Re: What are pet stores telling people?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rabernet
Petsmart and Petco HAVE to follow the corporate care sheets. They can't go outside the company "way". I dropped off quite a few BP.net caresheets at my Petsmart that many of the employees loved, but they said that they "disappeared" one day. I'm sure Management tossed them.
Rabernet is right. They have to stick to a standard that all stores can be held accountable to. Some employees, and even good samaritan customers might give out misinformation and poor care advice when they are just trying to help. (Not implying anyone from here does this, but there are people out there who think they are helping when they aren't)
I decided to go over the BP care sheet from one of the major chain stores. I've always heard how bad they were, but never looked for myself. I wanted to write what the caresheet said, then make my comments, but halfway through I realized it's copyrighted, and I shouldn't reproduce it here, even just for analysis. So anyway, I went through it and you know what?
I was quite surprised actually. Most of the information was what I would consider good husbandry advice. The stuff I disagreed with mostly was stuff that is debatable, stuff that is open to personal preference and opinion. There are a lot of husbandry issues, I'll venture to say MOST husbandry issues, that are open to opinion and debate. No set in stone right or wrong answers. There were only one or two things on the caresheet that I completely disagreed with and couldn't see there being any other option.
I believe that if someone followed the caresheet to the letter they could raise plenty of happy, healthy BPs. Maybe a few things could be better, but the animals would be doing fine. So why doesn't this happen? I have a few ideas:
1. The customers take the advice of misinformed employees/friends/self-appointed "experts" instead of the caresheet, and the advice causes improper husbandry practices.
2. The animals in chain stores are sick and poorly cared for. Even if the customer follows the caresheet to the letter the BP is so sick and dehydrated it won't eat, and people don't go to the vet, they just go back to the store for a new BP.
3. People just don't care. They know what the caresheet says, but get lazy or bored of the animal, and neglect it
Take a look at a certain Pet Company caresheet and you might be surprised. Sure there are some issues, but compare how much is good to how much is debatable or wrong. It's easy to pick apart a few bad things and forget about all the good. A large majority is good advice. It's not the caresheet causing poor BPs to be neglected and die.
