Ban the sale of livestock at all 'Pets at Home' branches

We, the undersigned , ask that the company Pets at Home (formerly known as Petsmart) has its license revoked that allows them to sell live animals and birds.





We have visited several different Pets at Home branches and have a catalogue of incidents to report about the appalling state the animals are kept in, and the uncaring and badly trained staff which work in the stores.





Some of these bad experiences include the following:





- when purchasing a rat from our local branch the shop assistant asked if we could take it out of the tank as she couldnt stand to touch the horrid things.





- a dwarf Roborovski hamster was showing signs of diarrhoea and dehydration and was unable to reach its water bottle. When the shop assistant was alerted she replied well it looks fine to me and ignored it. We bought the hamster and nursed it back to health.





- a female Syrian hamster which was in a tank of other hamsters for sale displayed a severely swollen leg which looked to be broken or sprained.





- a female Syrian hamster was mixed in with a tank of male hamsters. The assistant was told about this but she just said she wasnt allowed to leave the till area so couldnt do anything about it . We went in the following day and the female was still in the tank with males. We purchased the hamster and she had 9 babies which we looked after and gave away to good homes.





- 2 baby Syrians from 2 separate tanks were purchased and within 2 days of taking them home started showing weight loss and diarrhoea. They were taken to the vets and were diagnosed as having enteritis caused by dirty cages and water which hadnt been changed. One of these hamsters died after 5 days and Pets at Home were informed. The manager didnt apologise just offered a new hamster which I declined as I said I didnt want another infected animal. I pointed out there were hamsters still in the tank that I had bought mine from, and despite explaining how contagious these disease was she refused to check over the other hamsters they were selling.





- shop assistant was over heard telling customers that there was no difference between Syrian, Chinese and Roborovski hamsters other than the price. The customers were looking to keep more than one hamster and the shop assistant told them they were able to keep more than one Syrian together when in fact they would fight to the death.





These are mainly reports about rodents as I am a breeder of them and know a lot about them so know what to look out for. But I also know of reports of the bad condition of the birds and rabbits in stores too. The animals are treated like merchandise to sell rather than living creatures, and the staff lack the knowledge and experience to sucessfully answer customer queries about the animals they are buying. The company has already had its license removed for the sale of exotic pets, and unless some serious money is invested in the training of staff and improving the welfare of the animals they sell, they shouldnt be allowed to sell any living creatures.