Author: Briana (Page 2 of 7)

Briana Urena

I’ve always been passionate about giving my hamster Mizuri, her best life. Researching, providing her necessities, using proper care, all that. I was aware that I had an exotic animal and I was determined to provide the best care for her. This led me into doing lots and lots of research, not only on hamsters but on other exotic animals as well. I’ve learned many things that I never knew before about rodents, reptiles, birds, and more. There was such fascinating information but the one thing that stuck out to me the most was the common issue of their mistreatment. I was in shock hearing about PETA discovering the true horrors of pet store chains and the horrible abuse they endure from neglectful homes. I felt helpless not being able to help these poor animals. Why are big companies like Petco, Petsmart, etc are still in business when they spread misinformation and provide the wrong care for pets? What could I do to stop this? Many individuals who own exotic pets attempt to change the nature of the animal rather than provide their pet’s necessities and do research. Tactics such as confinement in small, barren enclosures, chaining, beating “into submission,” or even painful mutilations, such as declawing and tooth removal is sadly a common thing. PETA, an animal organization who exposes these acts discovered a shocking truth during an investigation in Petco. Birds, reptiles, fish, and other small animals were treated like merchandise. They spent hours and days in transit from cruel suppliers, including breeding and distribution mills, and many animals were wild-caught. These animals ended up trapped in small tanks, cramped cages and were often denied even the basic necessities of life. It’s estimated that 75% of captive reptiles die within the first year in a person’s home. But of course Petco still sells them to customers who buy them on impulse, with no knowledge of their unique needs for space, heat, humidity, lighting, and more. Have you ever gone to the pet store and seen those shelves with multiple fish in these tiny small bottles stacked on top of one another with no space and barely any water? The sad thing is, this it’s viewed as “normal” to some people. We need to inform people on the dangers of buying from these sick companies and educate them on the proper care of exotic animals. They are living/breathing creatures that deserve better.

PETA is the largest animal rights organization in the world and has more than 9 million members and supporters globally. PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: in laboratories, in the food industry, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment business.  PETA also works on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of rodents, birds, and other animals who are often considered “pests” as well as cruelty to domesticated animals (peta.org). While watching this video posted by PETA on the cruel mistreatment of exotic animals in Petco, you can tell how passionate they are to spread awareness and desperate to help these poor animals. Their authority for writing this to inform the public of the animal abuse in pet stores.

The primary audience PETA is trying to reach are animal lovers. But also pet owners, future pet owners, animal activists, parents, pet stores, and more. When animal lovers see these videos, they want to make a difference, change, and do anything to help. If PETA were ignoring something or someone, it would definitely be big pet store chains since these videos that expose these big pet brands can ruin these companies’ sales rate.

PETA speaks on these exotic animal cases because people need to know the suffering these poor animals go through on a daily basis and we need to help them anyway we can. This abuse has been going on for a long time and it’s time to change, support, and help. The purpose of doing this is to spread awareness and knowledge. Also to bring to light the secrets of these big pet store chains. PETA posts very educational videos to inform the public and educate us on this important matter. It shows us the harmful consequences of supporting big pet companies such as petco, pet smart, and animal mills.

This makes me wonder why big pet companies are still running? Why are they in denial of their animal abuse?  

In the past, PETA  has investigated many big pet store chains such as Petco and Pet smart. They discovered a wide spread of animal suffering. During 2018, a PETA eyewitness worked undercover in a pet shop in Nashville Tennessee near the company’s headquarters and what they found was horrible and upsetting. To save money, pet smart employees repeatedly refused to take obviously sick, injured, dying animals for desperately needed veterinary care. A supervisor told PETA’s eyewitness not to tell customers that pet smart buys from Sun Pet; A warehouse that does unexplainable things to these poor animals. PETA discovered dead guinea pigs being left on the floors and cages, birds covered in feces, hamster’s suffering from “wet tail” with deadly intestinal diseases and neglected and stressed animals put on the shelves to be sold. “PETA reported that they were taking the older and sick hamsters, putting them in bags and whacking them against the table to k*ll them” What kind of sick person would do this?! This is pure cruelty.

