Hey guys, I would love to share with you this pet shop that I regularly visit and volunteer at ( for the sake of the animals of course ). This is where Rudy is if you remember that post, and also where many other birds and other animals suffer and die.

So I went today and actually got some pictures for you guys to see. Here’s a little tour ( note: this does not show the fish, reptiles, or rooms they have designated for employees only. That will come in a later post )

So let’s start in the small animal room and i will show you the worst.

First off, this cage, with 3 guinea pig babies and 1 mama, was left WIDE OPEN when I walked in. The employees were all in the front talking and gossiping, and a baby guinea pig could have gotten hurt as a result of this! Also note that there is a gigantic bowl of pellets ( guinea pigs only need 1/8th of a cup of food each every single day. This is well more than 2 cups. )This leads to obesity and other issues if they eat too much. 

Guinea pigs also need fresh fruits and veggies daily ( here, they NEVER get it and I actually have to go out and buy them some whenever i have the money. Me. A volunteer. Has to buy these poor animals veggies because the owner is too stupid to know that they need this ) Also they need an unlimited supply of timothy hay every day. I am actually, genuinely surprised to see some hay left over in the bottom of this cage, but I can assure you, they also only ever get hay when I am there. The owner, John, says that they don’t need it, it’s just a treat, and that it’s ‘too expensive’ to give out willy-nilly. He only ever gives hay to the cages with babies in therm, and that’s whenever he remembers too.

This is another guinea pig cage in the same room. 2+ cups of food for the single guinea pig who lives in this cage. The floor is COVERED in urine and feces, so much so that the light creme color that the bedding usually is is a dark brown from the wetness and crap on it.

Not only are these animals mistreated, but they are overcrowded and John still breeds them. There are 10 guinea pigs in this one room alone, and more in the back. The first picture showed 4 guinea pigs shoved into a cage that I would only ever use as a travel cage for a SINGLE guinea pig. 

Not pictured here is the tanks upon tanks of hamsters, gerbils, rats, and mice they have lining the walls. There are usually more than 5 hamsters in a 10 gallon tank. The minimum tank size for a single hamster is 2x2x2 for a syrian hamster, and a single dwarf hamster in a 20 gallon tank. 

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Lets move on to the birds, shall we?

Here is HALF of the small bird room. As you can see there is cage after wretched cage stacked on top of one another carrying more than enough birds in each. These are very small flight cages, once again, that I would only ever use as a travel cage for a bird. 

You can look and see that there are 3-5 COCKATIELS in every cage carrying them, and there are 10+ finches in cages as well. These cages are very dirty and CRAWLING WITH BUGS. No bird should live like this

Here is a finch in one of the cages. His leg was somehow torn off as you can see by that orangey-red looking spot under his wing on this side. He stays at the bottom and cannot fly up or perch with his one remaining leg. He is harassed by the 10 other finches in his cage, and has been in this state for several days now, nobody has done anything about it. 

Also notice the amount of built up poop at the bottom and the seed covering the bottom of the cage under the grate. Cages should never have this much food on the ground, and this should have been cleaned many days ago. The seed is a little more and 1 inch tall, and has not been cleaned for 7 days ( I go in and check several times a week and clean them, but for the purpose of these pictures I have left everything alone for a week. Nobody who actually gets paid to work there has cleaned this cage or any other for that matter. 

Here’s a tortoise in the bird side of the store stuffed into this very small glass showcase. He is, as you can see, about 1/6th the size of the cage and has trouble turning around. His bedding was just changed, but the other day it was limp and wet from the feces and urine he produces. He is also thankfully given veggies.. but only Kale, which can be poisonous if given in the quantities shown, and especially over a period of time. Kale is recommended to be fed very sparingly because of it’s high in goitrogens, which impair thyroid function.

This is not a good picture, but it shows the build up of feces in a larger birds cage. The dark green at the bottom of the cage is the feces, and it is surrounded by a 2-3 inch mountain of seeds. There is no grate between the feces and the bird, and if the bird wishes to it can step on it or even eat it. 

Now, I’m no expert on birds, but last time I checked feces should NOT be such a dark green, and should not clump up like that. Dark green/black bird feces means that the bird is not eating enough, and that the only thing coming out is bile.

These birds are given food, but do not eat it because it is disgusting, and covered in bugs. They are fed an all seed diet, made with very fatty and sugary preservatives and seeds, and have never been offered veggies. One woman who works there, Ashley, feeds the birds meat and dairy sometimes, both of which birds cannot digest properly

Behold, Rudy. If you have not read his story, please go check it out for full details. He is a harlequin macaw stuffed into a cage fit for a conure. He has no toys ( looks like he was finally offered one but it it now on the ground, and has not been picked up ). He has been at this shop since he was bird 7 years ago and now plucks as a result of it. His legs, chest, and back are mostly bare, and he has never gotten medical attention for it like he should.

He, as well as every single other macaw there, has a cracked and dirty beak from malnutrition, and him and several others breath as if they have a respiratory infection. They have not, and will not get medical attention until they are out of this place.

Here’s another case of a bird bird in a small cage. This is Big Red, he is a 4 year old scarlet macaw who is also stuffed into a cage fit for a conure, and the door is barely wide enough for him to squeeze in and out of. His feathering is horrible, and he has started to pluck around the neck.. He has only been with them for 3 weeks, he shouldn’t be plucking.

He is a very friendly bird to those he trusts and luckily I am one of those people. Nobody else who works there can handle him, and I have actually been called in before to get him out and take him up to get his beak and toes trimmed because the workers are so afraid of him, and other large macaws there. ( This is a huge problem because these workers need to gain trust with these birds and be able to handle them in case of an emergency ) You can see the pile up of poop on the bottom of the cage ( Already dark green from malnutrition even just from 3 weeks ) and on top of one of his sand perches ( which are also bad for them and their feet.. 2 of his 3 perches are sand perches ).

We don’t call him “big red” because he is a small bird. No, he is a rather large scarlet macaw with a rather large beak as well. He shouldn’t be shoved into this cage where it is hard for him to get to his food and water bowls.

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Now, I will try to keep you all updated on what is happening and what is next. For the sake of my volunteering opportunity, I will not release the name of this pet store until I know there is something you all can do to help.

Now, we sit and wait.

I will be getting in contact with our local ASPCA and humane society to see if they can do anything and if so, what. We NEED this place shut down

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