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User Question
I would like to tell you how much I enjoy your site. Your information on parakeets is wonderful.

But I just had to do something for the animals and ask you kindly, to do something about your seeming endorsment of Petsmart. Petsmart, like other big box pet stores does a terrible disservice to all animals, by treating them like other merchandise rather then as the living creatures that they are. They buy from "bird factorys" where hundreds of birds are crammed together and are forced to produce as many eggs as possible (the eggs are taken away from the mother as soon as they are layed makeing her lay another and another and another) the stess from all this quickly ruins her health and greatly shortens her life span. I won't even get into the horrible cruelty inflicted apon "small animals" aka hamsters and mice at the hands of Petsmart (and its sibling store Petco) and their suppliers.

Lisa's Answer
I don't really advocate buying from Petsmart - if anything I always tell people to buy hand raised budgies from a reputable breeder. But people have to buy their cages and food from somewhere - and Petsmart / Petco are often the cheapest stores with the widest selection. The only way any store survives is to buy what people will sell - so it is bird owners who share the blame for wanting to buy 'cheap pets' without researching where they came from. If everyone bought hand raised budgies, then there would be no issues at all here. If people want a cheap pet that came from a damaged backgrond, then they will be supplied that item - whether it's from Petco, Petsense or anywhere else.

It's like blaming McDonalds for selling french fries. We're the ones who keep buying them by the boatload. If we stopped buying them, McDonalds wouldn't sell them ...

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