In Singapore where backyard (unethical) breeders are abundant, it is hard to make the judgment whether a breeder is ethical or knowledgeable. Many times, people are duped into making a purchase or adoption of a hamster thinking it came from reasonable background - it did not. Other times, people acquire the hamster thinking they are rescuing or saving it - they aren't.
Hamsters from pet stores come from pet mills, where welfare is less than adequate. And despite their length of stay at the pet stores, they are housed in no less humane condition than when at pet mills - multiple hamsters (even of different species, think about a Syrian and a tiny Dwarf together) in a single enclosure, no separation accordance to gender, numerous pregnancies and fights that occur with no vet attention sought.
"So, if their condition at the pet stores/pet mills are poorly, shouldn't we purchase them to give them a good home? We are saving the hamsters."
Unfortunately, in such cases, inaction is the lesser evil due to the simple relationship between supply and demand.
Let's go through these examples:
1. At the pet store, you see numerous hamsters housed together in a tiny cage space with no food or water. They are fighting and there is a particular hamster that looked severely injured. You approached the pet store owners and they did not do anything to help the hamster, claiming it is normal/it is not injured. So you decided to purchase the hamster to bring it to a vet - the hamster will have a fighting chance in life with you than left at the store.
Now, what will happen after you brought the hamster home? There is now one less hamster for sale at the pet store. The pet store owner proceed to ring up the pet mill to "restock" his hamster supply. When the additional hamster is brought into the store to "restock", it is an addition hamster's life that is in jeopardy and the same cycle repeats. There will be fights, injuries with no vet attention, and there may be another kind soul that think that by buying the hamster is helping the situation. Sadly, it does not.
You may argue, by purchasing the first injured hamster, you are giving it a fighting chance in life, with a good home for itself - you are helping it, and yes you are. There is no denial. However, from the perspective of a bigger picture and goal, you are assisting the cycle - you are helping the pet stores to "restock" more hamsters, and more hamsters' lives are endangered.
Hence, by not purchasing the hamster, the pet owner will not need to "restock". And in time, when there is no longer demand for their hamsters, the pet store owner need not get supply from the pet mills and the cycle is thereby, broken.
2. You understood the above logic and decided to no longer support in the supply and demand of pet stores. You turned to gumtree ads or Facebook groups etc to look for a hamster, and came across someone posting a litter of 10 baby hamsters at $80 each. Assuming pet store's hamsters are being sold at $100 each, $80 for a hamster is more affordable - so you bought it.
Two weeks later, you see the same person posting another litter of 10 baby hamsters at $80 each. Many people have the same thinking as you and all the hamsters are sold. And the same thing repeats in the following week. In that very month, the breeder sold 10 hamsters at $80 each, every week - he made a sale of $800 per week and $3,200 in a month.
Knowing pregnancies are dangerous for both mother and babies, hamsters typically do not have more than 3 litters as they would die of exhaustion and many other reasons. With the money-making machine dead, the breeder purchases another new hamster from the pet store to breed, and like the logic in the first example, the cycle repeats.
Patronising the breeder in this illustration, enables whole cycle to continue because supply instigates demand.
In our next post, we will talk about the difference between ethical and unethical breeders to help you to identify supporting the right cause.
Before that, if you have the means, please head to the following organisations to adopt instead of shopping. The hamsters at these organisations were either rescued, abandoned or surrendered from poorly condition - they deserve a second chance in life.
Rescue Organisations in Singapore #AdoptDontShop
- SPCA
Comments