To Give Is to Be Good!

Let’s talk about charity, because there can be greater act of kindness than that charity and if it’s good for business why the hell not!? Every supermarket seems to have a cause with Morrison’s helping kids grow things, Tesco’s getting computers in schools and Sainsbury’s providing sports equipment! The more consumers buy the more they provide, it’s win win! Isn’t it?

Let’s take a look at Pets at Home who have a support adoption campaign which fund-raises in store from the sale of tote bags and adoption fees from their in store adoption centres. They help small animals in store and larger ones by donating money raised to other charities and sanctuaries. Not only do they benefit from positive feelings being associated with them facilitating such good work but they also encourage consumers into the store resulting in more spending and more profit! It is again another example of enlightened self-interest theory from Baker (1999) discussed in the previous blog, where doing good makes good business sense! But where do the animals they have in store come from?

Many small animal charities now encourage people not to breed or to get animals such as rabbits from a breeder when there are so so many in rescue! Yet Pets at Home continue to source their animals from rodent farms, doesn’t sound too bad does it? Farms are nice places after all... all green and lovely! Think again, take a look at this. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a bit of a rat enthusiast and I breed them as a hobby... for anyone to be able to treat animals that way and support churning animals out without regard for the animal’s well being, health or longevity is irresponsible to say the least in my view. Yet despite this Pets at home do support them. A bit of a contradiction there if I do say so myself! Worse still they are notorious for their incompetence in sexing animals, resulting in unwanted litters and even more strain on animal charities! Even from my own limited experience, every single instance (from three separate stores) has involved mis-sexing and two whole litters of tiny and wholly unexpected little hamsters!

Is it ethical then to support charity to make yourself seem to be responsible and concerned for animal welfare when your practices say otherwise? Well yes it is, it is my own responsibility as a consumer to research the ethics and practices of a company, not telling you something isn’t lying or deceiving. We all do it on a day to day basis on a personal and individual level, when you meet someone you don’t tell a person all about you warts and all! In a job interview you sell you strong points and avoid you weak ones, and would anyone see that as unethical? I doubt it very much! Why then so we consider companies and corporations by different standards to ourselves... surely that is unfair!