Store or shelter?

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Would you rather buy a pet from a store or rescue one from a shelter, etc?

Why?

 

[beowulf]

shelter every single time!!

theres plenty of animals been bought and no longer wanted/mistreated/neglected and end up in shelters though no fault of their own.....they deserve a second chance and will become loving pet given half the chance and a little patience

my Willow was almost a year old when i got her from a cat shelter...........she had been neglected (i think abused is too strong a word in her case but she certainly wasnt looked after correctly)  by her previous 'owner'......i think there had been young kids in the household too that hadnt treated her right, dont think she ever knew when her next meal was coming (she used to eat every scrap i put in front of her til she realised she was going to get food regulary) and ultimatly the owners left her behind when they moved....new house owners moved in and found her, kept her for as long as they could hoping someone would come for her before passing her on to a shelter.......when i went to look for a kitty she had been named Heidi cos cos she liked to hide when anyone came close cos she was so traumatised by the whole experience.......i had her cos when i did pick her up i sensed that all she really wanted was a cuddle and some reassurance......and if she always hid she was never going to get picked in front of the other cats who were more sociable

one of the best decisions i ever made.....shes now a loving confidant (with occasional scaredy cat moments lol) cuddle cat

 

[DrLeftover]

Our dogs have all been rescues. Either from a shelter, or from people who said they were going to take them to the 'pound'.

They've all been great pets.

To be fair, there is also the other side of that.

My daughter had a bad experience with a rescued dog that had been abused, and would not 'calm down'. They had it for about three months, (and a couple of bites, and some damaged furniture) and had to take it back to the shelter, because they were afraid to leave it alone with their son. The SPCA people understood and allowed them to select a new friend who has turned out to be a wonderful dog.

 

[Enter Username Here]

Stores a lot of the pets come from imbred/mills breeding. Where if you adopt from a shelter, you are saving an abused animal sometime or giving an animal a second chance.

 

[DarkFury]

Shelter because it saves an "already" life over a "custom" order. Now if America thought about children as often or as high as dogs we would be better off.

 

[Jazzy]

shelter every single time!!

theres plenty of animals been bought and no longer wanted/mistreated/neglected and end up in shelters though no fault of their own.....they deserve a second chance and will become loving pet given half the chance and a little patience

my Willow was almost a year old when i got her from a cat shelter...........she had been neglected (i think abused is too strong a word in her case but she certainly wasnt looked after correctly)  by her previous 'owner'......i think there had been young kids in the household too that hadnt treated her right, dont think she ever knew when her next meal was coming (she used to eat every scrap i put in front of her til she realised she was going to get food regulary) and ultimatly the owners left her behind when they moved....new house owners moved in and found her, kept her for as long as they could hoping someone would come for her before passing her on to a shelter.......when i went to look for a kitty she had been named Heidi cos cos she liked to hide when anyone came close cos she was so traumatised by the whole experience.......i had her cos when i did pick her up i sensed that all she really wanted was a cuddle and some reassurance......and if she always hid she was never going to get picked in front of the other cats who were more sociable

one of the best decisions i ever made.....shes now a loving confidant (with occasional scaredy cat moments lol) cuddle cat

Willow is beautiful and bless you for giving her a loving "forever" home.

 

[Enter Username Here]

Stores a lot of the pets come from imbred/mills breeding.

Frankie, you can change "a lot" in your post to "almost ALL".  I've done hours and hours of research on this very topic; I've spoken to employees in pet stores and the managers of these places.  The vast majority of puppies and kittens the pet stores acquire are from puppy and kitten mills.

The problem is, they don't actually SEE the places their stock comes from.  The business transactions that take place for a pet store to acquire their stock are done mostly over the phone, and in most cases, the animals are delivered to the store in order to prevent the buyer from seeing the conditions of the horrible places the animals are born.

Ignorance in this case is not an acceptable excuse to continue doing business with these horrific places.  Just because they don't actually go to the mills to pick up their stock does not mean they don't know precisely where it comes from.  I have never and will never spend one thin dime at any pet store for anything, not just a new pet.  I won't spend my money there for dishes, toys, food, anything.  The shelter is always where I will get my next furry family member.

Oh I know what you mean. The problem with these mill animals too is they have a lot of problems. Genetic problems or physical problems later on. Just like if I was to procreate with a family member, our child would most likely have some kind of deformity.

So you go get your $900 puppy from this nice pet shop and 3 years down the road, your kid is crying because the dog is dying or needs thousands and thousands dollars of surgery.

 

[Sinon]

Stores. Kind of. Definitely stores for dogs. When I was about six, my family adopted a jack russell from a local shelter. Two months later it was put down. It bit me twice, bit my mother, bit my father twice, bit my grandfather twice, bit our other dog's ear, and finally bit our other dog's front leg hard enough that she needed to have stitches. So my only experience with a rescue dog has been terrible, and I don't think it would be worth trying again, especially not since I have a young child.

Most of our cats have been from friends whose own cats had litters, though my most recent cat was a rescue of sorts. I found him in our garden, totally feral. Kept leaving food out for him, and eventually he came close enough to me, I guess to study me. Few weeks past that he came into the house, and since then he's become quite domesticated.

 

[Felly]

Shelters, please. Or at least people that are going to end up giving them to shelters anyways.

Just no to stores. They come from mills, and it's just awful the conditions they're raised in and whatnot. If the breeder for the store is reputable, and you can actually look into them and all and see that the conditions are safe for the animal, then I could maybe understand it a bit more. Nine times out of ten, however, that's not the case. Not all of them are bad. I got my first cat when I was about 7 from a store because he was just attracted to me when I looked at him in the cage they kept him in in the pet store, and we had him until I was nearly done with seventh grade and a few weeks away from turning 13, so we had him for at least 5-6 years; he got sick and had to be put down, but still, I feel like he would've been one of the better cats from a mill, if he did actually come from one.

There's a pet store here that's under investigation from all the problems they've had with the animals they've been selling that have been coming from mills, and I feel like they're going to be shut down. They don't really take much care of the animals either, and they're pretty much stuck in cages the whole time unless someone comes in and wants to play with them. n_n

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I think next time I'll get a shelter puppy because I want to be there from the start.

 

[Icetex's iconIcetex]

Well My first cat we got from my brother ben cat named mew we brought from him after he could not take care of it at the time
Ben brought from pet store no longer in existent(i assume it was shutdown or something)
Mew is 7 now
She lately pretty quite and keeps to her self
oh did I mention that pet shop lied to ben that she was a male?
we found that out after we brought her from ben
although i'm concerned lately past few months she been getting sick(throwing up)
I hope she recovers from it
and no don't ask about vet because we can't afford one
we want get her fixed but again its expensive for female cats here than male cats
i would show pic of her but don't have camera