Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Humankind's Shame

Today, four separate incidents, each showing humankind's inhumanity:

A 19 month old collie with a few minor, fixable behavioural issues (from lack of training) was euthanized at the request of his owner, who had refused help from a rescue organization to find a suitable home for the dog. Shame on the owner, and shame on the vet that would euth a perfectly healthy dog.

A 14 year old Shih tzu is sitting in a vet clinic waiting for someone to be willing to adopt her, after she was "left behind" by her owners. What kind of owner abandons their 14 year old dog? What kind of owner abandons ANY age animal????? Shame on them!!

A pig, a horse and a llama are left on a property by the person responsible for them, a person who sold the property and told the purchasers "you'll have to take the animals, too". The new owners closed the deal and then proceeded to dump the animals on whatever rescue or shelter they could dump them on. One new incoming piggy for Hearts on Noses. Shame on the old owner, shame on the purchaser.

Endless ads on craigslist of people getting rid of senior dogs, young dogs, middle aged dogs, cats, horses, bunnies......animals they swore they loved and now no longer do. While there are a few legitimate reasons for rehoming (I have great sympathy for people with life-changing crises in their lives, such as having to move into an eldercare facility) the vast majority of those advertising on craigslist don't seem to give a d*mn. Shame on them.

Another pig, dumped on the sanctuary property while the sanctuary owner is away at her paid job. No notice, no nothing.....Janice comes home to find a young unneutered male pig running around her property. Good thing none of the other pigs were out for their pasture time - you can't just throw a stranger into the midst of a herd animal. Of course, the cost of building a house, building a pen, neutering the pig, feeding the pig, will all fall on the shoulders of the already over-extended sanctuary. Fingers crossed that this is a lost pig who broke out of his yard and some well-meaning good samaritan managed to grab it and didn't know what else to do with it other than take it to the sanctuary. Hopefully that lost pig has human family frantically searching for it. I'll reserve the "shame on you" until we know the full story.

Some days people just plain suck. Is it any wonder my heart belongs to the critters?

2 comments:

Black Jack's Carol said...

Hello Jean,

Thanks for dropping by my blog. Always lovely to get a comment.

I've just read through most of your October entries. Oh my goodness! How do you do it?? Looks like we were both dealing with recent midterms. Morning and evening chores, foster work, occasional extra clean-ups when the pigs go exploring - I think I would fold under the workload. You must be made of good stuff:) Loved the coyote and bear encounter stories, although I can appreciate the concerns here too. Very entertaining reading as I sip my morning latte! And for every "humankind shame" story, there is a "Jean" story. I hope you can take some comfort in that fact.

I'm having a hard time getting Misty off my mind. Thanks for posting here and for helping Jim. I wonder if it might be useful to post one at the Food Lady's blog (or perhaps you've already done so.)

Looking forward to catching up, little by little, with the rest of your blog. Thanks for all you do.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I agree Jean -- shame on us all.

Sharon