About Us
Why Hagersville Pet Supply?
What makes our business special is we strive to provide the best care for our animals and educate our customers on any new findings. The store is aware of how animals used to be cared for - but is also aware of the new advised ways of caring for animals as the world has learned more about their natural behaviours and environment where they were domesticated from. We like to set up our cages as examples as to what the environment should look for at home.
We try to work with rescues when we can and help them by fostering animals to expose them to more people and try and find the right people for the animals. When we cannot work with rescues, we work with ethical breeders of animals. We try to get to know the people who are trying to adopt our animals. If they are not being adopted through a rescue where you must fill out an adoption application, we ask a lot of questions ourselves along with asking for pictures of the new animal’s home.
We like to make sure that the new pet parent knows what they are getting into, and that they know how to take care of the animal they are taking home. We try our best to keep track of animals’ weights, behaviours and eating habits to make sure they are healthy when they are adopted, the new pet parent has a history of what they have been eating or doing. If any health concerns arise or the animal is acting different, they have a record of the animal.
We also take our animals to the vet if needed and have made many emergency appointments to make sure the animals in our care are healthy and happy.
We always have the thought of the animals in mind and try to do the best by them. We try to reflect this in our products as well and try our best to research what we are carrying before we stock it. We care about life and even animals made for feeders. We try to give the best life possible. We strive to the best for the animals and hope that it shows.
About Our Staff
Hi, my name is Maxine VanAmerongen and I am the owner of Hagersville Pet Supply. I have always had a passion for animals and wanted to work with them. My hobbies are animals, video games, and traveling. Growing up, I had dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, fish, birds, a snake and a horse. And now, all the animals at the store! 😊
I started working part time at this store in 2014. The opportunity came up to buy the store and I jumped at it. We were very, small and I wanted to carry more products and animals! We expanded the store in January of 2019 and doubled our size. We could now have reptiles, a rabbit run, an aviary, and a larger selection of fish.
We try to carry products that we feel are good for animals and would feed to our own pets. My love for animals is very strong and we strive to give the best we can!
Hi there! My name is Michelle, and I've been with Hagersville Pet Supply since June 2019.
I grew up with at least one cat in the house at all times, as well as a large aquarium, and then expanded my experience to include small animals and birds once I was old enough to care for them myself. Specifically, guinea pigs, gerbils, bettas, and budgies. I currently have 3 cats, a 6 year old cockatiel, a black lab who comes to work with me, and multiple aquariums. You've probably seen Cinder behind the till with me!
I enjoy the atmosphere of constant background noise made by animals, such as birds chattering to each other and flying in the aviary. The vibes at the store are also fairly calm and relaxing, and being able to work with the animals is an amazing experience and very rewarding.
Even though I enjoy all animals, cats and birds have a special place in my heart. Eventually I'd love to be able to adopt a rescue parrot!
Store History
Hagersville Pet Supply opened in 1993 and has gone through 4 owners in that time. Pam, Joan, Paula and now its current owner Maxine. It was originally a Paulmac’s Pets store but after some time the owner at the time (Joan) decided that independent was the best for her and the store has been an independent pet store ever since.
The store also moved locations quite a bit but has always been in Hagersville. We have been in its current location since 2007.
Many animals have been able to find their forever homes through the store including bunnies, gerbils, hamsters, hedgehogs, guinea pigs, large and small birds, anoles, skinks, geckos, bearded dragons, and many fish. The store has never sold puppies but has sold a few kittens. In the future we hope to be able to help cats find homes again, but these would only be fosters from a rescue. We just need to find a rescue to work with and a safe way to have the cat free range the store as we don’t believe in keeping a cat or dog in a cage.
We have recently added snakes to this list though no owners have ever sold spiders out of the store as none of us liked spiders at all!
The store was around 600 square feet but in 2019 was renovated and expanded. The renos lasted several months and were finished in July though thankfully we only had to close for the month of January. The renovations more than doubled the size of the store to 1800 square feet and allowed us to add a reptile section, many more fish tanks, a safe space for the birds to fly around and a rabbit run to let the bunnies in the store have lots of room to stretch their fuzzy little feet.
It also gave the us the ability to have a back room where we can prep the fresh veggies for the animals along with quarantine any new animals to make sure they are safe and are illness or parasites free that could spread to the current animals in the store. We are so grateful for this extra room. We also added a “bug” room where we store and breed live feeder insects along with isopods and spring tails for bioactive set ups or just a fun pet.
Things we are looking forward to adding to the business in the future are a large stock tank for larger goldfish or koi along with pond plants, a live plant wall to sell animal safe plants for bio active vivarium.
There are lots of things in store for this small business and we are eager to see what the future holds for us!