Okay, just got off the phone with the Chief Exec of PAH. I'm typing this really quickly before I go to work but I won't be able to answer any questions until I get back from work tonight. Hopefully you'll all be patient with me Very Happy
I have to say that the Chief Exec seemed to be a very sincere and nice man who was very interested in all I had to say. He didn't agree with me on a couple of things but did come up with some of the answers that I wanted to hear.
Firstly, PAH are going to stop putting rabbits and guinea pigs in the same pen. (hurrah!) This is happening now in all the new stores and will be done retrospectively in all of the others over the course of the next year.
Secondly, both rabbits and guinea pigs will be separated according to sex. (again, hurrah!) He agreed that it was ludicrous to say that you can't sex the animals and proper training is going to be given for this.
Thirdly, training is going to be more in depth for staff. The main problem they have had is the huge staff turnover but they've been dealing with this over the last year and it's now down 11% ( which anyone who knows anything about business will agree is a great achievement) They're hoping that this will stop the 'bad advice' being given out at point of sale.
Fourthly, They're going to remove the bit on the receipt that says 'we cannot guarantee the sex of this animal'
Fifthly, they're looking into introducing a scheme currently underway in America whereby people are given the choice of adopting a rabbit/guinea pig from a local rescue rather than buy one from PAH. They'll still be selling their own rabbits etc but will work with local rescues to rehome animals first. They're going to be doing this with cats and dogs too, although there will only be photo's on a board, not pets in the store.
Finally, he want's to meet me. He says that PAH are determined to be far more involved with local small rescues in the future and that he wants to have as much dialogue with them as possible. They now have a team of people within PAH who's sole responsibility will be to set this up.
So...it's over to all of you. I'll go and meet him and if anyone wants to join me, I'm more than happy to take you along. Give me a list of everything you'd like to see change at PAH and ways in which it can make itself useful to local rescues and I'll see that he hears about it.
I think this is a positive development and hopefully you'll all agree. We won't be able to stop them selling live animals. He says that they'll lose far too much revenue, even though they make a loss on the individual animal itself. However, we might be able to get a much better relationship between PAH and the rescues. Hopefully we'll certainly get a better life for the bunnies Very Happy
Right, off to work now (thank goodness for flexi time!) I'll log on again tonight!
Kate.

We also had poor advice, saying that it should not be allowed to eat grass as it can upset their stomachs