House Rabbit Society asks Petsmart to reconsider bunny sales
By Gina Spadafori
August 1, 2007
The House Rabbit Society has a problem with Petsmart, and is asking for support.
Petsmart has done a lot of good work with pet adoptions, with areas set aside in the stores for local rescue and shelters groups to bring in pets who need homes. Up to now, those adoptions have sometimes included rabbits, and Petsmart had likewise included rabbits on its list of animals the chain wouldn’t sell — along with kittens and puppies.
But now, Petsmart is going to sell rabbits. That, says the HRS, will spur more impulse purchases of these pets, which too often leads to neglect and abandonment. Adoption rates for rabbits in shelters are incredibly low, which means for most dumped rabbits, the door to the shelter goes in one direction only and leads to the euthanasia room.
Since I first visited the House Rabbit Society’s rabbits-only shelter in Richmond, Calif., I have been a rabbit fan. They’re not animals who should be purchased for children — in fact, they’re not really the best children’s pet at all — and they don’t do well tossed into a typical small backyard hutch and ignored.
When you treat a rabbit like this, you’re really missing out on a wonderful pet. Rabbits are inquisitive, friendly, affectionate and playful. They’re not usually “snuggly,” but they do enjoy hanging out with people — they may sit next to you rather than sit on your lap. I have adored having my bunnies around — Turbo, Annie and Velocity. The first two came from the Sacramento SPCA, and the third was thrust into my hands by a sobbing child in a Petsmart parking lot.
The Petsmart plan isn’t good for rabbits, and I hope they will reconsider. Or you can reconsider: Get an adult bunny from a shelter or rescue group instead of a baby from a retail outlet, and remember rabbits make the best pets when you don’t treat them like livestock. Want more information? The House Rabbit Society has a wonderful Web site, a great newsletter and some books you really will enjoy. Check it all out here.
Personally, I’d like to see Petsmart drop all live pet sales — fish, birds and rodents, too. Why not stick consistently to the message of supporting community pet adoptions — of all kinds of pets? There’s plenty of money to be made, after all, in the sales of food, supplies and services.
***
Rabbits have a rough road in our society, always have. We are horrified at the idea of using dogs and cats for fur or meat, and yet rabbits are used for both, and it’s accepted as perfectly normal. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a page one feature — subscription required, sorry, but you might try this link – on Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow, a small Pennsylvania operation that raises rabbits for meat to feed to cats and dogs. They’ve been around for a while, and have a good reputation within the community of people who prepare cat and dog food at home. Since the pet-food recalls, business at Hare Today (and other raw food vendors) is very, very good indeed.
This is the problem with carnivores: They gotta eat meat. Our stance here on feeding dogs and — especially — cats a vegan diet: If you want an herbivore for a pet, get … a rabbit! (From a rescue!) Otherwise, some other animal has gotta die for your dog or cat to eat. At least with Hare Today, the animals are treated humanely for all their lives.
Full disclosure: Yes, I have pet rabbits I adore, and I have ordered ground rabbit from Hare Today for the pet dogs and cats I likewise adore.
Nothing is ever sound-bite easy in the real world. If you buy commercial pet foods — which I also do — there’s meat in there, too. Even if it doesn’t look like it because it’s all pretty kibble.
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In other not-dog-and-cat news, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel speculates that the movie “Ratatouille “will spur interest in rats as children’s pets. Parents may cringe, but in fact rats make great pets for children who are old enough and responsible enough to care for and train them — under parental supervision of course. They can be easily trained to do tricks (especially using clicker-training methods), are affectionate and usually not nippy. I had two rats — Zoe and Bianca — and they were a lot of fun to have around. Bianca used to sleep in my sweatshirt hood while I wrote. They don’t live very long, though: About three years, tops.
Don’t scurry to a pet store, though: As with rabbits, rats end up in rescue groups and shelters all the time. Check with them for a nice pet. Both my rats were throw-aways, and I got them from rat rescue!
I wrote PetSmart when I first was made aware of them selling rabbits. The response was that they have some 40 test sites, they are selling dwarf/neutered/spayed rabbits and they will continue to sell them until they have enough information to make a decision! I wasn’t really happy to hear that, but not surprised. It’s true that too many of the rabbits who are surrendered never make it into new homes. I’d also like to clamp down on the Easter pet blitz ~ chicks and bunnies who are impulse buys and too often don’t end up in good, forever homes.
