Some people have a really sick way of making excuses for abuse of animals.

[AndyA]

In another thread, people are trying to come up with any excuse they can think of for dumping an animal at the side of the road and leaving it to fend for itself.

- Due to the economy, they couldn't keep it any longer.

- It requires I.D. to drop animals off at shelters.

- They loved it but...blah blah blah

I think it's cruel. When you bring an animal into your life, you are making a COMMITMENT to that animal for life. You are RESPONSIBLE for its well-being, and no caring person would just dump it in the middle of nowhere to fend for itself. It's never had to do that before, and all too often, they end up getting killed, which is what happened to this particular dog.

The owner's stuck a note on its collar with its name, and telling whoever found it what tricks it could do. It was a beautiful dog.

I have two cats, both are members of the family, and both are treated as family members. I would never consider deserting them, or leaving them to fend for themselves. And I'm shocked at how many people make excuses for doing such things.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this with others who hopefully can see that no matter what the circumstances, people should always treat their pets with respect and make arrangements for them. I'm reading more and more stories about pets being left behind in empty homes, to suffer and starve to death. Don't people understand their pets have feelings? They know fear, they can feel rejection and abandonment, they suffer and are in pain.

I just don't see any excuse for not doing the right thing for a pet, and I'm surprised at how many people make excuses for this type of behavior. :shrug: :(

[lukasahero]

1. I didn't see the thread but

it doesn't surprise me. I've heard the "it's the economy" excuse here before. :cry:

[spooky3]

2. There is no excuse for cruelty.

I agree with you - anyone can take an animal to a shelter - public or private - or get a friend to help or call a rescue org.

Thanks for your post.

[Coyote_Bandit]

5. Ummmm......

No. Not all pets are accepted for surrender at shelters. In many areas it is almost impossible to find a shelter or rescue group that accepts birds, reptiles or exotic pets.

I live in a metropolitan area with a population of well over 1 million. ***NONE*** of the rescue groups here accept such pets. I know someone here who is trying to rehome a bird because the dander and litter trigger severe asthma attacks in an elderly family member who has been required to move in with them.

[spooky3]

7. ummmm, I did not say that, nor did I give you only one alternative.

There is NO excuse for cruelty. NONE.

[Coyote_Bandit]

8. Ummmm......

From your post: ".....anyone can take an animal to a shelter - public or private - or get a friend to help or call a rescue org."

The implication from that statement is that anyone who needs to re-home an animal can simply take it to a shelter - and that shelter will happily take the animal in and find it a new home. Of course not all those shelters find new homes for those animals. Some quietly put the animals down. But no mention here of the cruelty that entails. And those shelters - even the no kill shelters do not accept all kinds of animals.

The second implication is that everyone has friends and family who are willing and able to take in an unwanted animal. Really? If that were true then someone would have taken in that bird at this point. The bird is well behaved and its owners are quite attached to it - in spite of the fact that its presence in the home may well result in the death of an elderly family member that has been forced to live with them. I think they have probably offered to give the bird and all his stuff to most everyone they know. And I am certain they have asked everyone they know to help them find a new home for the bird. Hell, they've asked lots of folks they don't know to help them in their quest to re-home that bird. If the circumstances permit, friends and family may agree - perhaps reluctantly - to care for a dog or a cat. But they may be considerably less willing to accommodate a need to re-home a snake or some tarantulas or a ferret or a bird or a chimp or a pot bellied pig or a dwarf size house pony or a large tank of saltwater fish or .....

You assume that there are rescue groups that will take in any kind of animal. Not true. I thought the people with the bird just hadn't looked for a rescue group so I took it on myself to try and find one. I figured there should be one here in the local metropolitan area. Couldn't find one and when I asked I did not get referrals to one from the other rescue groups and shelters. So I expanded my search throughout the state. Same result. So I again expanded my search to include surrounding states. I learned that this particular kind of bird is prohibited in one of those states and would be killed if taken into the state. Needless to say, I didn't have any luck finding a rescue group in the surrounding states. In my Google searches I did however learn that there are many large colonies of these birds across the country. These birds are not native to the US so the only way they could join together to form such colonies would be because their owners had set them loose in the outdoors to fend for themselves. Apparently bird rescue is not nearly as lucrative and popular as doggie and kitty rescue. But it is probably far more needed.

