Meet Cupcake!

[Elaine]

She's lovely and i love the name too. She shouldnt have been allowed to buy her though . I am not even gonna atempt to defend pet shops, since I work in one of the most awful hellholes, how can i...

[random]

Originally Posted by Elaine

She's lovely and i love the name too. She shouldnt have been allowed to buy her though . I am not even gonna atempt to defend pet shops, since I work in one of the most awful hellholes, how can i...

Thanx Elaine, i'm just worried that other teenagers might buy them and they might not meet the same kind of fate as wee Cupcake, you'd have thought she'd have at least been asked for ID.

[Elaine]

You'd have thought so I know I ask and if they cannt provide it then they must be acompanied by their parents. We also get them to sign and enter their name and address in a book. That way if there should be any problems on either side, we can call them or them us.
I cannt speak for every body who works with me but thats certainly how i do it.

[random]

Originally Posted by Elaine

You'd have thought so I know I ask and if they cannt provide it then they must be acompanied by their parents. We also get them to sign and enter their name and address in a book. That way if there should be any problems on either side, we can call them or them us.
I cannt speak for every body who works with me but thats certainly how i do it.

But that's great Elaine as most pet shops don't have any kind of follow up whatsoever. Most of the staff at our PAH can't even sex the animals correctly so that says it all really. I know this from my own experience as years ago I got a rabbit from them, told it was a boy and I just believed them really. Wasn't 'til I got home I realised I had a wee girl! What worried me more was that the boys and girls were kept in seperate pens, so she could have so easily came to me with a surprise in store. Imagine someone who didn't know the difference thinking they had a boy rabbit and waking up one day to a nest of babies!

Sorry bit of a rant there.

[angieh]

Forgive my ignorance on this matter, but isn't there a law that children under a certain age (not sure what that is) should not be allowed to buy a pet without either written permission from their parent/guardian or without a responsible adult being present at the purchase? Mind you wasn't like that in my day - I bought my hamster from a pet shop and no one asked any questions. Luckily my parents had agreed and I'd saved my pocket money as we did in those days - I think Q Victoria was on the throne then!!!!!

[Elaine]

On that note, I have to tell you all that will be taking some baby hamsters home next week, 8 to be exact
We are normally pretty good at sexing them and i am not compltely convinced that this IS actually our fault.
2 woman, around early 20's, came in for a hamster each. Explained that they couldnt keep syrians together etc so they both bought cages and a hamster each, now bear in mind hamsters reach sexual maturity as young as 5 weeks old. The hamsters they bought were from different cages and around 11 weeks old. When hamsters come into us they are 5 weeks old, we sex them and put them in cages and at that young age we do often have two or three of the same sex in each cage. These girls buy a boy and a girl. One girl called a few weeks ago to say that one hamster had just given birth She'd only had it for 2 weeks. Anyway, they will be 4 weeks old next week and i have agreed to take them from her.
Having some problems in the shop just now, so I will take them home for a week or 2 just to make sure all is well with them before taking them into the shop.
Eva is gonna just love this

[angieh]

Cor yeah - little snacks on legs!

[Elaine]

Originally Posted by angieh

Forgive my ignorance on this matter, but isn't there a law that children under a certain age (not sure what that is) should not be allowed to buy a pet without either written permission from their parent/guardian or without a responsible adult being present at the purchase? Mind you wasn't like that in my day - I bought my hamster from a pet shop and no one asked any questions. Luckily my parents had agreed and I'd saved my pocket money as we did in those days - I think Q Victoria was on the throne then!!!!!

Certainly in Scotland, it is ilegal to sell any animal to some one under the age of 16, I tell them its 18. And that includes fish. So if they cannt prove to me that they are 18 then they must have their parents present.

[angieh]

I've just looked up the English law - The Animal Welfare Act 2007 - it's an offence to sell an animal to someone under the age of 16 too. Seems we are in accord with Scottish law here.