to a pet store.
Unfortunately pet stores sell animals to whoever will give them money and so the people who buy them often didn't do proper research or it was an instant purchase or the rat was bought as a gift.
In all the years of doing rescue with Little Mischief Rescue, independantly or with other rescues we can say that among the hundreds of rats there were only 2 rats that orginally came from a reputable breeder and a few rats came from a lab/major supplier of lab animals. All the other rats came from pet stores.
While pet stores make money off the sale and suffering of animals, rescues end up having to clean up after them. We spend hours every day caring for the rats that are no longer wanted, we spend hours trying to raise enough money to be able to provide them with the best diet, housing and vet care possible. But unfortunately the vicious cycle keeps on going until everybody stops supporting this awful industry!