PETA’S YouTube videos are very educational and eye opening, They show actual cases on where animal cruelty is done and they’re not afraid to show animals being injured or dead. As I was watching their videos I couldn’t believe my ears on what was being said about these pet store chains. They played recordings on what pet store employees said, which were very upsetting and their videos made me want to help and take action in any way I can. I’m glad that this topic is not being swept under the rug and is being talked about. The video makes its point clear and is very informal. Once the video starts, they get straight to their point, which is that pet store chains abuse animals and if people didn’t know this before the video, now they do. After watching the investigation I’m definitely never ever buying from pet smart or Petco again. PETA does not sugar coat again and I appreciate that because people need to see the true horrors these animal’s face on a daily basis. Many injured animals were shown in the video and pet smart employees saying awful things about the animals. It’s just really sad and we need for this to stop.

Munchie’s Place on youtube has been saving exotic animals for years! She owns a very small animal rescue in Washington State. Munchie rescues hamsters, gerbils, and mice with her volunteer team from neglectful homes.They find ads from craigslist or people surrendering these exotic animals and give them temporary shelter until a permanent home is found. Sometimes these rodents need to be rescued because the care provided for them was terrible, disgusting, or both. Other times it could be medical. The video shown is about a Syrian hamster called Louie and her rescue story. She is really well behaved and is super cute. When Louie was brought into Munchie’s rescue, there were many red flags. The hamster’s old enclosure was first of all vertical. Which meant very little floor space was provided. Hamsters need horizontal enclosures, 50 square inches of floor space is the recommended minimum. But of course more is always better. Glass tanks are the way to go and for starters, a bin cage. Louie’s enclosure barely had any bedding either or chewed toys. Bedding helps keep the ammonia smell down, regulates the area for the hamster’s body temperature in the hot summer days and in the cold winter nights, and lets them burrow. Louie’s old enclosure came with no wheel as well! Hamster’s travel five to ten miles a night so it’s important to get them a proper wheel. How was she able to get her energy out?! We learn that Louie is disabled because of improper breeding and has no tail?! Yep you read the right, she has no tail. Louie’s tail is completely gone when Munchie examines her. Not only that, it looks like it has been chopped off. Someone has chopped off her tail. We don’t know who did it but the family that had Louie had lots of children. At Least 4 or five young kids. It’s possible that one of the youngest kids took the hamster and cut off its tail. It was a very clean cut and very recent as if it was still healing. The person who did this, did it on purpose. Imagine the pain this poor hamster experienced. Children need to be taught to respect their pets but personally I don’t think young children should even have small pets because of things like this. Children should never be kept alone with an animal and should never be responsible for a living being. It’s the parents responsibility. Thankfully, Louie is in a better place now with the proper care and will get veterinary help soon. Sooner or later she will get adopted into a good home. I really appreciate what Munchie is doing because she’s helping these exotic animals get a better life. This could have been avoided if the parents had done their research before impulsively buying a hamster. Pet store employees are also to blame since they let the family walk out of their store with no wheel, bedding, or chew toys knowing that they had a hamster. At least educate them before selling them the hamster. But of course they won’t because they only care about the money. 

Louie’s rescue story video was made on February 14, 2022. Munchie makes these videos to inform and teach the public about exotic animals and their rescue stories. The audience is for future pet owners and pet owners in general. The author used imagery as she showed us the hamster’s old neglectful enclosure and the scab on the hamster’s tail. She was furious that this poor hamster went through such abuse. When I saw the old cage, I felt sad because a hamster should never live in something like that. I can imagine my own hamster in a situation like that and it makes me mad on how someone would let a hamster live in such horrible conditions. I could feel Munchie’s emotion as she talked about this rescue story and I knew how devastating and serious this was. She was very informal and she talked about hamsters’ care and I really appreciate that since not a lot of people talk about it. I feel like people who definitely watch this learned many things about hamsters and how serious the abuse these exotic animals endure. 

