do not buy pets from pet stores!

see this article on the crisis with bunnies in the bay area:

pet stores, especially serramonte pet store, have wiped their hands clean of this pet rabbit overpopulation problem. that's despicable. there is a reason why stores such as petsmart, pet food express, and petco no longer sell rabbits, and advocate adoptions for cats and dogs. it's called pet overpopulation. rabbits are the third highest euthanized animal behind cats and dogs. pet stores sell young, baby rabbits as impulse gifts that people buy for their children, significant other, or simply just because "they're so darn cute in the store window". pet stores often sell baby rabbits that are far too young to be separated from their mother, advertise them as the cuter, popular dwarf breed that stays small, and sell them to practically anybody who will shove the 20 or 25 bucks into their greedy little fists. they sell them to families with small kids, insisting they make good starter pets, whereas most rabbits are too delicate for the rough treatment given by over-excited, impatient kids. most rabbits DO NOT LIKE TO BE PICKED UP.

so when that rabbit suddenly grows to its true size-5 or 7 or even 8 lbs, and is not the "dwarf" the store claims they are, the family is no longer interested in them. and even if they are cute and furry and has the chubby dwarf face, the kids start to get bored and parents have to clean up the rabbits. sometimes the people at the pet store doesn't even sex them correctly (cuz the babies are too damn young to tell the sex) so a family that took home two "girls" issuddenly inundated with six or seven bunnies. heck, the first litter was a funny surprise, but the now its getting out of hand...no one in the neighborhood wants a bunny now.
and all along no one bothered to tell them that their $20 bunny would cost $80-120 to get it spayed. or that it would chew up the baseboards. or that they would far outlive the interest their kids show in them.
it all ends the same. the cute impulse-buy bunny has run out of time, and is now dumped at the park or in the shelter, where it will join thousands of other rabbits whose owners weren't told by that "responsible" pet store how much time, effort, and money it would take to properly care for a rabbit.

and that bunny, whose is perfectly healthy and lovable, will die.

i know first-hand what those pet stores claim to know about bunnies. when i was a kid, i bought a few bunnies from pet stores (back then, no one knew any better). one, who i bought as a gift for my best friend, was actually pregnant , gave birth a week after i bought her, and died a day later after giving birth to babies, who all died. most pet stores i've been in have lied about what breed they were and claimed they would all stay small. they have lied to my face and didn't know a damn thing about rabbits (i read the rabbit care books, so i knew what i was loking at). they sold me - a kid! - rabbits when they didn't even know if i had the proper housing or food for it or whether i had my parent's approval to bring home and animal.

even now when i walk into small pet stores, the lies go on and on. which is amazing, considering there is new information on rabbit care. it has evolved tremendously over the years. it is no longer the norm to stick a rabbit in a cage with a wire bottom and slide tray.

so screw serramonte pet store and all its bullshit lies. the owners don't care about animals. if they did, they would host rescue organizations and have them come in with adoptable homeless pets. but no, its all about profit.