Animals - It's your responsibility

It's your responsibility


-About this stamp
At the moment this stamp is quite personal. We are dealing with a cat who has a disease known as FLUTD. Doing research obviously I came across opinions and topics of people online who dealt with this problem. And some of the commentary as usual just made me shake my head. I had this stamp even before this situation in mind, so I guess it was about time I would work on this one. For this stamp i'll be giving some stories that I read or saw or came in contact with. This way I can somewhat give examples. 

Animals are not toys, can you afford the costs ?
Let's start of with one of the biggest issues ever. Can you afford it ? I see from time to time people taking in animals without them being able to properly care for. For instance, do you go on a yearly vet visit with your animals ? No because you say it's to expensive ? Then you shouldn't have an animal. A normal check up, and vaccinations isn't that expensive to start of with. When I hear people complain it sometimes sounds as if they have to pay over 100$ for a normal check up. Do you make a problem out of chipping the animal(so an animal is registered) ? Then again why do you have this animal ? There is a visible problem yet you avoid the vet because of costs ? AGAIN you should not have an example, the only exceptions I make is for homeless people and their dogs since obviously the circumstances are different. Same can be said for who perhaps found a street cat/dog on the street in dire need. But do you live on your own, have a job a car etc... then taking in an animal and paying for the costs that comes with this, should be no issue. I don't want to sound super harsh, but in my eyes in the truth. We have cats and all of them get their check up at the vet on a yearly basis. If even one of them shows signs of being ill, a trip to the vet is the next choice immediately. 

Avoiding the vet can result in death
Sometimes people see their animal ill, and still refuse to go to the vet resulting in death eventually. I knew this case close by my door, a dog was taken on a walk outside. This happened to be an English bulldog, and it was extremely hot. The dog basically couldn't walk anymore. Instead of going to the vet, the owner took the dog home and placed the animal in the shade giving it water. He assumed this was gonna be just fine. Of course his dog died. It's your responsibility to figure out issues with your animal. Behavior that isn't common or suddenly knew, those can all be signs. When your animal is stressed or in pain, don't wait to long to to a vet. 

Old doesn't mean death 
Below I will mention that if an animal is really old and is facing dangerous operations that euthanizing might be more humane if the chances of a successful operation are dangerously low. However, I have also met people that would choose euthanasia just because their cat or dog is 10+ years. This isn't correct either, especially if you know treatment can perfectly work. When our cat was 16 he was diagnosed with kidney failure, and when we saw him back then it felt like he would drop dead any day. We changed his diet to support him, and surprisingly he did really well on this. He gained weight and became better and right now he's 19 years old. Without the diet change we are almost a 100% sure that he would have been gone by now. I see so many people that clearly see issues but choose euthanasia instead.  If your animal suddenly doesn't eat well, drink well then old age isn't always the culprit. Sometimes there could be deeper issues, so please just because your animal is a senior doesn't mean it's time to put him or her down. See the signals and visit a vet if you aren't sure.

Just because your animal is sick (or has a disease) does not give you the right to end the animal's life 
It's never fun, taking your animal to the vet figuring out your animal is extremely sick or suffers from a disease. But seeing how many people immediately give up on the animal breaks my heart. Either people don't wanna have to deal with the stress or in most instances the costs. In our local shelters some of the most common cats for instance that are brought in, tend to have issues or problems. We had a talk with one of the staff members who told us how frustrating it could be, as owners brought in their cats and made up excuses why they couldn't keep the animal. It's really sad if you think about it. If the issue, problem, sickness can actually be dealt with in result that the cat can have a happy and pain-free life...then your choice should be to go for it and not to give up. This animal depends on you, and just ending it's life because you don't want to have to deal with this tells me enough about what kind of owner you would be. As a personal example, one of the kittens we had for adoption from a street cat we rescued ended up death. The cat had the same issue as his brother that we have. Rather than warning me about this, or telling me that she would consider putting the cat down...she just did so. And on top of that she only warned me after I basically began to spam her inbox. Suddenly I got a reply, that 8 months ago this cat died. It broke my heart that she made such a choice even when I told her from the start that if something was wrong she could contact me. In her poor excuse she stated "I couldn't take this anymore" .... My thoughts were clear... You shouldn't have an animal. And of course she ended up getting a puppy. If your animal can have a good life by means of a different diet or operation then give this right to your animal. 

There CAN be exceptions where re homing is actually responsible on your part
Of course there can be exceptions. Obviously if your living with your parents or you are a student things might be different. If you have parents who do not give a duck about vet check ups and treating a sick animal then of course it might be hard for you as a student without an income to change this. Other than that as a child living with your parents you can't exactly tell them what to do sadly. Other situations, if you have an animal that's really old, then operating might be risky for the animal to begin with. If operating will not do well on a very old animal then obviously it might be more humane to euthanize the animal. Same can be said if we are dealing with problems that cause constant pain and cannot be fixed. For example, we had a cat of 18 years old dealing with kidney failure. Feeding the appropriate diet can fix a lot. But as he grew older, the diet began to fail on him as it didn't work anymore. The vet explained us that either we put him to sleep, or we leave him be which would give him maybe a week. But she told us that week will be nothing but pain and suffering for the animal, so we decided to euthanize him as it was far more humane. If you have an animal that you believe could have a better home then re homing is likely also a better option. If you realize you can offer a better home then go for it.

