your views on pet expo

meanmachine3

some good pics there bond.
to be honest you were better of what you did. on sunday it was crazy there, so i'd hate to imagine what the other days were like. my bet would be that most of the animals on show would've needed councelling and thats just for sunday.
i'm trying to get in touch with the D.S.P.C.A. to get their view on the show as a whole.

Demonique

There was a pet shop in Athlone a few years back, it was there from about 2000 - 2001. They had a pair of pygmy marmosets for sale for £3000. The shop didn't smell of animals, but that's not necessarily a good thing, because in this case it was because any animal smell was completely over powered by the smell of BO from the owner and his wife. The wife used to smoke beside the marmoset cage and the female marmoset was pregnant.
Surprise, surprise, she later had complications of pregnancy and died.

I bought an iguana off them for £120 and after a week I noticed he was walking on the back of his foot. Turned out he had Metabolic Bone Disease due to being fed an incorrect diet. We brought him to a vet (Peter McMahon in Tallaght) and an X-ray discovered that Ig the Wig had hardly any calcium in his bones. He was given a calcium injection and he seemed to get stronger. Before the vet visit he tried to jump onto the sofa, but he just hung there because he lacked the power in his front limbs to pull himself up. A few weeks after the vet visit he jumped onto the sofa no problem, climbed onto the seat and then onto the back of the sofa where he lay for a while before proceeding to throw himself off, pace around the room and then jump onto the sofa beside me again.
Sadly, we only had him about four months. He suddenly began to deteriorate, stopped going to the bathroom, started having tremors and lost the power in his back legs. We ran Peter McMahon who told us to bring him to our local vet, get him Xrayed, have him given fluids and an anti-spasmodic to stop the tremors. He was brought to the vets the next morning, but never came home, he died before 6pm.
On a bright note, the Xray revealed that the calcium levels in his little iggy legs had vastly improved, but sadly it wasn't enough to save him. I think his kidneys probably failed

comongethappy

Great pics Bond- it must be very rewarding! I have to agree though that it's best you didn't have the monkey's there - it was too small and kids were everwhere.

I was quite upset that people had brought their animals. One woman had brought her 10 week pup - only had it's first shots the day before - so it was still supseptible to illness!

I got a good few samples of cat food from Almo - it seems to be very good as well! Though, I must agree - there was definetely a larger emphasis on dog compared to cats, and smaller mammals, reptiles, birds didn't have much at all

Also, the amount of rudeness from people at the show in regards to buggies and wheelchairs! It seemed that only the young men were curteous enough to help let us thru with the buggy.

SMERSH

It sounds from reading this thread that the organisers didn't give a toss regarding the welfare of the animals on display. They would be more concerned with raking in the cash from the exoribant fees demanded for stands. The story about the python is shocking. Where were the DSPCA and the Gardaí?

I hope there is an inquiry into the organisation and running of the event.

nag

meanmachine3 wrote: »

i'm trying to get in touch with the D.S.P.C.A. to get their view on the show as a whole.

if you ever get in contact with them about it, be sure and post an update here


@Bond-007: nice pics. do you have any pics of your aviary? couldnt find any threads that had pics in them

Our man in Havana

Nag I will take some more photos tomorrow. but nudge me if I forget to post them up. The aviary they are in (they have 2 avairies to play in) are: 12ft x 6ft wide & betwen 8 & 10ft high (pitched roof) around 144 square feet of space to play in.

Nala

It annoyed me that the Pet expo was meant to be about responsible pet ownership but anyone could have attended and bought a totally unsuitable animal on the day completely on impulse. Granted, anyone can walk into a pet shop and do the same but the idea could be a lot more appealing, especially to kids, at a big event like that. There should have been some fish displays too I thought, but maybe it wouldn't have been a good idea, kids banging on the tanks etc.

edit: The amount of animals Bond has never ceases to amaze me, and they always look in such great shape.

rachel

Glowing wrote: »

Did anyone see the HUGE owl tied to a perch just to the left of the main door? One kid was walking around with a lab, and he went for the Owl (probably just a sniff) but the bird got freaked out and tried to fly off. Of course he got about one foot away before falling over and smacking his head on the ground and flapping his wings in confusion.

