Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters

 

(2008) We've been monitoring the Petland location on the Fraser Highway for many years, and despite numerous complaints to the BC SPCA and local government, this store, like others, is in business because of consumer demand.  The pet trade industry is booming, and society's exploitation of cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, rodents, reptiles and others, appears unstoppable.  While the killing of unwanted pets by pounds and humane societies has reached epidemic proportions, the breeding carries on, unabated.  The bottom line is that there's money to be made, never mind the inordinate suffering, abuse, and death to all the creatures who become victims of the human species. 

On our recent visit we again noticed the number of companion bird species.  Weeks after being born they’re ready for sale. Baby hamsters were also in abundance, as were rabbits. Flyers on the enclosures listed the price and advertised that they were great first pets.  We took this to read disposable commodities. 

Comment:  Always report concerns to your municipal council and to the BC SPCA.  Let animal advocacy groups know. You have the power to make a difference.  

   

Comment: July 2008  Another visit to this store was just more of the same.  Innocent creatures who are at our mercy, available to anybody who wants to buy on a whim.  Please make the choice NOT TO BUY.  Take action to make this a better world for all creatures.  Your choices, your values, your voice, they all matter – the collective conscious forms that which is invincible, the true POWER OF ONE.       

   

April 27, 2012 Cat charity 'blindsided' by Petland adoption centre closure

April 11, 2013 Petland rabbit concerns/UBCM resolution

Rabbit Advocacy’s Carmina Gooch contacted Mayor Moore and other Port Coquitlam department staff regarding concerns of rabbits at Petland. This is not the first time. Nothing has changed since the business opened in 2008 and the City’s Animal Control Bylaw has yet to be updated. It’s been under review for the last two years.  

We encourage you to be a voice for rabbits and always speak out. If there are any concerns whatsoever about the treatment of rabbits at Petland contact head office or a branch of the SPCA. Animal welfare in BC is currently regulated by the province under the PCA Act.       

June 2013 Petland Superstore, at 19475 Fraser Highway, has been renamed The Pet Superstore. Everything remains the same. The 20-year agreement with Petland came up and wasn’t renewed. We were told “there was no reason to.”

April 2015 Supporters of our group are dismayed and frustrated that this store continues to sell rabbits. Some have come from people who have let their rabbits breed, and who have brought the babies to the store, where they’ve been offered for sale. On a recent visit, there were two Lioheads and one Lop available. The Lop was priced at 10 dollars more than a single Lionhead.  

While a number of municipalities in BC have banned the sale of rabbits, or restricted sales to ones that have been sterilized, Surrey has not come on board. NB: November 2016 Petland Superstore (Surrey) is out of business!

September 1, 2017 We also contacted the City of Surrey on this same matter. Surrey has a very large population of feral cats and their offspring, and to a lesser extent, rabbits, although that number is growing. Kathy Powelson, executive director of Paws for Hope Animal Foundation, spoke to council on September 11th, outlining a myriad of reasons for stopping sales of dogs, cats, and rabbits in retail outlets.

March 12, 2018 Surrey bans retail sales of dogs, cats and rabbits. Business License Bylaw, 1999, No. 13680 is further amended by inserting a new definition of "Pet Store" & a new section 55.1 (1) in order to ban the retail sales of dogs, cats, & rabbits. Over 70 rabbits ended up in the Surrey Animal Resource Centre last year, with only three of them eventually being reunited with their original owners. There are currently 30 rabbits at the shelter.

Read more: Pet Habitat, District of North Vancouver, new rabbit bylaws, come on Burnaby!

Ban sale of rabbits (letter published)

BC municipalities starting to prohibit rabbit sales in pet stores; UBCM resolution passes; letters; Vancouver 2017

Visit our Pet Shops/Rabbits/Leg page