Monday, June 18, 2007

Some people!!

I just got back from beautiful, beautiful Mexico. On the one cooler day we had, my friend and I finally ventured into the large jacuzzi that was at our resort. We'd seen people in it earlier in our trip and just thought them damn crazy! I mean, who goes into a giant, heated, bubbly pool in 83 degree HUMID weather?!

Anyway, so my friend and I go in on this cool day and who do we happen to sit by but a group of three people discussing cats - PUREBRED cats at that. Now, I have no issue with purebred cats, but these people were talking about how they just loved their purebred cat so much they had to breed her and their kids loved it, blah, blah, blah. Are you aware some 10,000 loving, HEALTHY animals are killed EVERY DAY in the U.S. because there's just simply not enough homes for them? Well, it's true. So, hearing someone discuss just on a whim breeding their cat upsets me.

I know not everyone understands this, so I turn to my very healthy, very fit friend and said to her: "Imagine sitting here and overhearing someone say how useless running is, it's a big waste of time and if you run, you're an idiot. That's pretty much how this conversation is for me - they're dismissing everything I do." This is the only way I could try to make her relate to how I was feeling at the moment. As if the hot water wasn't enough, my blood was getting a little heated too.

These people went on to also talk about their cat getting sick and they just gave it up to Siamese Rescue. Turns out the cat had some sort of complication (didn't hear the specifics) from being bred by this couple. I know not all people value their pets like I do, but when getting a pet you're making a COMMITMENT, a commitment to be responsible! Should that pet live a long life and need some assistance at the end or be horribly injured the day after bringing them home, you're responsible - even financially! If I can figure out a way to pull money together for some crazy, new-age way to create eyelids for a kitten born without any, most people can figure out a way to at least afford to fix their pet (especially when there's so much assistance for that now). Correcting some medical condition is a lot cheaper than sending your kid off to college or going on some fancy vacation to Mexico to sit around in a hot tub.

It just frustrates me how people can be so ignorant.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Chickens, ducklings, oh my!

A former rescue buddy of mine called up my house today to say that she'd driven past her local shelter this morning (at this time of year is so hot and dangerous for animals just abandoned outside shelters). What did she find? 3 chickens in a cage! This rescue friend took them to work with her in a make-shift covered pen in her truck bed. In calling me for info (we're both more of cat rescuers, but I have a farm so she hoped I had contacts), she got a hold of my mom who said we'd take the chickens. So, chickens are on the way. More animals ...

My family just got ducks as well - baby ducks. A local kindergarten class hatched and raised them and then just started giving them away as they started to get their feathers. Since we have a lake, my dad got in touch with them and we got 2 of the 8 (I don't even know where the other 6 went). It aggravates me that the education system still takes in eggs to hatch and raise ducklings/chicks with no idea what they'll be doing with these babies when they're too big to be any more "fun".

I remember being younger and thinking that whole deal was awesome, but now that I'm older, the lack of forethought of what to do with these animals is really aggravating. These animals shouldn't just be abandoned or given up after a period of time ... what kind of message is that?! I have no objection to classroom pets, but they should be taken care of by the teacher throughout the pet's lifetime and during the school year, whether in the class or taken home by students over the weekends to be cared for. I know not everyone will agree with me, but that's my opinion. I think animals in the classroom can be a wonderful experience and great way to teach responsibility, but only when that responsibility is actually honored!

“I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs... [They] are an obligation put on us, a responsibility we have no right to neglect, nor to violate by cruelty.” –James Herriot