Did You Know? No Need to Buy Hamsters... You can Adopt from a Small Animals Shelter?

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I came across this interview with the volunteer president of 'Small Angels Rescue', a unique organization in the Washington, D.C. area that has dedicated its efforts to small animal care and adoption.
http://hslf.typepad.com/political_animal/2010/06/even-the-smallest-creatures.html
Felt I had to do my part, and help spread the word about 'Adopting Your Next Pet Hamster From An Animal Shelter' instead of buying them from pet shops. 

A personal story...
Last week, my boyfriend encountered a lady returning her 3 female and 1 male hamster back to the pet shop. Her reason was "I don't know what to do with them. They keep getting pregnant." While it is unfortunate that she was an ignorant and irresponsible pet owner, it became clear to us that there are indeed many hamsters on our tiny island called Singapore, who are in need of new homes because their previous owner wasn't loving and responsible enough.
 
Conclusion:
The next time we get a new hamster or two, we will be sure to wait and adopt, instead of purchasing one from a pet shop.
 
How Can You Help These Small Angels, Our Hamster Friends?
If adopting a new pet hamster is not possible for you at the moment, the 5 Most Important things you can do are:

1. Spread the word about Adoption to your friends and family. Especially if you know of someone who is looking for a small animal. Email your friends. Share about it on Facebook. Blog about it. Tweet. Retweet.
   
2. Let others know that there are other options besides buying hamsters from a pet store.
   
3. Encourage people to adopt hamsters by showing them how easy the process is - all they have to do is simply type in their zip code on a pet adoption site, and they are likely to find many pets in need of good homes.
   
4. They can also contact animal shelters thru email or phone and ask them to notify them when they receive a hamster looking for a foster home.
5. Visit hamster forums before buying a hamster from a pet shop. Most hamster forums have a section dedicated to hamster adoption. Forum members will post and let others know if they find abandoned hamsters that are suitable to be adopted.

After reading the article, I am hopeful that more and more people will choose to adopt abandoned hamsters from hamster shelters, and that all adopted hamsters will lead happy, carefree, healthy, beloved lives! :)