Royal Pets has opened in the shopping center at the corner of Booneslick Road and Highway 47 in Warrenton.
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Royal Pets has opened in the shopping center at the corner of Booneslick Road and Highway 47 in Warrenton. The store offers a variety of small animals as well as the supplies necessary for their care.
Owner Josh Hall said that he decided to move forward with opening the business because he saw a need in the community. While there are groomers and other pet related businesses in the area Warrenton did not have a dedicated pet store, until now.
“I just looked around what Warrenton needed and I’ve always been into pets and we just kind of came up with a pet store,” Hall said. “And we know pets, so why not?”
Royal Pets has a focus on fish, with a large selection of freshwater fish and all the necessary equipment for their care. Hall also plans to move forward with offering saltwater fish in the future.
Hall said his passion for fishkeeping and pets in general came from his father, who always had fish tanks around the house when he was growing up. He also cares for fresh and saltwater fish himself.
Outside of fish, the store also offers several small animals, birds and reptiles.
One thing the store will not be offering is cats and dogs. Hall, the city of Warrenton and the building’s owner were in agreement that they did not need to carry the larger animals.
Hall also said he is very “anti-puppy mill” and wanted to make sure he was avoiding the controversial suppliers.
Instead, the store has small mammals like rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and even two ferrets, which Hall said behave similarly to cats. They also have parakeets, and some small reptiles like Bearded Dragons, he also hopes to offer snakes at some point in the future.
“The landlord’s not a fan of snakes and he doesn’t want us to have snakes but I’m working with him to let us have snakes eventually,” Hall said.
For the time being, Royal Pets is operating almost exclusively as a family business, run by Hall and his children, although he hopes to hire additional staff in the future.
Hall said that the reception from the public since they opened June 1 has been positive, and residents have been appreciative that they do not need to travel out of town to fulfill the needs of their animals.
