#and like recommended habitats and enrichment oppurtunities!

[littlecornerinbrooklyn]

there was a hawkfish at the store I pet store I worked at that had been there for 5+ years and the head of the department and I were having a conversation about how glibly people will speak about the fish that have died in their care (it was so common to have a parent come in and "replace" all the pleco's because they messed up while cleaning the tank and the kids due home from school in a few hours) and what kind of policy we could potentially have to educate and curb the idea that we would just keep supplying new fish when there was clearly a lack of willingness to change behaviors (like the same people would come in over and over and laugh about "accidentally" killing another beta fish and it's like maybe don't say that so loudly and unashamedly in the place you're coming to get another one) anyway the guy pointed to the hawkfish and reminded me that the fish was smarter than any of the other pets in the store but because we couldn't hear it speak we didn't honor it's intelligence and i just think about fish and their lives a lot differently after that

#and not just fish but babies and non-verbal folks who people don't treat with any dignity just because they're non-verbal!!! #re: the pet store I was also fully obsessed in the weirdest way with the eel that we had #i called him macaroni cuz he was a real noodly dude and he freaked me out but i loved him #there was also a lungfish named kyle and that thing was COOL #that pet store was such a wild expirience #like everyone understood the store parrot was smart and deserved respect #and also the amount of dog owners who thought it was ~funny to hold their dog up to the guinea pig cages and let them bark was #shcoking to say the least!! #there were signs literally EVERYWHERE about not bringing your dog in the cat adoption/small animal/bird area #but also like kids would run into rosies cage all the time #and she could easily take a chunk outta ya like full finger removal with one swift bite #anyway all pets are deserving of love care and devotion #and they deserve us being open to learning animal husbandry because it's not an inherited skill and there's always new info about nutrition #and like recommended habitats and enrichment oppurtunities!