BOUNTIFUL — Doug Young's last 27 years of work was prompted by a vacation.
Young, owner of Bird World & Pet Village, 3649 S. Highway 89, more than a quarter century ago was in Phoenix.
"Just for some entertainment, we visited some bird farms, and I became intrigued with them," Young said. "We came home, and two months later, I was in the bird business.
"I didn't have any background in it. I just became infatuated with the birds on that vacation. I decided to make an attempt at making a living selling birds, and we moved into everything else after that."
"Everything else" includes puppies, reptiles, saltwater and freshwater fish, even a tarantula or two, plus tons of pet-care products. "It's typical pet-store kind of stuff, although we probably have more inventory than some smaller stores do," Young said.
The 11,000-square-foot building is a far cry from the 1,200-square-foot shop that Bird World called home for the first five years of its existence. It was a couple of blocks away from the current store.
"We started out with just birds. That's how the name came about. We hand-raise a lot of baby birds, which means they're taken from the nest from their parents and we finish feeding them to become pets."
Although Young had no experience 27 years ago, he learned quickly, "reading everything I could find on birds" and the ins and outs of the business world. He also developed a bit of business acumen.
"At the first store, there was an aquarium next door, and I saw a large number of people come and go there," he said. "Fish create a lot of traffic, I guess. But I saw the people come and go and said, 'Boy, I need to do that, too.' "
He's seen a few pet fads come and go — skunks and ferrets come to mind — but learned early on that the pet-store business requires constant attention.
"It's a lot more work than I expected. I just expected that I'd go to work and open the doors and expect business to come in. But there's a lot of maintenance of the animals. You have to come in on Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, to take care of them. I guess it's like being a dairy farmer. I hear from people, 'Oh, you work at a pet shop. It must be fun.' But it's just like everybody else's job."
Through the years, he's fielded some odd questions from people "who think we're veterinarians," he said.
"People will call me on the phone and say, 'My kid just caught a snake. What kind is it and what do they eat?' I get people in the spring that will find baby birds that have been separated from the nest for one reason or another and want to get help. But we're a pet store, not Wildlife Services."
Still, Young has enjoyed learning about saltwater fish and live corals, and his work has taken him to Malaysia, Fiji, Tonga, Bali and the Philippines.
"I've been fortunate in that I've gotten to travel around the world and see where they come from and how they're collected, and that's been a big thing for me," Young said. "I haven't ever grown tired of that. I've been doing it a long time, but fortunately, I'm still interested in it."
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com