The teacher across the hall always had a pet rat or two in his classroom. I loved spending time with them ~ affectionate, curious, friendly. In fact, I used to share my morning scone with a couple of them. The biggest problem is their short life span.
I hope PetSmart gets enough feedback so they discontinue rabbit sales (and I agree, I’d like them to not sell ANY live animals!)
Comment by catmom5 — August 1, 2007 @ 1:02 pm
Use the House Rabbit Society’s link to PetSmart’s Customer Service Page — their e-mail to e-mail directly doesn’t work.
As a gardener, I encourage Pepper to hunt every rabbit she can find — however, I realize other people like them as pets, so I wrote a polite note to PetSmart asking them to discontinue rabbit sales.
BTW, is there fish rescue? I’ve been buying goldfish for my pond either at PetSmart or from the local carnival — they are more fun for mosquito control than the Bt dunks, but if I’ve missed out on a fish rescue in PA, I’ll patronize them!
Comment by Dorene — August 1, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
Comment by Dorene — August 1, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
“BTW, is there fish rescue?”
I’ve seen them at my local Humane Society on occasion. Couldn’t hurt to give them a call!
I also pulled up six “fish” listings on Petfinder:
http://www.petfinder.com/
Comment by The OTHER Pat — August 1, 2007 @ 3:40 pm
Spent day at beach today. There was a man there with a pet duck, Daisy. (imagination). He bought the duck for his wife because she is bedridden with cancer. Don’t know why he was at the beach today with the duck but was getting lots of attention. He said the duck spends time sitting next to his wife and keeping her company. Almost any type of pet is fine as long as you are happy with caring for it.
Comment by VJ — August 1, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
I emailed PetsMart listing my concerns about selling bunnies when so many bunnies are dumped by owners, and so many bunnies are already in rescue waiting for forever homes - I received a speedy reply which stated (in part)
“…Your feedback is important to us and we’re taking it seriously.
We have received letters and phone calls from various animal welfare organizations including the House Rabbit Society. Because the HRS’s letter addresses a number of concerns that also have been voiced by other groups and individuals, has been widely circulated, and serves as the basis for many of the letters we have received, we have posted both it and our response online at http://www.petsmartfacts.com. We encourage you to visit this site to read our response and obtain more details about this test…” Following the link brings up a letter from a Petsmart VP which includes this: “…We are testing the rabbit market believing that adoption and responsible sales can successfully
coexist…”
I don’t believe in pre-judging, but I also don’t believe in being patronized. I am afraid that they are making their intention clear — they want to sell rabbits AND still retain the goodwill of their animal loving customers who see the need to rescue all the “formerly-owned” rabbits dumped by people who bought them somewhere else.
They have received, and appear to expect to receive more communications asking them to stop their plan — but it sounds to me like they are ready to continue anyway. Perhaps they don’t expect as many angry messages as they may end up getting?
Comment by shadepuppy — August 1, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
If there’s one thing the world does not need its more bunnies for sale/adoption. PetSmart has done such a great job with cat/dog adoption, I hope they don’t blow it with the bunny idea.
I’d much rather see them work with bunny adoption - and make their money from selling bunny food and supplies.
Comment by Andrea 2CatMom — August 1, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
PetSmart DOES work with bunny adoption — in several of the stores in my area, one of the main adoption groups is a bunny rescue. In their response to House Rabbit Soc., they state their intention to do BOTH — sell more bunnies and provide access to bunny adoption.
Petco’s website states the following: “PETCO, the PETCO Foundation and Petfinder.com have teamed up with adoption agencies, rescue groups and humane societies across the country to create thousands of adoption opportunities. We encourage the purchase of animals only when all adoption options have failed…” I sent a copy of that to PetSmart (not that they haven’t seen it before ;) ) and told PetSmart that I agree totally with that philosophy and expect to do business only with companies that agree with that policy. PetSmart has been attacked by PETA over the last few years for their pet sales (birds/ferrets/reptiles) and I guess they are willing to weather any storm created by adding bunnies. :(
Comment by shadepuppy — August 1, 2007 @ 10:02 pm
I would love to know what they plan to do around Easter.
Some shelters stop rabbit adoptions around Easter, the same way they don’t adopt black cats near Halloween or even puppies and kittens meant to be Christmas presents.
Where do these pets end up? Right back in the shelters where they started after the fun of the new “toy” wears off, and mom or dad gets tired of cleaning the cage.