I did not suggest that there was ***ANY*** excuse for cruelty. I merely suggested that your oh-so-easy one size fits all "drop the animal off at a shelter," "get a friend to help you" or "find a rescue group" solution is not much of a solution at all in some circumstances. And it just might result in the rather rapid death of the animal if it is surrendered to a kill shelter. Your solution might work reasonably well for doggies and kitties - assuming the person surrendering the animal is able to find a no kill shelter. Your solution doesn't work so well for birds, reptiles, spiders and other less common and more exotic kinds of pets. Pointing that out does not mean that I am justifying animal cruelty. It is an acknowledgment that many folks who need to re-home pets don't have the easy options you mention and face only bad choices.

Perhaps you would be interested in taking in a well behaved bird that is in need of a new home? Nah, I didn't think so.....

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

9. Well, if you're referring to Quaker/Monk parakeets, they don't come from released pets

They come from a shipment that got loose at one of the NYC airports back in the day.

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. Quaker parrots

are not the only birds that are illegal and known to have wild colonies. They just hapen to be the best known.

Many of the small parrots and conures are considered agricultural pests and are prohibited. Many of them also have wild colonies. Quakers, incidentally, are technically considered conures.

Remember the wild birds of Telegraph Hill? They were cherry-headed and blue-crowned conures. How did they get there? Mark Bittner, the author of that book who spent years observing and interacting with the birds writes: "While I don't know specific events, I do know that the flock was started by wild-caught, imported parrots from South America. (The founders wore quarantine bands particular to imported birds.) Before the practice was restricted in 1993, it was legal to import wild-caught parrots into the United States, and they were brought in by the millions. The cherry heads were inexpensive - often less than $100 per bird - and the people who bought them found that the wild birds despised captivity. They were noisy and they bit. In some cases, birds escaped; in other cases, I'm sure that they were deliberately released by frustrated owners." http://www.wildparrotsbook.com/parrot_pages/faq.html#wherefrom

You might be interested to do a Google search on Nanday conures and the recent efforts to outlaw them.

[ceile]

3. Post a link to that thread!!

I've never, EVER, known anyone from DU to do that!

[lukasahero]

4. Now you have

The OP:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5372032&mesg_id=5372032

Some of the responses you've never, ever known here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5372032&mesg_id=5372100

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5372032&mesg_id=5372173

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5372032&mesg_id=5372820

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5372032&mesg_id=5373834

[ceile]

6. Thank you. n/t

[realisticphish]

11. I work in a pet store

and IMO, the best way to combat it is to educate the pet owner before hand. I can't count how many people I've turned away from buying an Oscar, or iguana, because it's "so cute." I have an Oscar myself, but I know ahead of time that he was going to be huge, and I was prepared for the tank upgrades.

Stray cats can at least survive relatively well, assuming they still have claws (of course, I don't advocate abandoning them). But stray dogs usually die pretty quickly. They just can't adapt to being on their own easily.

But exotics frustrate me more than other kinds of pets. That tortoise is going to live for fifty or a hundred years, so you better be prepared. That iguana or nile monitor will be five or six feet long. The Oscar that's two inches long now will be fourteen inches at least. That Pacu will be four feet long and need at least 2000 gallons. I never sell a pet to anyone who doesn't know everything I do about the animal. I always recommend they go home, research, and think about it before purchasing.

I have two fish tanks, a cat, and a blue-tongued skink. I can't imagine every releasing any of them into the wild. I don't think I would be able to live with myself :shrug: