18 April 2025, 14:13

By Polly Foreman

This week, Pets at Home made headlines after announcing it would be pausing the sale of rabbits over the Easter weekend.

The pet chain - the largest and most recognisable in the UK - said it took the decision to “to discourage any impulsive choices.” Rabbit abandonment tends to peak after the Easter period, as people often buy them spontaneously for children’s gifts.

Pets at Home is right to pause rabbit sales. It’s also right to warn against impulse purchasing of animals. But stopping these sales for four days isn’t quite the ethical decision it may seem. Pets at Home - and all other pet stores - need to go much, much, further, and stop the sale of all live animals for good.

The pet trade tends to be viewed through rose-tinted glasses in the UK. Many of us have happy childhood memories of pressing our noses up against the glass tanks and coaxing our parents into buying us a hamster, rabbit, or guinea pig.

But behind the cute fluffy animals and brightly coloured cages is a huge, powerful, and rapidly growing industry that treats sentient beings as commodities. The global pet industry is

© LBC