A friend recently bought 2 kittens from a pet store. What was most frustrating was that she said to me "I was so inspired by all your rescue work, I adopted a kitten in need rather than a purebred". I felt like banging my head against a wall. She said it was a good pet store, because they take in animals off the street - but then went on to say that these kittens had come from the owners sister whose cat had kittens. Apparently whenever the cat has kittens, this store takes the kittens to sell. I was so mad - that just encourages people to be irresponsible, particular the sister!
So anyway, they paid a reasonable amount for the kittens, and the kittens were not spayed, were not vaccinated, and there was no adoption process.
If you adopt through a rescue group or shelter, they are almost always spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and health checked. There is an adoption process where they approve the adopter to make sure it's a good home, they have a contract in place where the animal is to be returned to them if they can't keep it for any reason.
Pet stores are not responsible like this, and do not care about the welfare of the animal, they just want the $$$.
In Australia, all the pet stores sell cats and dogs - kittens start at $100, and puppies at $200 or so, and are unpapered, unneutered, and unvaccinated usually because they're only 6 weeks old and too young for that, while thousands of kitties get put down at the RSPCA. That's the way it's always been, so the trend continues, and people don't see a problem with buying from the pet stores
So anyway, they paid a reasonable amount for the kittens, and the kittens were not spayed, were not vaccinated, and there was no adoption process.
If you adopt through a rescue group or shelter, they are almost always spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and health checked. There is an adoption process where they approve the adopter to make sure it's a good home, they have a contract in place where the animal is to be returned to them if they can't keep it for any reason.
Pet stores are not responsible like this, and do not care about the welfare of the animal, they just want the $$$.
In Australia, all the pet stores sell cats and dogs - kittens start at $100, and puppies at $200 or so, and are unpapered, unneutered, and unvaccinated usually because they're only 6 weeks old and too young for that, while thousands of kitties get put down at the RSPCA. That's the way it's always been, so the trend continues, and people don't see a problem with buying from the pet stores