I’m an animal lover who has only worked retail for the last 8 years… I can kind of understand why they’d want to shame them. Because first there’s the obvious:
A) You should not have adopted a pet living being if you weren’t absolutely sure you could ensure it’s well-being along the way. (btw I’m realizing the analogy between plant and animal is only so perfect)
And B) Now they have to deal with it. Not only that, but they know that the person returning that living being knows that they’re perpetuating a very dark problem in our society.
I’ve never worked with animals professionally, but I do have very strong feelings on the matter… I think recognizing that they fucked up and still bringing the living being to someone who can take care of them is commendable, but they still deserve to be shamed. Because while it will extend their life and give them another chance to have a life, they still catastrophically failed that being in a way that’s just sad, and there’s no way around that.
Ive been blindsided with an eviction, and right now the rental market in my affordability range (Australian btw) is very hostile to pets.
Im stuck with the reality of choosing between my cat or having a place to live. But she’ll run away anyway if I end up homeless and have to live out of my car.
I really dont want to send her to a shelter. But what else do I do when I have no friends and espsecially no family to care for her instead?
I have worked for a rescue charity and though you want to shame them, it’s really not a good idea as they were usually trying to do the best for their animal under difficult circumstances. Though sometimes animals would be_returned_ to us after being adopted for dumb reasons so I think those people did deserve some shame but the ones just trying navigate a bad hand, I didn’t feel too bad about. Life can be tough and unpredictable.
The ones who would just tie their dogs to the gate and drive off though, those people deserve plenty of shame.
I’m a wildlife rescue volunteer and we have to bite our tongues a lot. Many injuries are due to loose pets or people’s crap they leave out that ensnares/traps/smacks wildlife. We also get people that try to treat animals they don’t understand the needs of and will make them sicker or unsaveable when they could have brought them directly to us to save them.
We can’t scold people no matter how accidentally or purposefully they hurt wildlife because then people will either leave them outside to die a prolonged death or keep them themselves and they will die or have terrible health problems and live miserable lives. We only let people trained to properly receive patients talk to the people that come in.
We also get some plain insane people that will be kinda scary to the almost exclusively female staff, and we are fairly secluded.
I think the analogy of animal and plant is exactly what the comic was evoking. I think the problem with shaming is that people may decide to not bring their animal here because they don’t want to be shamed, which ends up being worse for the animal. So if the store truly cares about the well being of the animal (or plant), they shouldn’t shame so it encourages people to do the right thing.
Since editing crashes my client after the last update:
I know I’m giving a very serious reply to what was probably a joke comment, but I have a lot of feelings on this topic and needed an excuse to get them out lol.
I respect that you’re very passionate about animal welfare. So this is not a critique. Surrendering an animal out of pure convenience is extremely shitty and the people that do that deserve judgement.
That said:
Sometimes, shit happens. An animal you’ve loved and cared for deeply is no longer going to receive the same care, or is in an unsafe environment for whatever reason. Maybe there’s an unexpected health issue. Maybe work suddenly requires a lot more travel. Maybe a newborn has come and the animal and the baby can’t coexist, either due to allergies or temperament.
I’m not saying every surrendered animal is a legit sob story, but many of them will be.
I’m an animal lover who has only worked retail for the last 8 years… I can kind of understand why they’d want to shame them. Because first there’s the obvious:
A) You should not have adopted a
petliving being if you weren’t absolutely sure you could ensure it’s well-being along the way. (btw I’m realizing the analogy between plant and animal is only so perfect)And B) Now they have to deal with it. Not only that, but they know that the person returning that living being knows that they’re perpetuating a very dark problem in our society.
I’ve never worked with animals professionally, but I do have very strong feelings on the matter… I think recognizing that they fucked up and still bringing the living being to someone who can take care of them is commendable, but they still deserve to be shamed. Because while it will extend their life and give them another chance to have a life, they still catastrophically failed that being in a way that’s just sad, and there’s no way around that.
Ive been blindsided with an eviction, and right now the rental market in my affordability range (Australian btw) is very hostile to pets.
Im stuck with the reality of choosing between my cat or having a place to live. But she’ll run away anyway if I end up homeless and have to live out of my car.
I really dont want to send her to a shelter. But what else do I do when I have no friends and espsecially no family to care for her instead?
I have worked for a rescue charity and though you want to shame them, it’s really not a good idea as they were usually trying to do the best for their animal under difficult circumstances. Though sometimes animals would be_returned_ to us after being adopted for dumb reasons so I think those people did deserve some shame but the ones just trying navigate a bad hand, I didn’t feel too bad about. Life can be tough and unpredictable.
The ones who would just tie their dogs to the gate and drive off though, those people deserve plenty of shame.
I’m a wildlife rescue volunteer and we have to bite our tongues a lot. Many injuries are due to loose pets or people’s crap they leave out that ensnares/traps/smacks wildlife. We also get people that try to treat animals they don’t understand the needs of and will make them sicker or unsaveable when they could have brought them directly to us to save them.
We can’t scold people no matter how accidentally or purposefully they hurt wildlife because then people will either leave them outside to die a prolonged death or keep them themselves and they will die or have terrible health problems and live miserable lives. We only let people trained to properly receive patients talk to the people that come in.
We also get some plain insane people that will be kinda scary to the almost exclusively female staff, and we are fairly secluded.
And shaming them will do nothing to solve the stated problems.
Shaming people does nothing but stroke the ego of the one doing the shaming so they can feel morally superior to the one being shamed.
I think the analogy of animal and plant is exactly what the comic was evoking. I think the problem with shaming is that people may decide to not bring their animal here because they don’t want to be shamed, which ends up being worse for the animal. So if the store truly cares about the well being of the animal (or plant), they shouldn’t shame so it encourages people to do the right thing.
Since editing crashes my client after the last update:
I know I’m giving a very serious reply to what was probably a joke comment, but I have a lot of feelings on this topic and needed an excuse to get them out lol.
I respect that you’re very passionate about animal welfare. So this is not a critique. Surrendering an animal out of pure convenience is extremely shitty and the people that do that deserve judgement.
That said:
Sometimes, shit happens. An animal you’ve loved and cared for deeply is no longer going to receive the same care, or is in an unsafe environment for whatever reason. Maybe there’s an unexpected health issue. Maybe work suddenly requires a lot more travel. Maybe a newborn has come and the animal and the baby can’t coexist, either due to allergies or temperament.
I’m not saying every surrendered animal is a legit sob story, but many of them will be.