Do you want to help shift the conversation around the pet trade? Join us to stand together to demand the end of animal sales in the UK’s largest pet shops.
Join our outreach team!
We will have regular outreach messaging training sessions to help prepare everyone wanting to get out there and spread the word. Help with our mission to make sure everyone has access to outreach materials.
It would be great to see as many people as possible outside of pet shops encouraging the public to support their local rescues, and educating customers on the dark truth behind the pet trade, so please spread the word to your local community!
Click here to find out why pets-at-home-must-stop-selling-animals
LBC interview
On 18th April 2025, LBC radio ran a whole hour debate on whether pet shops should stop selling animals! The majority of callers agreed that selling animals is outdated and irresponsible. We finished off the show with an interview with host Henry Riley. We explained why we think this is such an important topic! Listen Again to Rescue Not Retail interview.
Pledge to boycott shops that sell animals
This means only buying your animal care products from shops that do not also sell live animals. Check that a shop does not sell any live animals ( including mammals, birds, reptiles, inverts and fishes) before purchasing anything. Only ever adopting animals from rescues.
There are hundreds of shops that sell animal care supplies that have already made the decision to not sell live animals in store. There is a shifting public opinion on how we view and use animals. It is time that all pet shops make the ethical choice to no longer sell animals on the shop floor as if they were objects.
Here are just a few reasons animals should not be sold in shops:
– There have been countless investigations and reports of ill animals in pet shops still on sale for unsuspecting people to buy.
– Pet shops often market animals as ‘easy’, ‘cheap’ and ‘suitable for children’ which encourages impulse purchases by people who have not researched the complex needs of the animals they’re buying.
– Ill-equipped purchasers often change their minds about caring for the animal after learning how time consuming and expensive they are, learning the animals behaviours are different than expected, kids lose interest etc. The animals are then either neglected, dumped in the wild or relinquished to rescue shelters.
Overflowing rescues vs intensive breeding farms
– Rescue centres are overflowing. Every single rescue is operating at capacity and are unable to take in all of the animals that need a new home. People do not adopt from rescues as it is easier to buy from shops. When space in a rescue is not freed up, other animals that cannot find a space are left in dangerous situations.
– Pet shops usually source their animals from intensive breeding farms. Here, animals are kept in squalid conditions where disease and illness spread quickly. Parent animals never leave, and are bred back to back until they die. Babies are separated from their families, packed into boxes and delivered long distances often without food and water.
The pet trade is unfortunately built on exploitation, cruelty and neglect. It operates like any other industry, to make profit and respond to supply and demand.
If we change our shopping habits, they will change their selling habits! It’s time we end the sale of animals for good!
Sign the pet-shop-boycott-pledge.
See past content relating to the pet trade and animal rescue.
