Is there anywhere where it's against the law to buy animals from a pet shop for food?

A conversation with some South American friends turned to the subject of cuy and how it was unavailable in the US. One of the people chimed in that all you had to do was but some guinea pigs from the local pet shop and it was problem solved. Are there laws in place that govern this? Is it explicitly legal or illegal to buy pets at a pet shop for the purposes of food?

Despite most people’s howls of “Of COURSE it’s illegal, it’s animal cruelty! How DARE you even suggest such a thing, you puppy raper, you!” when this topic comes up…I’ve yet to find an actual statue forbidding it.

Now, that could be because I sometimes suck at search engines, but…
(This is the kind of stuff at Yahoo Answers! that keeps me coming back to the Dope, by the way.)

Never seen an end use certificate at a pet store. I used to buy feeder mice and rats, I suppose I could walk in and buy a breeding pair of guinea pigs to make feeder pigs, you don’t have to say that you are going to eat them, when you say 'feeder<critter> they assume it is for a large snake.

Not sure it’s covered by the law, but I sure wouldn’t tell the people at Petco you wanted to eat the guinea pig.

I actually used to work at one of the major pet supply retailers. Had some Chinese people come in to buy birds to release in a ritual. Sold them four Australian Zebra finches each time as they were the cheapest and not very likely to become an invasive species. Life is easy for Australian birds, there’s no way a captive finch from there can make it here in the bird laden Gulf Coast flyway.

Wait, exactly how big is this statue?

:smack: Hush, you.

Here…here’s a big statue forbidding it. Or he would, were he not a statue. And were he alive.

“Yeah, right, it’s a sculpture of limitations.”

here

Allow me to suggest California Penal Code 598(b) to get the ball rolling. I imagine there are probably similar laws in at least some other states. Even in the absence of a law specifically against the buying/selling for that purpose it still might violate animal cruelty laws to prepare the meal using an animal traditionally considered to be a pet. That might come down to the discretion of a prosecutor and/or judge depending on the circumstances.

I don’t see what the problem really would be. I personally wouldn’t eat a guinea pig as it’s not the local custom (and they don’t look like they’d be all that tasty, besides), but it also seems quite inefficient financially. Are cuy really the same breeds as what’s sold in US pet stores (and if so, are they actually yummy? :slight_smile: )

Most of the stuff sold in a pet shop I don’t think you’d really want to eat, either, I’d imagine. So maybe it just doesn’t come up much. Oh wait, bunnies. Yes, maybe bunnies, but of course you can buy them from a butcher for a lot less…

That’s an interesting angle, what animals are sold both as pets and as food in the US? Anything besides bunnies?

Unless of course you are selling it on CL for a small ‘re-homing’ fee. :smiley:

Thank you! Finally a cite! That makes my little doper heart swell with warm fuzzies. Think I’ll go eat some bacon to celebrate. No one loves piggies. :wink:

Oddly enough, I do not happen to live in California. Nor do the residents of 48 other states.

My goodness that is odd. Neither do I. The weirdest part is that the OP asks “**Is there anywhere where it’s against the law to buy animals from a pet shop for food?”
**
and then a subsequent post says "I’ve yet to find an actual statue forbidding it. "

I guess I must have missed the part where someone asked “In which state does **aruvqan **live?”

It probably should have cleared up any possible confusion about this that you might have when I added “I imagine there are probably similar laws in at least some other states. Even in the absence of a law specifically against the buying/selling for that purpose it still might violate animal cruelty laws to prepare the meal using an animal traditionally considered to be a pet. That might come down to the discretion of a prosecutor and/or judge depending on the circumstances.”

But thanks for the clarification.

Just steer clear of the ‘adult poultry services’ section if you don’t want nightmares.

You’re welcome :slight_smile: Mmm bacon… How can you say we don’t love piggies when they are so delicious?

Note that the law forbids using it for human food, but not for pet food. Thus you can buy a mouse to feed to your snake.

Man, you’d go through a lot of guinea pigs making up a decent meatloaf. Just sayin’; there ain’t much meat on those suckers.

True, and who’s to say you can’t sample your own snake’s food before feeding it to him, nudge nudge wink wink… Also many snake owners buy frozen mice for their snakes these days and the cited code only applies to living animals. So if someone wanted to pay several hundred dollars per pound for frozen pet shop mouse meat, they could feel free to barbecue it on the spot. (fire codes notwithstanding).

I think the intention of the code is more to prevent mass commercial distribution of pet-like animals to restaurants or exotic food black markets than to curb individuals from eating pet shop animals in private homes. Enforcing the law against individual sales at pet shops would be very difficult and buying pet shop animals for human consumption would be very expensive. But a puppy mill (or guinea pig mill?) would probably be willing to accept a much lower price to sell them in bulk.

I believe grilled is the preferred method of cooking guinea pigs, and whole is how they’re generally served. They sell them in the frozen section of my local Mexican market, although I don’t believe they’re widely consumed in Mexico (it’s just a very good market). They’re $29.99 a pound, if I recall correctly.

(What? You didn’t think a hyperlink called “grilled is the preferred method of cooking guinea pigs” would actually link to a picture of guinea pigs on the grill? Of course it does. I know the link says “healthy-living-cuy”. They’re not. Who are you gonna believe, a URL or me? Don’t click around small children unless you’re up for having One Of Those Talks.)

I have a couple of cuy recipes from Peru. I figured I’d have to go to a pet store to get any. Like other game, their diet will affect the taste of the meat. Possum benefits from a diet of persimmons for instance. I’m thinking apples for guinea pigs. Anyway, shouldn’t this thread be in CS?

I think this is one of those crossover threads. If the question is asked theoretically, it’s a GQ. If it’s because the OP wants to eat cuy legally and wants to find out if he can, it’s IMHO. If it going to start involving recipes, then Cafe Society may fight for it.