"Do you sell puppies?" and other gems from the pet centre

[Lace Neil Singer]

Not wanting to derail I Love Pitbull's thread, I decided to make one of my own for a few gems from the pet centre.


1. Do you sell puppies?

This winner came up to me as I was doing my usual time wasting, ie making budgie boxes and wiping down the counter, during slow time.

Me: (noticing man) Can I help you?
SC: Do you sell puppies?
Me: Actually, no, but I can...
SC: (Interrupting) I can't believe you people! You're a pet shop, so you should sell puppies!
Me: Actually, pet stores can no longer sell puppies.
SC: Oh yeah? Since when?
Me: Since a law was passed in the 60s.
(Note: I have no idea as to when the law prohibiting pet stores to sell puppies came into play, that's just what I said at the time. Does anyone here know?)
SC: (Silence)
Me: I do however have a list of dog breeders I can give you numbers for. Would you like them?
SC: Don't bother, I'll go someplace else. Like down the road. (he leaves)

Yeah, dumbarse... the law applies to all pet shops including the one at the garden centre down the road!

2. Ooh, a dead fish!

This does not involve an SC, it's just something I found amusing at the time. Now my call of duty involved the pet centre; there were 3 guys who looked after the fish centre, with at least 2 there during the week and all 3 on weekends and holidays. This happened during a time when Fish Guy #1 was serving a customer and Fish Guy #2 was outside with another customer. This kid ran up to me and shouted at the top of his voice, "There's a dead fish over there and the other fish are eating it!" So I had to go to the open tanks where the pond fish were kept, with a plastic bag round my hand, to remove a dead fish. X_x Little kid watched me agog thruout.

3. Rodent confusion.

I still don't have any explanation for this, cept that this woman was either blind or severely lacking in brain cells.

SC: Do you have any rats?
Me: Yes we do, follow me. (shows SC cage of rats.)
SC: (recoiling in horror) Those aren't rats!
Me: Uh, yes they are actually.
SC: I wanted the ones without tails!
Me: Those are hamsters.
SC: OK, take me to the hamsters.

How can you possibly confuse the two? They are completely different.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Just finished reading the Cat/Dog thread; and I have to agree with you. O_o

[Daskinor]

You be surprised how many people think my ferret is some kind of mutant rat.

[Barefootgirl]

You know, LNS, I don't think it is actually illegal to sell puppies in pet shops. Most reputable pet shops won't do it, but I think there are a few that still do. The only reason that so few petshops sell puppies or kittens now is not because the law changed, but because the bulk of the unscrupulous dealers were driven out of business as the big superstore pet shops like petsathome moved in.

Dead Fish Kid wasn't a small girl, mostly wearing pink, with her hair in two plaits, was it? Sounds EXACTLY like my daughter, right down to the bit aobut watching intently as you hoicked out the dead fish...

[Anakah]

Wow, I guess I haven't been to a petshop in years... I had no idea they didn't sell puppies anymore. I wouldn't have been a SC about it. Thats interesting.

[Banrion]

The petstore that I am at weekly for something does sell puppies, but only REALLY fricking expensive pedigreed puppies. Every puppy I have seen in there had CH parent, and they are from VERY reputable breeders. Interestingly enough, they do not sell kittens or cats of any sort. The majority of their livestock is birds, and fish, though they do have a rather large collection of reptiles, and a few ferrets. The only small animals they have really are rats of all sizes and a couple rabbits, but those aren't really there to be sold as pets, they are feeder animals for the reptiles.

[Broomjockey]

The megapetstore in the mall here has puppies (some upwards of $2k!), kittens, fish, reptiles, amphibians, rabbits, birds, hamsters, gerbils, chinchillas, etc. So I'm guessing the restriction is purely a UK thing, and I'd like to hear the backstory that prompted it.

[Sliceanddice]

ive seen pet shops with bets, but i think the super stores cant have them. I believe the laws is you have to have x number of lincesed care takers or soemthing and pay for all the vet check ups on them so they just dont anymore, because it cost to much.

[Ill_Used_Heroine]

I loved working in a pet shop, but only when it came to taking care of the livestock (fish/herps). I hated dealing with the customers, because 99% of them just wanted to shut their kids up and had absolutely no idea of the care any of the animals required. I almost always talked people out of purchasing turtles, tortoises and chameleons, because I knew none of them were willing to perform even the most basic care -- and believe me, I would go down the entire list from cleaning tanks to raising crickets for food and making sure they got basking time. Most people would make a face and admit they didn't know how much care was needed and forget that!

I remember one poor sulcata tortoise that didn't make it because the girl who got him for a gift never put him out in the sun or provided UV light/heat and he died. She tried to get her money back, and I can't remember if the owner gave it or not, but I was so f'ing pissed at her cause I kept telling her to make sure he got at least an hour or so of sunlight a day.

Hell, people even killed their fish left and right, no matter how much advice I'd dole out. One lady was like, I just bought them last week and they died ... how come?! I found out she had cleaned out a tank with dishwashing detergent and then filled it with water and immediately tossed the fish in, and thought that was that. *sigh* All the time I spent explaining how the water #1 has to have the chlorine/chloramine removed and #2 has to go through the ammonia cycle first before ever adding fish was a total waste of my time.

[bigjimaz]

Hamster junk.

[mariamousie1]

I have to say, I had no idea it's illegal for pet shops to sell puppies. I think the last two dogs our family adopted were from a farm, and the other dog we got was from a friend who died, so I guess I wouldn't know. I remember seeing puppies in a pet shop window once though. They were so cute.

[huckster]

The store I worked at sold only male small animals (hamsters, rats, etc..). On more than one occasion I had a woman approach me to say that the rats were ill. We would go to the cage and I would ask whom it was that appeared ill. She would point to the one sleeping on its back.
"Everything looks fine maam."
"But, there, right there is a tumor."
"No maam, those are his testicles."
in a questionably proud voice "Oh... REALLY"

[BookstoreEscapee]

So you mean my brother had teddy bear RATS all those years?!

We also had goldfish when I was a kid, but they never lasted more than a week. So we stopped getting goldfish, because obviously we were doing something wrong.

The pet store in my mall sells puppies, birds, fish, small reptiles, rodents (mostly hamsters/gerbils/mice/guinea pigs), and occasionally rabbits and kittens. Last time I was there they had 2 bunnies...one was all black, and the other was all white except he had a black nose - he was cute.

The big chain pet stores (Petco/Petsmart) only carry fish, rodents, reptiles, birds and usually a few ferrets. No puppies or kittens (though Petsmart does have a cat adoption center run by the local Humane Society/ASPCA). When I go there I can only get my dog fix by looking in the grooming area's window, or from finding customers with friendly dogs

[Lace Neil Singer]

Guess it's a restriction, not a law; but saying it was a law got rid of an SC, so I was thankful. XD

And Barefootgirl, interestingly, Dead Fish Kid was a little girl. O_o

[napoleana]

2. Ooh, a dead fish!

This does not involve an SC, it's just something I found amusing at the time. Now my call of duty involved the pet centre; there were 3 guys who looked after the fish centre, with at least 2 there during the week and all 3 on weekends and holidays. This happened during a time when Fish Guy #1 was serving a customer and Fish Guy #2 was outside with another customer. This kid ran up to me and shouted at the top of his voice, "There's a dead fish over there and the other fish are eating it!" So I had to go to the open tanks where the pond fish were kept, with a plastic bag round my hand, to remove a dead fish. X_x Little kid watched me agog thruout.

God, I hate other people's kids. I'd've probably just sat there and replied, "What? You've never had tuna? Go ask Mommy how nature works."