How Do You Handle Customers Wanting to Hold Pets for Sale?

question:

Stores that sell animals: I understand a customer wanting to gauge a pet’s temperament before buying, but there needs to be a way to do this keeping the animal and the customer safe. Suggestions? — Jennifer Marshall, Northwood Pets, Rhinelander, WI

• Employees supervise, and most animals are held in their enclosures in case they try to squirm away. With some, we simply say, “You can pet them, but they prefer not to be picked up.” One of my go-to lines for hamsters is, “They’re like a bar of soap. If they jump, they’re gone.” Our rabbit and guinea pig enclosures have signs on the doors, which we have to open, that say, “Please ask before picking us up! We are just babies!” It turns a few customers off, but most understand and now we don’t have people trying to walk upstairs with baby bunnies in their hands. — Lauren Davis, The Pet Works Inc., Longview, WA
• We have signs on enclosures that say, “Please ask a team member if you would like to hold or pet us.” Because enclosures are locked, they actually have to ask. We allow every animal to be held with supervision. We have at least a 48 hour-waiting period after an animal arrives before it can be held at all. Sometimes it’s up to four days, depending upon how the animal is adjusting. This allows the animal to adjust, and we can make sure it’s eating and pooping like it should. — Rachael Creech, Adventure Pets, Mandeville, LA