A pet shop in Adelaide is refusing to sell puppies this Christmas.
The reason? They’re sick of people impulsively buying gifts for their relatives – only to abandon them a few weeks later.
The Pet Spot wrote a message on their Facebook page explaining their decision. It’s since received more than 20,000 ‘likes’.
This is Boomer. He’s not a puppy and he’s not from the pet shop but he needs a home.Please note : Due to the amount of phone calls we are receiving regarding people wanting to buy puppies for xmas we will not be selling (nor buying) any puppies during this period (as a note our last puppies were approx 3 months ago) – this act we believe encourages impulse buying and contributes to many animals being dumped afterwards so to all followers who genuinely want the wonderful addition of a pet for xmas please contact the numerous rescue groups who I am sure will be pleased to help you find your pet. I know this post may come across as a little “rude” perhaps but we are trying to promote and achieve responsible pet ownership.
We agree with the pet shop. If you’re desperate to buy a puppy for Christmas (or any time really), can we recommend you go to a rescue shelter?
Here’s a look at the types of dogs you can adopt from Animal Rescue groups, the names of which we’ve listed below. Please note: the dogs pictured are from non-kill animal shelters.
Monica’s Rescues is in NSW – see the dogs here. Save-a-dog in Victoria – Best Friend’s Rescue in QLD – visit their website here.
You can find a full list of rescue shelters around Australia here.
Top Comments
By way of a slightly alternative perspective - I was a pet shop owner for a while and want to make a couple of points. We had an arrangement with a local vet and insisted all our pups had to go to the vet at least once (free of charge to the new owner) for a vet check. This ensure a relationship was developed with the vet. We generally took pets back and gave some level of refund, because we cared about he welfare of the pets. We sold an awful lot more cats then a shelter ever could - because we had shop frontage in a Westfield (which we paid for), but we didn't pay anyone for the cats. We vaccinated and chipped them and charged customers for that cost. We made money from the accessories. We beleive it was more likely that a pet would not be dumped if an owner had paid $1000 from a pet shop, then the price of a vaccination and chip. We never bought pedigree because of the risk of in breeding and the related health issues. I never once killed or surrendered an animal - that would be bad business. Maybe others are different. I gave it all away because it was impossible to make any money out of it, just by the way.
Where did all the cats and puppies come from that you sold?
Unfortunately, people will dump animals no matter how much they pay for them.
I was in shopping mall a few weeks ago and went into a pet shop to kill time with my toddler daughter. It just breaks my heart to see those poor animals caged/boxed like displays, what a sad predicament. When I was a kid, we picked up my dog from a shelter, he had a lot of issues but we kept him and loved him so much... more than ten years after giving him away (moved from France to Australia) he remains in our hearts, in our conversations, and his name is used for things like passwords. He remains a member of our family and I feel like crying just thinking about him.
On another level though, I think the same problem exists with people rather than pets: the world population is increasing at an unprecedented rate and as responsible citizens in a developed country, I think a lot of us should choose to adopt rather than have another child (everyone should be able to have their own child but I think I will look into adoption if I decide I want another child). In the UK, people give more money to animal charities than any other and my Facebook tells me that Australia is probably close behind. I hear so many people worrying about animal welfare which is very good, but please devote some of your time to helping kids out there, so many of them need us.