Frustrated

[ewarp]

As many of you may know (or maybe not), I earn a living working for a humane society. I put in 40 hours/week as an employee and another 15 as a private consultant on various projects. In addition, I volunteer another 5-20 hours, depending on my schedule.

I'm often there 7 days a week, but always at least 6 days.

I'm so frustrated and so fed up with people and the lack of care they show for animals. Don't get me wrong- a lot of my job is educating people, and I love that part. There's nothing like educating someone who simply DIDN'T KNOW.

What kills me is the people who take excellent care of their dogs and then proceed to treat their cats/rabbits/hamsters/ferrets/fish like crap. If you don't allow your dogs to roam the neighborhood unsupervised, don't let your cats. If you encourage people to spay/neuter their dogs because it's irresponsible not to... why the hell are your cats popping out kittens?!

Apparently, it's okay for your cat to be hit by a car/knocked up/attacked by wildlife, but not your dog. It's okay to add to the cat overpopulation problem, but not the dog. A friend of mine had a cat that was hit by a car last winter. She swore up and done that she'd never let her cats roam again. She recently posted pictures of her new kitten on LJ... with the kitten in the grass.

WHY? I can't wrap my mind around this.

[Ilovemypup]

I totally Agree with you!

I don't like how people this that cats/rabbits /etc aren't as important! THEY HAVE FEELINGS TOO!!!!!
It's just not fair to the animals...
I feel your pain.


-ali

[britishbandit]

I agree with you, in most parts of what you say.

But I guess I would frustrate you also. Unlike my dogs who are more than happy to be with me on leash, or stay close off leash, my cats are not the same. While they are both neutered, I do let them outside for a couple of hours here and there. They are vaccinated, and are both also front declawed, and I've been given a hard time about allowing them out because of it. Well I tried keeping them as strictly indoor cats, and they just weren't happy like that. They bolted every time that door opened, if they'd been couped up in the house for long periods (even when they had never actually been outside). I ended up (in a rush to get the door shut at one time), closing the door on Bandit's head. It chipped and split his fang, and he had to have the tooth surgically removed. Now in the 2 1/2 years I've allowed my cats outside (since Bandit recovered from his surgery), not once have they ever been hit by a car (I do live in a quiet area though, and if it were busy I'd take more care to make sure they didn't go out), nor have they ever come home with any cuts or scratches from other animals. The only injury was because of me trying to prevent the cat from getting out.

And maybe it is wrong of me to allow them outside, I hope I don't ever regret allowing them out, but they truly aren't the same happy cats when they are inside 24/7. However, I'd never allow them out to wander if they were not altered.

ETA: I also would never have had them declawed if I hadn't intended on them being strictly indoor cats when I had it done.

[Ritz459]

I can understand how frusterating that is.

I try to take care of my animals with the same knowledge and attention that my dogs get. I've been trying to switch them all to better food, make their cages more like a habitat than a cage, etc.

We live out in the country, so I let the dogs wander (to some extent) as well as the cats. When Rush was younger, he would stay out all night and come home in the morning. He is a large, male (albeit nuetered), and is fully confident in his ways to defend himself.
He came home once with a small scratch on his head, but we doctored that up. Now that he is fourteen, she just sleeps all day and when he is up, he wants nothing to do with what is outside.
Pheobe won't be allowed outside unsupervised until she is older. Have a little tiny seven week old kitten waddling around outside with the owls, hawks, coyotes, and dogs roaming around...not smart.

However, we were toying with the idea of getting barn cats and we have nixed that idea after hearing a pack of coyotes running through our feild one night.


And if we lived in town, the dogs and the cats wouldn't be allowed to wander. Actually, the cats probably wouldn't be allowed outside unless they were in one of those cat tunnel things that safely allow you to let your cat outside.

And of course, all of my animals will be spayed and nuetered. I flinched when our neighbors told us, "Oh, we could just not get Pheobe spayed and not get Raphie nuetered so then we can have kittens!" They've also mentioned that once about me spaying Chloe..."Why spay her when you can breed her and sell the puppies?"
Have you looked at our local shelter recentally? I don't think the world needs more mixed breed kittens and puppies.