Monthly Archives: May 2008

Usually, Pet Shops are the first stop for most pet seekers. Pet shops will be the first destination above all other alternatives and it is also where most impulsive buyers get cheated as well. Generally, pet shops paint quite a bad impression for those that have gone through bad experiences.

In my opinion, the main problem with pet shops is that people working in these places does not have passion for the animals. I strongly believe that knowledge is very important when dealing with anything. When one does not have the passion for the animals, most likely they will not be bothered to care or at least learn the proper way of handling them. Pet shops after all are just businesses and money normally comes first. With money being the emphasis, most will cut back on good(costly) diet to name a few issues that I have came to know.

But inevitably, pet shops are still the most common place where people acquire their pets because reputable breeders do not normally get expose to the market compared to these pet shops. I normally recommend my friends to seek out breeders instead of getting their pets from pet shops. And if one does enough research, they will be able to get in touch with one.

Why breeders and not pet shops? Here are some points:

1) Cleanliness
Pet shops are where animals from everywhere converges and diseases from any of these sources may spread to the entire batch of animals in the shop at that moment of time thus, buyers may end up paying extra for vet fees and worst still, having their pets die on them after building a bond in that short period of time. Many pet shops do offer to take back these sick animals but how many of us kind soul would agree to that?

2) Price
Pet shops normally earn at least 100% for the livestocks. For example, a common rabbit may be taken in at as low as $10 per head and sold for $45. Paying the $45 to the breeder directly will at least help him/her to improve on the quality of his/her herd.

3) Passed on knowledge
The main objective of pet shops is to close a sale. Money is the emphasis here. Therefore, most pet shop attendants are ill-informed or have zero knowledge to pass on to their customers. The customers end up raising their pet wrongly and as how they have been told by these ill-informed attendants.

SOLUTION:
I have learned that blogging blankly and not giving suggestions to correct problems highlighted affects my credibility therefore here are some suggestions:

1) Do not sell livestock
Pet shops can opt to just provide pet services – grooming, boarding and sale of pet products. Pet shops can also act as a mediator to recommend good and responsible breeders to buyers seeking for certain pets.

or

2) Educate employees
The management should spend more resources in educating staff with proper knowledge when dealing with livestocks. But this will go a long way. Customers will always come back if they are given accurate information. It is very important to disseminate and impart good knowledge when being the front liners and interacting with customer most of the time. This way, customer will have more confident in your services and satisfaction is almost guaranteed. With good knowledge, the animals are treated properly and that itself will help the shops to have healthy pets to offer.

To be frank, if I am able to find a pet shop that can convince me that my rabbits will be well taken care of, as a breeder I may consider supplying my rabbits to them. BUT, at this point of time, none has shown the least credibility to impress me to do so. Furthermore, because my rabbits are precious to me, I make it a point to know their progress and thus, I must know the new owners personally. Therefore, the only time I associate with pet shops is when I need supply for my rabbits because as far as non-livestock products are concerned, they are still able satisfy my rabbits’ needs. I will also recommended shop for others to get their supplies but never their livestocks.

My hope for the local pet industry is that we not only have ethical, responsible and caring breeders but also, flawless pet shops. That way, we can all benefit from sharing all these wonderful animals with wonderful people getting them. In the long run, we will have ample of good things to go around for our future generations.

Only time will tell…

Every once in a while I write this sort of messages on my blog because I felt that blogging is always a one-way or unidirectional form of communication. The blogger mostly do all the postings and readers just read. On some occasions I do get some very nice comments coming in and I truly appreciate them.

Today I have the highest hit/visit counts on this blog. I truly appreciate you dropping by whoever you are.

Many years ago when I was a young boy, my parents bought me this read-along book entitled The Elves And The Shoemaker. It is still one of my favorite books and I recently bought a copy that comes with a CD for the narration. I am starting a collection of these narrated story books for my little daughter. Well, I am sure most of you know how the story goes and I must say that I am feeling just like the shoemaker at the moment.

The visitors to this blog seemed to be the elves in this story book. Why? For those of you that have not read this book before, basically, the shoemaker was at the brink of closing down his business. One day 2 elves sneaked into the workshop and started working on the last piece of material the shoemaker has left and made a very nice pair of shoes. The shoemaker was amazed and sold the shoe to buy enough materials for 2 pairs. To cut the long story short, at the end, the elves were the ones that eventually helped the shoemaker salvage his dwindling business and the business eventually thrived.

But this story of mine is not quite that similar. Firstly, I do not consider Tru-Luv a business and secondly, it is definitely not dwindling (I hope). Coming back to the story, the shoemaker and his wife, on one occasion hid themselves behind some curtain (if i remembered correctly) in the workshop to investigate who has been helping them. What I am trying to say is that, they were able to identify who these visitors were. As for my case, I do not know who visits this blog exactly.

As a fellow US rabbit blogger would say, it is quite scary to leave too much personal information on the internet for fears of some psycho (I do not mean you) stealing identity or knowing too much about you that could bring more harm than good.

I sure hope my readers are really nice people. And so as you can see, I am a little worried here.

Nonetheless, I really do hope you enjoy this blog as much as I have enjoyed preparing each post. What I wish is that if you’re reading this, do click on the comment box below and drop me a line. Please help put me at ease so that I know that somewhere out there, there is another sincere being reading this…

God bless all of you. Yes, you!

Visit NST Blogger’s Say

or get a copy at your nearest newsstand today!

