Last week when I went to Fin and Feather (the local pet store) to get my ratties their food, I also visited the small animal room as I often do to see if there were any sweet little older ratties in need of a home since I really don't like seeing them sold as snake food. I knelt down in front of the rat cages, and then stared in absolute disgust. All of the water bottles in the rat cages (and the mice cages nearby) were GREEN with algae, so thick you couldn't even see the water within.
I immediately went to get the manager. He followed me back, and I pointed out the problem to him and asked him in a very sarcastic tone if he thought it was healthy for the animals. He looked at it, scratched his head and said, "It doesn't hurt them." I just blinked at him and asked him if HE would enjoy drinking out of a glass coated with bacteria. He said, "They're just stupid animals. Why are you so worried about it?" I noted after he said this that all of the other cages, housing hamsters and gerbils and guinea pigs, had clean water bottles. I asked him why the other animals were being treated differently than the rats and mice. He told me that they were only "food" and it didn't matter and that Fin and Feather had no guarantee for rats and mice being sold as pets.
Needless to say, I handed him the bag of food I was going to buy and told him I would now be shopping somewhere else. But I still feel absolutely horrible for the animals in there.. is there anything else I could have done? Is there anything I still can do? It's disgusting that animals, ANY animal, could be treated like that.