Wildlife trafficking worldwide has been estimated to be a 19 billion dollar business. It has become a national security issue and  a worldwide issue that needs to be solved. Criminal networks are profiting in the death of a lot of exotic species. In the wildlife trade, people want profit. They’ll do anything in order to sell these animals and if that means treating them like merchandise and abusing them, They will. Exotic animals like Tigers, chimpanzees, bears, lions, etc are being housed as pets when they are simply not. It doesn’t matter if you raised them or they seem to “like you”, these animals will act on their natural instinct. It’s dangerous plain and simple.These animals are bred in captivity for many years and are sold to people who have no idea or no ability how to provide for them. A tiger shown in the video, lived in a circus her whole life in a cage that was only 5 foot by 7! Exotic cats are being bred in puppy mills and being sold cheaply on the internet. Some tigers are even being sold for only $25. At exotic animal auctions across the United States, Animals are sold to the highest bidder regardless of qualifications, intended use, or other animal welfare and public safety concerns. These auctions take place in countries that don’t have a law against the sale of endangered species or the buying and selling of exotic animals.  How did these species get into the United States? How are these animal’s bred? A lot of people wanna have something that’s “rare” but don’t know the consequences. Too many people are getting these animals not aware of how big and dangerous they can get. Not only that, the animal’s suffer their whole life because they’re trapped in cages and not provided with the proper care.

“There are more big cats in private hands than there are in the wild now.” A man being interviewed said. This quote specifically shows the reality of these animals being taken away from natural homes and put into captivity. These animals are not pets. Tiger’s, bears, chimpanzees, are dangerous animals. Yes they are cute but It’s not right to take them away from their true environment. They will not be happy and it endangers them. People who buy exotic animals aren’t even knowledgeable or educated on their proper care. These animals suffer in human hands.

This informational video about wildlife trafficking was to educate the public on the dangers of buying exotic pets. They do this by interviewing an animal rescuer who is very informal on exotic animals.They explained what underground pet trades were and why we needed to stop them. This causes the audience to want to help with the sight of these animals in really small cages and being wrongly cared for. The video was very informal as they actually went undercover to one of animal trafficking events, and showed us how it’s really like. The man being interviewed, Who owned an animal rescue center, warned everyone that these are dangerous animals and they’re not meant to be pets. He explained his experience working in a rescue shelter and what these animals have been through. It was eye opening. Definitely the audience they wanted to reach was for anybody who’s thinking about getting an exotic pet in the future.

In conclusion, Pet store chains and WildLife trafficking need to be stopped! The reason why pet companies are still up and running is because people are unaware of true horrors hiding underneath those walls. As a matter of fact, before I was a pet owner, I didn’t even know pet stores were bad! This serious topic is brushed under the rug because we are dealing with exotic animals and people don’t really care much for them. Us as humans tend to look at these animals and be like “I want one!” and impulsively buy them for fun. We never really sit down and do our research. If research was done, many animals wouldn’t end up in neglectful situations like Louie, the hamster whose tail was chopped up. Yes they are “cheap” but that doesn’t mean we should be treated any differently. But mostly, I blame this on people who sell animals that don’t inform customers on the requirements and responsibility of owning a living creature. But pet stores treat animals like merchandise and only care about making money. They don’t care about the well-being of these animals. PETA has done lots of investigations on pet stores like petco, pet smart, and more. The things they found were unspeakable. Birds, reptiles, fish, and other small animals spent hours and days in transit from cruel suppliers, including breeding and distribution mills. These animals end up trapped in small tanks, cramped cages and are often denied even the basic necessities of life. They are often sold to people who have no idea how to care for them. We need to inform people on the dangers of buying from these sick companies and educate them on the proper care of exotic animals. Wild Trafficking is another problem on its own where people are making profit off of animals that are meant to be in the wild! Tigers, bears, Cheetahs, Alligators, and even animals that are going instinct are being sold to people that have no idea or no ability to provide for them. Not only that, owning these types of animals can be very dangerous. The animals in captivity suffer their whole life because they’re trapped in cages and not being given the proper care. I was surprised to learn that most people didn’t know exotic animals were being mistreated in pet stores. 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. But don’t get a tiger!

Source #1: Another Look Inside PetSmart, Inc.: A PETA Eyewitness Exposé, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) , 29 Mar. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYLMceh2DbU&t=2s. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.

Source #2: Vice, director. An Inside Look at the Exotic Animal Trade: Profiles by VICE. YouTube, YouTube, 19 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSQ8blCdAtA. Accessed 26 Oct. 2022.

Source #3: LoverGurl77983, Munchie. “TW: This Is Cruel to Do to a Hamster! | Luz Rescue Story | Munchie’s Place.” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Feb. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuZqNTkUPE8.