Would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Rozana & all at NSTP for being interested in my blog and featuring this blog in your Tech & U section.

I am truly flattered that you guys found this blog interesting enough to deserve a full page.

Thank you very much!

I receive request for rabbit adoption occasionally and it is quite shocking how easily/conveniently people think that they can have full rights to any of my rabbits. Some approach me in demanding manner, some even make it seemed as if they deserve it and some made me felt as if I owe them something that it is a must for me to release my rabbits to them.

Here is something that I have to make it very clear to my dear readers who may approach me whenever I have rabbits for adoption (my adoption and sale pages have high hits). I may have given some wrong signal in my approach so I really must make this very clear because after a few adoption postings previously, people seemed to act as if I am in need and in that, they act as if I owe them something. I totally HATE that. When I put a rabbit up for adoption, let me make it very clear, the person adopting it owes me and my rabbit everything. I have taken all the trouble to raise my rabbit the best I can, I have even given it the best that I could provide and when the rabbit is under your care, you must at least do the same or better. I have done everything from its birth to the time I pass it to the adopter, great effort has already been exhausted to ensure a quality pet/companion being passed on.

So, my point is, if you are interested in my rabbits and when you approach me for an adoption, never ever ever ever and I beg you please, never make it as if you are so damn deserving and act as if you are taking away a burden from me. For it is never a burden and what I give to you is something of great importance for me. The amount of time and money I spent on the pet thus far, is indeed intangible. And for a potential adopter to approach me in an unacceptable manner is very insulting and I take full offense of it. My rabbits are no ordinary rabbits you think is dispensable. There is a value on each and every one of those little creatures and they are indeed priceless.

That brings me back to the topic of this post. The Paradigm Shift.

And yes, indeed we need a paradigm shift in our mentality pertaining to the way we raise rabbits or any other pets for the matter. The only thing that can bring about this shift, is indeed KNOWLEDGE. How do we gain knowledge? Simply through RESEARCH.

I must admit that there are so much to learn under the sun but at least we need to equip ourselves with knowledge or at least, the basic skill of acquiring those knowledge that can be turned into powerful tool.

Thus far, I can actually count with my ten fingers those that take their pet rabbits seriously and have done extensive research work on various topics. It wouldn’t be hard for me to sieve through potential adopters because my expectations are high and I am able to identify bad adopters right away. Therefore, it is sometimes very difficult for me to choose a good adopter because there isn’t much to begin with.

I am constantly thinking about the Malaysian mentality when it comes to pet raising. Many people see owning pets as an opportunity to gain profit. These people always see things in pairs – male & female. Their perfect picture also includes offspring of the pair of animals and that image is fast forwarded to CASH being passed from hand to hand. I would love it very much to blow that bubble for you! I have gone through it many times about how one cannot make any profit raising pets responsibly – the keyword RESPONSIBLY. Those that are able to make a profit out of their pets, well, I salute you but with different twist. I salute you for having the courage to have blood spilled in your hands just for the cash that you will be holding. I salute you for being able to live with a guilty conscience. I salute you for taking the courage to destroy the earth that we are living by filling it up with JUNK. I salute you for giving unto your own future generation these same JUNKS you produce today.

Imagine your children holding a rabbit that he/she loves dearly but the rabbit has got some genetic diseases or with splayed legs. Not that nice of a perfect picture isn’t it? Would you want an imperfect pet to begin with?

I apologize to have strayed from the main topic once again. I really need to be focus and get back on track with the topic but somehow everything seemed to be intertwined and related.

I am constantly thinking of how we can have this paradigm shift fast forwarded so that we can help save thousands of lives in between a slower shift. I really need to get knowledge across as soon as possible so that many rabbits would not die in vain.

How can we shift from the general mentality of carrots being the staple food of rabbits (thanks to the famous cartoon character always holding a carrot) to people accepting the fact that hay very important in a rabbit’s diet? How can we shift from the mentality of rabbits getting lonely to people accepting that spaying and neutering is a must in raising multiple rabbits?

We need a shift so that the general public will understand that rabbits do need medical attention just like any other living things. We are in dire need to have a shift in that pet service providers give equal attention to rabbit products.

Most importantly, how can we shift the mindset of breeding for money to breeding for quality and screw the money?

Last but not least, how can we ever shift the mindset so that ADOPTION becomes ADDITIONAL OPTION which is a GOOD thing? Adoption is never an indication of something negative because it always mean a better life for the adopted.

Also, if you plan to get a pet and do not have the money, I suggest you not getting any pet at all. If you cannot afford to pay for a pet, then you probably will not have money to maintain it. Simple as that! Please stop coming to me for adoption because you cannot afford to buy. I should soon put all my rabbits for sale because people seemed to think I am Santa Claus.

Let’s bring about change and it starts from each and everyone of us!

Hi Everyone,

It has been quite a while now that I have blogged about my rabbits. And I normally like go through a reality check once in a while. Over at the other mirror blog (wordpress account), I could see that I have constant visits to the blog. What I want to do here is fairly simple. I just want to know how much entertainment value my blog is to you, my dear visitors & readers.

Here is what I need you to do. Just drop me a comment stating if you like what you have read through my blog so far, and how do you think I should improve it further. Preferably, I would appreciate it if you can state your name as well.

Thank you all in advance.

Bunnyman @ TLR

Hate it when this happens….arggghHHhhhh