Supporters of SAY NO

PLEASE do not buy pet shop animals... Please - go to the local pound - have a look into the eyes of those beautiful sad little creatures and PLEASE give them a home!! Breeding for pet shops is so cruel - these puppies & kittens are kept in yukkkkkky conditions... We should NOT sell ANY MORE animals from pet shops until all the animals in shelters have a safe home! What's wrong with us? How can we leave these poor helpless animals in the shelters to die because we are so selfish?!

Bianca Dye, Nova 96.9

Buying animals from pet shops is crazy. Backyard breeders and puppy farm owners are making a fortune out of the suffering of animals. There is an over-abundance of desperate animals in shelters that are literally crying out for us. Many thousands are put to sleep every year. Don't buy on impulse from a pet shop; buy an animal from a shelter and put breeders with dollar signs in their eyes out of business.

Bessie Bardot

I once met a guy in the park who had the most adorable and friendly puppy but the next week when i saw him again I noticed his dog had changed . He said the first puppy did not have proper papers so he returned it after bonding with it for 3 months and got a new 'pure breed' one instead. I was horrified that he had not loved the puppy for who he was but rather what was written down on a piece of paper. Animals have personalities and are not just 'items' one 'returns' to the shop.

Peter Alexander, Australian Sleepwear Designer

Like a McDonalds hamburger that passes its five minute shelf life of 'freshness' and winds up in the bin, so are these puppies and kittens when they pass their 'cuteness' deadline. Please become aware of this and don't encourage the production line of baby animals for profit and industry by purchasing from pet shops. Visit the countless shelters and house what already exists, there's enough companion animals waiting to become family companions already.

Martin Dingle-Wall

Banning animals from being sold in pet stores is an idea that is long overdue to see its day. Every time I hear someone say, "Ya know, I feel bad for the dogs and cats in those cages all day long!" I say, "You should feel bad, it sucks for them! No question about it!" The practice of buying animals in a pet store promotes serious inbreeding at puppy mills. The breeding is so lightly monitored and the conditions for the animals are more often than not, terrible and even reprehensible. There are countless homeless animals put to sleep everyday because they are without a home. The miracle of birth is followed by the sadness of death for these unfortunate creatures. It is damn time that humans become responsible for our animal counterparts. Time to spay and neuter. Time to examine our horrible practice of treating animals with disrespect and without regard for their well being. Please join in stopping the practice of selling animals at pet stores and promoting irresponsible breeding for profit. Please look into adopting at a local shelter. If you are looking for breed specific animals, there are virtually hundreds listed by animal adoption agencies across the globe. Choose your companion animal carefully and remember to spay or neuter.

Rikki Rockett

I hope the time is fast approaching that the people of Australia will see it is immoral to manufacture, buy and sell life, use/abuse it as though it were a commodity. Along with many others, this hope is that Australians will realize how inconsistent such a process is with a respectful and compassionate society that is opposed to inflicting unnecessary suffering. The buying and selling of non-human animal life has no more morality to it than the now defunct horror of the slave trade in humans. Under the present system whereby non-human animals are forced to reproduce over and over again to keep up with consumer demand while locked in cages before their offspring are stolen from them and shipped to supermarkets around the country to sit in yet smaller cages, all the while prodded, poked and gawked at under neon lights, cannot be justified on grounds of companionship or any other grounds.

Present conditions in our country no longer ­ if they ever did - justify an argument for the use of non-human animals for our survival: they suffer merely for our pleasure and/or vanity. Therefore, until we can find a way to enjoy a new relationship with our fellow creatures based on the respect and care we would want ourselves and those we dearly love treated, we must leave them and their habitats alone.

Josef Brown, Artist with Sydney Dance Company

 

 

It's so easy for people passing by pet shops to take a fancy to an adorably cute puppy or a furry little kitten. What they often don't realise, however, is that pets need far more than the occasional cuddle. Animals can be demanding of your time, patience and money; and many of their new owners simply don't have enough of any. Those puppies and kittens soon turn into the abandoned, bedraggled, hungry and neglected creatures we see battling for their survival on the streets of every Australian city. Many are finally picked up by welfare agencies who simply don't have the resources to care for them. So SAY NO to pet shops selling animals to casual passers-by. Turn making the decision to have a pet into a carefully thought-out commitment, and a pledge for life. Buy your pet from an animal welfare agency, who can guarantee to have kept them in good conditions, with plenty of love and care, and who are qualified to tell which homes will be good ones for their precious pets. It's a mark of a humane society how well we care for those creatures who can't take good care of themselves. They deserve nothing less than the best.

Sue Williams, Journalist and best-selling author

 

 

There are enough animals in shelters all over Australia that desperately need a home. They are usually there because they've been bought at pet shops then dumped. They all need a loving home so please don't keep the cycle going by purchasing animals in pet shops. They are mostly bred by greedy people at puppy farms or backyard breeders wanting to make some money from animals. Animal organisations all over Australia put to sleep many hundreds of thousands of unwanted animals every year.

Joe Chindamo, Famous Jazz Pianist

 

 

There used to be this ad on from the RSPCA around Xmas time with the slogan "A pet is for life, not just for Christmas". What they forgot to add is that a pet, and all animals, are not only for life, they are for their OWN life, not for the servitude and pleasure of humans. Now I don't have any animals living at my house, and nor will I ever. I know they're all very cute and nice to look at, but I live in the city, and the filthy concrete is no home for any animal, barely even for humans! But if you do feel the need to fill that void in your life with a non-human animal, don't go shelling out the big bucks for a 'boutique specially bred' animal from a pet shop. You'll just be proliferating the slave trade of animals, and showing that you consider them just consumer products bought and owned by you for your pleasure, like that new DVD player or the purple two pronged dildo in your bedside drawer. Animals bred for pet shops spend most of their lives cramped in cages all day long, locked away from the outside world they would love to run around in. They may look 'just adorable' piled up on top of each other on those newspaper clippings, but it's no way to live. And buying one may put it out of its misery, but that money goes partly to the slave trader behind the counter, and also to the breeding of many more animals that will end up just like all the others. Instead, how about really saving an animal, by taking one home from an animal shelter, or a registered charity, such as the Cat Protection Society in Newtown. That way you'll be breaking the cycle on slave trading in the pet shops, and really making the day of an animal left to die by its previous owners. Companion animals may make you feel nice inside, but how much nicer will you feel knowing you've made a difference in the lives of ALL animals.

Good bloody onya, Lindsay McDougall, Frenzal Rhomb

 

 

I am all for saving the lives of animals, they too think, have emotions and feel pain & give love!

Peace & Love

Uri Geller, World-famous Psychic