Pets at Home Investigated by Watchdog

The BBC consumer programme Watchdog has investigated the chain of pet stores Pets at Home and found it wanting.

When buying a new pet you want to be sure it’s happy and healthy when leaving the shop. Pets at Home say its animals are all bred in comfortable and caring surroundings and that their pets are then looked after by staff dedicated to their welfare. It’s all very reassuring but in reality do they live up to their promises?

Christina Sage bought guinea pigs Batman and Robin from Pets at Home in the Cardiff Ty Glas store as a present for her 4 year old son Dylan. But within three days, Robin fell ill, losing all the hair on the side of his face. A vet later confirmed that both he and Batman were infected with the painful fungal infection, ringworm. As a result, Dylan is forbidden from playing with them whilst they undergo treatment and Christina can only handle them if she wears plastic gloves.

Ringworm is highly infectious and can spread easily between animals. But as 12 year old Chloe Cameron discovered, it can also be passed to humans too. She bought two guinea pigs from the Pets at Home store in Carlisle. They too fell ill, and shortly after their diagnosis with ringworm, Chloe noticed a circle up on her neck.

This circle spread, leaving her with painful sores all over her body. Unfortunately, Chloe already suffers from a condition that affects her immune system, so she collapsed and ended up in hospital, where she was treated for several days. To make matters worse, her dad then caught ringworm too. Thankfully Chloe, her dad and her pets made a full recovery, but the experience was a very distressing one for all concerned.

Unfortunately, some animals don’t recover. Caroline Parkes bought rabbits Frank and Wonky from the Pets at Home store in West Drayton. Both animals sadly died within 11 days and Caroline believes that they should not have been sold the way that they were.

After talking to unhappy customers, we decided to test out Pets at Home for ourselves. Vet Mike Jessop, former president of the Small Animal Veterinary Association, joined a team of Watchdog secret shoppers on visits to eight of Pets at Home’s stores across Britain.

In every store, our team came across fish that appeared to be suffering from disease. In four of the stores, we found fish with ‘white spot’, a parasitic and infectious disease of the skin that could have affected all of the other fish sharing the tank. In seven of the eight stores tanks contained dead fish – we counted over 50 in total. Some of the worst conditions were in New Malden and Stockport, stores that proudly advertise themselves as specialist ‘aquatic centres’.

In the West Drayton store, Mike Jessop was so concerned about the welfare of two of the rabbits for sale that we decided to buy them so they could be taken away for treatment. Later examination confirmed that one was underweight, while another had an obvious skin condition. We also bought a Guinea Pig in Cardiff Ty Glas store that later turned out to be suffering from scurvy.

Throughout our mystery shopping trips we found evidence of some Pets at Home staff members failing to follow their own welfare advice. A sign in the Carlisle store clearly states that you shouldn’t keep an Aquatic Dwarf Frog with small fish, yet we found one in a tank along with, you’ve guessed it, small fish. We also found a sign in the Durham store that says Syrian hamsters must live alone or else they’ll fight. So why did we spot three in one cage?

As well as the conditions of the animals, we’ve also had complaints about Pets At Home’s after-sales service. Before leaving the store with a new pet, staff are supposed to give customers all the care information they need, checking off everything they tell you on a tick list on your receipt. But, in half the stores we visited, the staff asked us to sign to say we’d received information that they simply hadn’t given us.

Sick and dead pets, hazardous conditions and staff failing to do their job. Not so reassuring afterall?

Read Pets at Home's response.

Cemeteries for Human and Nonhuman Animals

The Corriere della Sera newspaper (via Pietro Melis) reports that in Fauglia, a village near Pisa, Italy, a "mixed" cemetery is being planned in response to the requests of many people who want to be buried with their pets, dogs, cats, horses and other domestic animals, nonhuman members of their families dear to them.

This is going to be the first in Italy. Animal rights people are all in favour, while some others are perplexed, often for religious reasons.

«The land has already been allocated» says Fauglia's mayor Carlo Carli, «the project is innovative and lots of people are looking forward to it».

In the UK such cemeteries already exist. In Cornwall, England, there are about 30 people buried with their animals, and 120 all over the country have "booked" their place in similar cemeteries.

The great Romantic poet Lord Byron, after unsuccessfully trying to get permission to be buried next to his beloved Newfoundland dog Boatswain, dedicated to him an "Epitaph To a Dog", which starts:

"Near this spot Are deposited the Remains Of one Who possessed Beauty Without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, And all the Virtues of Man Without his Vices. The Price, which would be unmeaning flattery If inscribed over Human Ashes, Is but a just tribute to the Memory of “Boatswain,” a Dog Who was born at Newfoundland, May, 1803, And died in Newstead Abbey, Nov. 18, 1808."

Byron spent several years in Pisa (and nearby Livorno) and probably knew those hills where the shared cemetery will be created. It is quite possible that this cemetery will be dedicated to him.

Anti-Halal-Meat on Facebook

I have posted on my other blog Enza Ferreri Anti-Halal-Meat Campaigns on Facebook:

There is a new flurry of activity of mostly British anti-halal-meat campaigns on Facebook. I have liked, joined, friended, subscribed to all I found, signed petitions, encouraged them and posted on their walls.

I invite you to do the same if you like them. Here they are.

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UK Circus with Animals Closes Down, Few Remain

The Great British Circus, one of just four remaining circuses that use wild animals in the UK, has announced that it will close down.

The Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS), as we all, is happy at the news but reminds us that there are still six other circuses using wild or domestic animals in performances in the UK.

Liz Tyson, Director of the CAPS, said that her organization will follow the developments to find out what will happen to the animals when the Great British Circus closes down, which is a matter of concern.

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Say NO to Halal Slaughter in Skegness

There is a new Facebook page: Say NO to Halal slaughter in Skegness. It campaigns against the opening of a Halal slaughterhouse in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England.

It started on 27 July of this year and it alreday has 114 likes (including mine) and 164 talking about this.

You can also sign the relative petition to the East Lindsey District Council. I signed it and encourage you to sign too.

If you're worried about this being an implicit endorsement of other methods of slaughter, you can write in the optional "reason" field what I wrote, or something to that effect:

"All slaughter of animals for food is wrong, distressful and painful for the animals. I oppose all slaughter, halal and non. The halal and kosher methods are more agonizing than the more 'humane', or rather less cruel, alternative."

Also check this website:

Boycot Halal

People are doing something for the animals. It's becoming a rather large, if not mass, movement. If you are for the animals, if you want to help them, what valid reason have you got not to contribute to it?

This anti-halal movement also has the great merit of putting animals on the map. Far from being an endorsement of non-halal slaughter, it makes people reflect on slaughter and what it does to animals.

Furthermore, it gives us an opportunity to explain what's wrong with all forms of slaughter, as in the example of the above petition.

Related posts:

Wake Up, Animal Rights People!

Anti-Halal is Our Battle Too

Anti-Halal is Our Battle Too

The opposition to halal meat in the UK is gathering momentum every passing minute.

A CAMPAIGN group opposing halal slaughter at a Skegness abattoir has gathered almost 100 members in a matter of days.

As I explain in my other blog, it's simply absurd that the animal rights movement does not get involved in the anti-halal campaigns.

All the politically correct or abolitionist objections are ridiculous.