Comment by Molly — August 2, 2007 @ 7:15 am
The Petco near me sells pets ~ ferrets, reptiles, mice, gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, fish . . . so they may not always follow their “official” policy.
Comment by catmom5 — August 2, 2007 @ 10:04 am
I thought what was at issue here was that PetSmart would be buying these bunnies from bunny breeders, instead of taking in the homeless bunnies from shelters and rescues and selling them. If selling shelter and rescue bunnies is there plan that wouldn’t be so bad, but buying from breeders will only promote more breeding. I could be wrong.
Comment by Barb — August 2, 2007 @ 10:34 am
Barb says: “I thought what was at issue here was that PetSmart would be buying these bunnies from bunny breeders, instead of taking in the homeless bunnies from shelters and rescues and selling them.”
Sorry if my posts were confusing. PetSmart is testing the sale of spayed/neutered dwarf bunnies. Where these bunnies will come from is another question — they will NOT come from rescue groups. (There are some webpages that suggest the bunnies will come from a large commercial breeder that also sells to labs — I don’t know if that is true or not.) Some PetSmart stores do already provide space to bunny rescue groups, and they say they will continue to do that. My point is that selling rabbits from a breeder (or possibly from a rabbit-mill) is counter-productive to helping find homes for the rescue rabbits. It seems they want the credit for helping rescue groups AND they also want the dollars from the customers — I doubt there is room for both. PetSmart will start making money from baby bunny sales, and the rescue groups will show fewer adoptions.
Comment by shadepuppy — August 2, 2007 @ 11:40 am
They’re going to *START* selling rabbits? Umm the Petsmart by my house has been selling rabbits since it opened! So they’ve been doing it awhile! And I haven’t been in there since the first time I set foot in that store and saw it (but my other friends that shop there because they aren’t crazy enough like me to stop shopping @ stores that sell pets, tell me they still do sell bunnies and other small animals.)
Ick.
I don’t talk about my rabbits much, but I do have them. And have had them for awhile. Before dogs even! In fact, Phillip, will be NINE in November. My other bunny, Bounce, is an adopted stray from the local HS, so I have no idea how old she is, but I’ve had her for about 3 years. I adopted her after Phillip’s sister died in 2004. Sadly they don’t get along, so I have to keep them separated. And trust me I tried all the tricks. It was just a no go (even though their bunny date at the HS went well, go figure!)
Comment by Great Dane Addict — August 2, 2007 @ 8:54 pm
Dear Gina,
As someone who came off as very rabbit friendly and had rabbits that you “adore,” I am stunned that you are able to feed your cats ground up rabbits. “Humanely raised” does not justify it. There is no such thing as “humane meat.” Rabbits, like every other sentient being want to live out their lives and fear death. If you haven’t visited Hare Today, you are taking the word of Tracy Murphy that the rabbits who have the misfortune to fall into her profit grubbing hands are humanely raised. From what I have seen and read, we can know only what she herself portrays about her business. We happened to check. No USDA inspector has ever set foot in her place. Further, I can’t imagine a worse betrayal than raising an animal humanely and then one day deciding to slit its throat.
Your dismissive comment that dogs and cats are carnivores and have to eat meat is incredibly insensitive to the millions of us rabbit parents. Rabbits are the third most popular pet in the USA and with that status should not have to endure being fed to every one else’s pets as Tracy Murphy would have it. You have other options. Dogs BTW, are not obligate carnivores and can be fed a vegan diet. Cats are obligate carnivores but do not have to eat rabbit just because their owners now find it trendy or whatever. It is just as appropriate to feed kittens and small cats to Bull Pythons and cook up dogs for dinner as the Koreans and Chinese do as it is to serve up rabbits as pet or human “cuisine.” One could hope that you reconsider and do what is truly humane, not something that is masquerading as such.
Comment by RabbitWise, Inc. — August 4, 2007 @ 1:16 pm
I forgot to add this. Here’s a link that tells you how rabbits are killed and butchered for dog meat. Have a good look since you think it’s ok and by all means, share your reaction.
http://www.rawdogranch.com/rabbit_butchering1.htm
Comment by RabbitWise, Inc. — August 4, 2007 @ 2:07 pm
Rabbitwise … I was not being “dismissive” in disclosing that I have fed my dogs and cat rabbit meat. I was being *honest*. (Actually to be further honest, I can’t buy rabbit anymore because of my own buns … what’ll happen when I get pet chickens, I wonder?) Also …I disagree that just because you *can* feed dogs a vegan diet you should. Wheat gluten, anyone? Look at that canine dentition and get back to me on the “dogs as herbivores” theory.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — August 5, 2007 @ 6:47 am
If we choose to keep carnivores as pets, then we choose to accept that there will be animals who must die so that our pets may eat. Just as we make that same choice ourselves every time WE eat meat.