Shameful.

I was at the expo on Friday evening and I saw the unfortunate owl. It really was awful. People were touching it and rubbing it and I saw one kid pull at its feathers. It really was awful to watch. The owl was left on the log with absolutely no barrier and very little supervision. TBH, I don't even know what the stand was there for/who ran it - there just appeared to be a few kids sitting on the floor around it. The owl seemed frozen in fear, unsurprisingly, when I saw it.

Overall, I did feel a little cheated out of €12 as I am a cat person and I feel that cats were really under-represented. They should have named it Dogxpo! I did get my three some foam cat toys that I haven't been able to get in pet stop for ages though so it wasn't a total waste!

BeauZak

Oh and whilst Joe Public wasn't allowed to bring his/her pet, the same wasn't true for so-called celebrities, I saw Twink with her dog, I wonder if Linda 'Hatchet face' Martin came and brought her dogs.

Of course dogs were not allowed. There was barely enough room for the public. And Linda did not have her dogs with her and popped in to say a quick hello to friends because she happened to be next door promoting another event. Linda takes in many many dogs and does a lot of work with various rescue groups. There really is no need to be horrible about her. Surprised moderators allowed that comment :mad:

doctor evil

Glad I didn`t go, tbh I expected it to be more about consumer spending than passing on knowledge.

I`m not at all surprised about how expensive it was either. For the Horse Show it sounds like they have much better "crowd" control, I wonder if they used the same team to handle people?.

SuzyS1972

I don't agree with half the comments here - I was there for 2 full days . There were obviously people selling products which is the norm at Pet Expo's.

Red Mills had an accredited dog behaviourist there giving out advice to people for free. Julie Holmes is a well known and established dog trainer.

Dog Training Ireland were there and the few times I was at their stand they were giving out advice and advocating responsible ownership. They provided a 2 day agility workshop for people to come along and learn how to train their dogs in agility free of charge.

The DSPCA were there although I didn't talk to any of the staff - there were quite a few of them on hand so if people had problems with any of the exhibitors I'm sure you could have had a word with them.

PAWS and ASH rescue were there advocating rescue dogs and spaying and neutering.

The Pet Detective was there advocating reponsible ownership and giving advice on tagging your dog and making sure they are microchipped.

Dogs Trust were there advocating spaying and neutering and their offer of €14 neutering for people on benefits.

Dogs In Distress were also there to enlighten people on the problems with the stray problems in Ireland

Anvil Ireland were also there with a stand and Miriam Anderson from Anvil gave a fabulous talk on Friday about the problems animals face in Ireland due to lack of adequate laws and proper legislation.

Dunno what more I can add but for a very small show compared to others I've been at in the UK and Sweden I'd say a lot was covered.

meanmachine3

hi foks
i e-mailed the D.S.P.C.A. yesterday asking their views on the pet expo and they did reply to my mail this morning this is what they had to say.
QUOTE
"We were at the PetExpo this weekend and
we
responded to each member of the public who was concerned about any
issue
relating to animal welfare. We did speak with a number of the
exhibitors
about these concerns and these were resolved. We also took time to try
and
visit as many of the stands as possible each day.
That being said, we were not happy with quite a number of issues that
arose
over the course of the event and we will be working directly with the
organisers in detailed feedback to that effect.

If there are plans to hold a Petexpo next year, there will need to be
significant changes made to the facilities and management of all the
exhibits.


Yours Sincerely"

nag

fairplay

bugler

I thought it was a bit of a let-down. The beautiful Leonberger outside the main entrance made it up to me though - I'd love to have one when I have the time and space.

bobbysands81

Demonique wrote: »

There was at least two stalls with parrots, the clueless Wexford shop with the large Burmese Python and a stall with a blue and gold macaw who was on a high perch and more interested in playing with its toys. That stall had birds only.

IMO, if you're going to buy a parrot buy from a breeder and not from a petshop

I have an African Grey mate, wasn't looking to buy one at the expo just to see what they had there.