Current Events > I don't fully understand vets/people moving figurative mountains for animals

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_Rinku_ posted...

Pretty bizarre that you would make your original rant then.

I feel bad your partner; veterinary care isn't easy. I'm sure you're aware of some of the grim statistics of the profession.

I'm aware that she cries almost weekly over some of the things I'm talking about here, yes.

It's a complicated topic. If you got the idea that I think caring about animals is always stupid then you weren't really reading. My actual point is, "sometimes people go too far, and put their own needs above animals".

_Rinku_ posted...

And of course your original post.

Bro you just quoted me talking about a scenario where the pet is almost certainly going to die and treatment is excessively expensive. This is a very far cry from a comparing life saving care to senseless pain.

Also it's weird that you would quote my first post directly but miss this part: "Alright, so i get if this is your boy and he's been in your family for 10 years and you're attached and there's a good chance that with some money and care you'll save his life"

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pinky0926 posted...

I'm aware that she cries almost weekly over some of the things I'm talking about here, yes.

It's a complicated topic. If you got the idea that I think caring about animals is always stupid then you weren't really reading. My actual point is, "sometimes people go too far, and put their own needs above animals".

Bro you just quoted me talking about a scenario where the pet is almost certainly going to die and treatment is excessively expensive. This is a very far cry from a comparing life saving care to senseless pain.

Also it's weird that you would quote my first post directly but miss this part: "Alright, so i get if this is your boy and he's been in your family for 10 years and you're attached and there's a good chance that with some money and care you'll save his life"

And, yet again, it's really bizarre you'd make this topic to moan about animal lovers given you "know" all this lol

You came out of the gate swinging.

TC did you really have to use figurative in your topic title? LMAO

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pinky0926 posted...

Alright, so i get if this is your boy and he's been in your family for 10 years and you're attached and there's a good chance that with some money and care you'll save his life. I get more confused when it's like, a bat someone found on the side of the road and then decided to take to a vet clinic to save.

Yeah, I get you there. I'd absolutely be willing to make huge sacrifices for my pets; not really for a random animal. If I found an injured dog with a decent chance of surviving for example, and it was gonna cost $100 or so, sure, that's no biggie, but dropping thousands on it? Nah, not gonna happen.

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I spent some money on a few surgeries for my dog.

He's alive and well now. He wouldn't be if I didn't.


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TC is correct. dogs aren't worth spending tens of thousands on to extend their lives for a couple more weeks. that doesn't make you a sociopath. euthanasia is a good thing for terminal illness

if it means you get to fully save the animal then however I do think it's worth it

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I volunteer with trap/neuter/release feral cat groups. It's always a gamble with doing this because if I take a cat to the vet to get spayed/neutered, there's a not insignificant chance they could be put down. A cat with a severely damaged or missing limb or eye will definitely be put down if it can't be homed (which is the case for the vast majority of feral cats, especially adults) or if there's no one to do wildlife rehab. I don't have the time or resources to do that. A healthy looking cat could still have FIV or feline leukemia or something else and that's it, game over. It's not even up to me at that point.

There are many people in these groups who are in debt, some of them tens of thousands of dollars deep, because they're obsessed with trying to "save them all." I know people who've turned their residences into makeshift refuges, except there's no one qualified or competent to run it. One person ended up spreading FIV to a small colony of feral cats because she didn't take one to get neutered knowing he'd be put down. He got out of her house to go fuck and 8 cats she had already gone through the trouble of TNRing got it and died. There are also people who do this with opossums, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, birds, and other critters.

And helping animals is great, don't get me wrong, but there's a fine line between good intentions and obsession with this kind of thing and it seems like most amateurs who do this are running on emotions. It can easily get out of control. I see people start with one animal and then it just spirals out from there. It's almost like a drug addiction. It's a sickness for a lot of people, honestly.

I respect animals (all animals, not just pets or ones that humans can exploit) and I can never bring myself to do that because at that point, basically everyone is taking a hit to their quality of life. The time, the effort, the money, all of it can be better spent elsewhere. That's not an easy decision and I'm certainly tempted at times but when you see the bad outcomes play out over and over, way more than the good, it gets easier. My family had a pet hoarding problem (cats, rats, and snakes) when I was growing up because of this mentality and it's disturbing and I want no part of even risking it ever again.

If it's a beloved pet, I still disagree with that, though it's going to matter on a case by case basis. My family cat of 15 years got very sick and everyone but me wanted to try to extend his life knowing he would have a rough time until whenever the end came. I finally got everyone to agree with doing the right thing and we had him put down. It was painful and it sucked but prolonging his suffering for our sake would've been hard for me to live with. I didn't even like the week of deliberation we took.

There are better ways to care for animals.


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