Getting into some sort of “one kind of animal’s life is okay to take for this purpose but another is not” debate does not make sense to me at all. There are people who have cows as pets. As Gina points out, there are people who have chickens as pets. And so on. Which kinds of animal life are universally “okay” to take for this purpose? Which kinds are not? Those are questions with no answers.
As an *individual*, I might elect to eat or feed some kinds of meat, and refrain from choosing others. but but lovers of whatever species I choose to feed/eat could come along and offer the same arguments against my choice as RabbitWise offers against the choice of rabbit. Who’s to say whose arguments in that vein are any more “valid” than any others?
“Betrayal” is a human construct not shared by animals. Unless you’re living a purely vegan lifestyle, animals somewhere are going to die by our choice. As long as they were raised in humane conditions and killed by humane methods, that’s okay, and is integrally a part of the choice.
I would just ask that someone like RabbitWise be honest with us (and with his/herself) and if they are pushing a purely vegan viewpoint, then just say so. Otherwise, the argument is riddled with logical inconsistencies.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — August 5, 2007 @ 8:41 am
It’s not about logic which is always used to dismiss sentiment like it’s somehow superior. Actually it’s just a bad rationalization because people don’t want to face up to how “meat” is produced because they might have to deal with some guilt. It is about feelings and the total disregard and lack of respect for other companion animal people who are the parents of the third most popular pet in the country. Rabbit people want the same consideration given to their rabbits that are given to cats and dogs. The point can be made this way: how about we feed kittens and small cats to Bull Pythons and fry up some dog for dinner like the Koreans and Chinese do? They gotta eat, right? How does that feel to you? Get the picture? Why are your pets more equal than rabbits?
Just for the record, I am vegan. Many rabbit folks are vegetarians if not vegan and/or working on it. That any of us who claim to be humane should deprive another sentient being of his/her life for a mouthful of flesh is morally reprehensible and unacceptable in the 21st century. To drag our pets into the same moral morass is utterly disgusting.
Comment by RabbitWise, Inc. — August 5, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
Comment by RabbitWise, Inc. — August 5, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
“Rabbit people want the same consideration given to their rabbits that are given to cats and dogs.”
So how about cow people? Or chicken people? Or pig people? I know folks who keep all of those as pets.
Then there are horses, which ARE killed for meat in this country as well, despite the controversy over doing so.
I don’t dispute your statement that there is a “cultural relevancy” as to which animals are “more okay” to kill for meat than others. But I do point out that precisely BECAUSE it is an issue of cultural relevancy that there are far more shades of grey than the black-and-white issue that you seem to be trying to make it.
“Just for the record, I am vegan.”
Ah - okay. Now your position makes more sense. You’d prefer that NO animals be killed for meat at all (which takes it out of “cultural relevancy” and into an entirely different topic altogether). Thanks for clearing that up.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — August 5, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
Comment by RabbitWise, Inc. — August 4, 2007 @ 1:16 pm
“Rabbits are the third most popular pet in the USA”
I was wondering where you found that citation? Here is a breakdown from the most recent annual Pet Owners’ Survey published by American Pet Products Manufacturers Association:
Breakdown of pet ownership in the U.S. according to the 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey
Number of U.S. Households that Own a Pet (millions)
Bird 6.4
Cat 38.4
Dog 44.8
Equine 4.3
Freshwater Fish 14.2
Saltwater Fish .8
Reptile 4.8
Small Animal 6.0
Total Number of Pets Owned in the U.S. (millions)
Bird 16
Cat 88.3
Dog 74.8
Equine 13.8
Freshwater Fish 142.0
Saltwater Fish 9.6
Reptile 13.4
Small Animal 24.3
(Taken from http://www.appma.org/press_industrytrends.asp)
Have you got another citation that places them higher than 4th or 5th place rankings (lumped in with all the other Small Animals, that is) as shown above?
Comment by The OTHER Pat — August 5, 2007 @ 2:39 pm