Getting a hamster for my birthday was truly a life changing experience. I was now responsible for a life. Knowing her diet, her proper care, her schedule, and even what type of bedding she liked was very important. I wanted to give my hamster, Mizuri, her best life. I mean who wouldn’t? When you care for something so much, you want to give them all the best things. While doing research, I learned many things about hamsters that I didn’t know before. Like how they were solitary and horrible mothers! But what really caught my eye was their enclosures. Their enclosures? Yep, a pet’s enclosure was a very important thing. It’s their life, where they eat, roam, and sleep. When I learned the enclosure I bought for my hamster in my local pet store was bad, I was completely shocked. My first thought was, “why would pet stores sell these cages if they’re bad for hamsters?” Not only did I feel shocked, I felt disappointed in myself. Why hadn’t I done my research before getting Mizuri? It’s something I regret until this day. But the disappointment didn’t stop me from fixing my care, spending most of my money on her new enclosure, and her new proper wheel. I saw a huge change in Mizuri’s behavior after I did this. She was more active, less stressed, and more relaxed. But my unanswered question still haunted me “Why would pet stores sell these cages if they’re bad for hamsters?” This made me stumble upon a youtube video called “Another look inside PetSmart: A PETA Eyewitness expose.” The title caught my eye since I bought Mizuri at PetSmart. 

I was never the same after watching that video. I was in shock hearing about PETA discovering the true horrors of pet store chains and the horrible abuse animals endure from neglectful homes. I felt helpless not being able to help these poor animals. I wondered why big companies like Petco, Petsmart, etc were still in business when they spread misinformation and provide the wrong care for pets? What could I do to stop this? Birds, reptiles, fish, and other small animals were being treated like merchandise. These poor animals were trapped in small tanks, cramped cages and were often denied even the basic necessities of life. I felt even worse knowing my hamster had probably gone through the same exact abuse explained in the videos. 

My goal for this project was to inform people on the abuse of animals in pet store chains, animal mills, and pet trades. The more people know about the abuse, the more people will stop supporting pet store chains and animal mills. This will help so much. In order to stop this, we need to work together, and end the buying of pets in pet stores. Every time a customer buys a pet from Petsmart or Petco, they are giving money to those horrible animal mills. Also as a pet owner who made the mistake of buying my hamster from pet smart, I want to warn future pet owners not to do the same as I did. To learn from my mistakes and not support pet store chains. I really think this topic should be spoken about more and we should work as a community to stop them from selling anymore live animals. Now that I’ve learned about the mistreatment of exotic animals, I can spread the message and inform people. Spreading the word can help these animals if more people know about it and want to help. But I feel like the audience I want to reach is future pet owners. Please do your research before getting a pet and you can break this cycle. We need these animals to go to good homes. 

The hamster community and other animal communities are so big, especially in social media. Everyone is friendly and gives each other great advice. I learned so much from watching hamster care videos on youtube and talking to other fellow pet owners. I can definitely see my work being put on youtube or even tik tok. I think many people would want to save these animals that desperately need help. Youtube is such a big platform and can be used for research. I believe that by using these tools I can spread the message and inform people on this very important matter. Like I said, the more people know about the abuse, the more people will stop supporting pet store chains.

Deciding on what genre to choose was very hard for me. I knew I wanted my genre to be informational, but I didn’t know how to dump all that information into a brochure, newspaper, or even a video. At first, I decided to do a brochure but I felt stuck. How was I gonna keep my audience interested? What information should I use from my research? I wasn’t satisfied or confident that my brochure would get my point across. So instead, I decided to make an informational video. I knew the way I liked to learn was through youtube videos. Also, I was inspired by a woman on youtube, Victoria Raechel who has a very successful channel by speaking about hamster care. Her videos are very quick but informal and interesting. My goal was to successfully do the same. By doing a video, I can connect with pet owners and future pet owners. 

Starting this project was weirdly easy. Since I have done research on this topic before, I already had a head start. Obviously, some of my questions were still unanswered, but I had an idea of what I was getting into. This topic truly means a lot to me. I wanted people to be informed about why pet store chains shouldn’t be supported and why it’s extremely important to do research before getting a pet. I knew what I wanted to accomplish by doing this project and I wanted to do it well. Things started getting a little rocky when I had to do the Rhetorical Analysis. I have never written one before and had trouble trying to understand what went into a Rhetorical Analysis. But I sought help from my professor during office hours and it helped me tons. I was successfully able to write a rhetorical analysis for each source. Speaking about sources, I had trouble trying to find sources that weren’t repetitive. I didn’t want my audience to feel like I was saying the same thing over and over again. I wanted my sources to be uniquely different and this led me to having trouble picking out my last source. I decided on writing about the underground exotic pet trade. I never knew that tigers or even bears were sold as pets. I found it shocking and very interesting. The whole project I wanted to know more and more, I never got bored. When I decided to make a video for my research, I found it really hard. I had to find a way to make my video interesting, informal, and short at the same time. I watched many youtube videos as examples and used the things that I liked to put into my own video. I knew that what I was researching was a very sensitive topic and I wanted to make it watchable for even people who have a hard time witnessing animal abuse. I decided on putting funny GIFS to make the video a little more lighthearted and not too depressing. The editing process was very fun but difficult at the same time. I really had to organize my video and know which clips go where. My goal was to catch my audience’s attention. To do this, I used many clips, pictures, and colors. 

Overall, I am very satisfied with how my unit 3 project came out. Honestly, I had a lot of fun researching about a topic I was interested in. I’ve never done that before. Many things did change during the process like what sources I wanted to use, what audience I wanted to reach, or even my questions. But it was all worth it for the finishing product. If I had the money, I would make my video an ad. By making it an ad, the video can gain more exposure and allies. By working together we can stop the abuse of animals in pet stores, pet trades, and animal mills. The topic would be spoken about more and taken more seriously. I’m glad that I decided to do research on this topic because I was able to use my research and present it to class. Now that they are informed, they can talk to others about it and more people will know about the true horrors of pet store chains. I can definitely see myself in the future showing my friends or family the video I made or even posting it on youtube with a little more editing of course.