I love pet stores but preferably the ones that aren't so cluttered you can't move without falling over. Favourite one would have to be the one by Nosh in Glen Innes Auckland. Always makes me a bit sad when its hot and stuffy and the poor wee puppies and kittens are all by themselves in a little room or box.

The whole Vet Clinic/Pet Store thing sounds like a brilliant idea you start to form bonds with the owner as soon as they get their pet especially if you have some way of recording their details on purchase and remembering them when they come back for vaccinations and teeth cleaning etc.

Where is this clinic/shop? If it's in Wellington I would be interested to know.

Personally my favourite is the new Pet/Vet shop in Porirua-by Bond & Bond in the Megacentre. I always go there now.

Does anyone know if there are any butchers around Chch East that sell dog bones? I know the mad butcher does but dont know of anyone else.

I go into pet shops a lot. My favourite feature is where you can interact with the animals. So the animates glass fronted puppy cubes are utterly unappealing. I can understand that the animals need to be protected from idiocy though.

One thing I find interesting about Pet Stores, is the different level of pet smells. I went into a wonderful Animates pet store in Tauranga, nicely laid out, clean, happy animals in nice light bright large areas with no awful smells at all.

I understand that some odour will always be present in most pet stores but when the smells "hit you" as soon as you walk in the door, one does ask them self, how often are the pets tended to by staff.

I wonder if others notice this or do I just have an overly sensitive nose!!

@Jason #4, it's not Chch East, but Westmeat in Hornby does dog bones/meat. Easiest though if you call them the day before & order some, they can free flow freeze them for you. They do big boxes of lamb flaps/ribs too.

Most butchers will put aside bones if they know they have a customer for them, so probably best to find one in your area & call/talk to them. Even supermarket butcheries will do it if you talk nicely to the manager & organise a regular pickup date/amount.

The worst pet store i ever went in was somewhere on the North Shore in Auckland when i was on holiday. It had a huge half that was dedicated for birds which consisted of cages upon cages lined up on benches with all sorts of parrots in cages that were obviously far too small for the size of the bird. They had a pet macaw that wasn't for sale which was kept in a cage the size of what my lorikeet is in now (so far too tiny), he was never let out to fly and all his tail and wing feathers were half gone coz there wasn't even enough room to stretch without hitting the bars. I see so many birds cramped up like that looking thoroughly depressed :(

I've always wanted to know where the animals go at night.

Kittens and puppies that spend weeks in those tiny glass cells don't spend the night there. Do staff take them home? If so how can you not keep them?

I would much rather see pet stores with a free range layout for animals - let the cats and dogs spend more time in an open environment. Of course given the cost of retail space - its uneconomic.

Purely out of interest, what sort of vetting (pun intended) do you do on prospective owners? If someone has the cash right there and says, I'd like to buy this puppy, what kind of power do you have to make sure this puppy is getting a good home? Presumably it isn't like a shelter situation, where property is inspected etc.

It's something that's always made me uneasy about pet shops, what checks and balances are put into place to make sure that the 'sale' is in the animal's best interest, rather than the store's profit margins. I'm sure that the staff usually do have a genuine love for animals, but have always wondered about stores turning away a sale.