Know when enough is enough
Continuing on what I said last, know when enough is enough. If your animal is in a huge amount of pain then please consider putting the animal to sleep. As another personal example, on vacation I met these people who had a couple of dogs. Sadly their treatment towards the dogs was different as one dog was more important that their first dogs. Rather than spending time with their oldest dog who needed it a lot more, they basically looked at their youngest dog only. Their oldest dog was blind, had issue's walking and seemed to be def. Not only that, when they would pick the dog up it would show it's teeth and growl. This tells me that the dog was not used to contact such as being petted and loved. Of course as we were there, they tried to show as if they did care but the animal showed plenty of signs that it seemed to not even realize who these people were. Now having seen their normal life situation it broke my heart to see the dog. The dog would pee, and fall in it's own pee and the owners their choice was to put the animal outside wet of it's pee in the middle of winter. There was tons of snow. And rather than hurrying up, they first slowly dressed up and so on. Only when they were fully done did they go down to clean the dog. It was hard enough to see how they treated this animal. Seeing the dog walk fall of stairs and having trouble I just said to myself, please put the animal down. When I told the people their response was, "well it's almost my birthday, at least wait til then".... Seriously?  When it comes to your animal being in pain, letting go of your animal shows that you care a whole lot more. But keeping the animal because, hey it's almost Christmas or my birthday...these are selfish wishes. Another example, a women I knew had a cat that had crystals, these have to be operated but she didn't want to pay the money. Rather than finding help or euthanizing the animal she told me "I kept him and took care of him, and then one day he died in my arms... at least he died knowing I love him", sorry but let me rephrase that...Your cat died in pain nothing more. I couldn't imagine knowing my animal suffers the whole time that my choice would be to let the animal die naturally. This in my eyes is abusive to an animal as well. We currently have a cat that is gonna turn 20 years old, and of course we rather would have him one day to die peacefully in his sleep. But lately he has had troubles and we have agreed if he would suffer and would no longer be doing well... then we would euthanize him rather than wait till he drops dead in pain

Sending your animal to a shelter means you shouldn't ever get another animal
Might sound harsh but it's the truth. It sickens me how many people will abandon their animal for the following reason (extremely common in shelters): Moving to a new house (because it's apparently impossible to take an animal with ??? ), Split up of a couple, sudden allergies out of nowhere(not to mention 8 years after having the animal), Animal is dirty in house but at shelter magically is not, to many animals (think about taking in a new animal before doing so and then realizing the problems), not controllable (very common for dogs). I once stood in a shelter to bring in a kitten, before you ask no this kitten wasn't mine. I found her early in the morning in a huge gym building I had to go to for school. This kitten apparently was locked inside the whole night and so probably got separated from it's mother. The kitten was extremely needy to the point it would drink my water bottle and even suck on my jacket probably because the poor thing was hungry. Knowing the chances of this kitten finding her mother, and knowing what future awaits her I decided to step in. I couldn't bare the cries of this poor kitten so I called my mom skipped school and brought the kitten home. We fed it but obviously we couldn't keep her, we just had rescued a mother recently and we kept 3 of her kittens, having 4 cats was already a lot. This is the only reason how I ever brought an animal to a shelter. When they heard that we had rescued kittens they even named the kitten after me. But as I was there guess what I had to witness...A women brought in her dog and said "it's just that, I can't control this dog for anything a walk etc..." The staff cleverly answered: "well odd that you could walk your dog to our front door". Good point.... It was sad to see what people will do to get rid of an animal. Shelter said especially sudden allergies is common. The only reason that it can't be helped is if the owner would die for example. But another exception I would make is when people realize potentially they cannot give the animal a proper or good life, or can actually make their life better, then re homing would likely not be bad.

You want an animal ? But want others to pay for it ?
It's not the first time that I see it. People starting a fund raiser to get money to buy a specific animal. Really no offense, but if you have to ask people for money JUST to buy set animal....WHAT are you thinking! The fact that you would fully buy the animal and it's needed material/food shows that you have the money and so on to take care for this animal. But if your going to ask people to pay for it, then what does this show about you ? Story short, I will be a future owner of a reptile, and I have a full time job. Now I got everything that was needed for this reptile and paid for it all, without asking anyone for help. I know in the future this animal will require yearly vet visits too and i'm more than willing to pay for that. But when I see people asking others to fund them because they want a specific animal ? How will they pay vet costs or material ?? If they already depend on people for the animal. In what cases do I think is it right.... let's say your animal suddenly became sick, but is facing issues that are extremely costly and not usually something you would expect. Then I can completely understand it. If you then ask for help that is more than normal, I have seen youtube channels were they ask people to fund so they can get veterinary care for street animals this is different. But for normal vet checks ups etc and treatments you can handle like special diets, it is your job to pay for it.

All animals deserve vet care
Just because you have an animal like a mouse or reptile, does not mean you shouldn't have check ups. Treat your animals equal. When I will have my first reptile, I will have a yearly check up by a vet specialized for reptiles. As owners it's your duty. When I tell people we took our mouse (rest in peace Pichu) to a vet when she was sick, people usually give me this look that says "it's just a mouse". To me it's not just A mouse, it's family just like any other animal I take in. If you view it as a pet or family, nonetheless it's your job to make sure when the animal is sick to treat it. 

Don't take in an animal with this attitude "oh my animal will never be sick"
If only people would think before they would get an animal. So many people take in kittens and puppies but then when the animal gets sick it's like they expected that this wouldn't be possible. When you take in an animal fully on your own choice, then be prepared for the costs. What you could do is have an extra saving account were every month you put some of the money you earned into it. This way when your animal is sick you can use what you saved up for the costs. If you can't pay it try asking for help on shelters or vets. I have known cases were vet's did treat the animal or allowed people to pay them off monthly. If they offer you a solution go for it. When reading of a women who wanted to put her cat down for the same issue my cat has, her logic really irritated me. The vet refused to put the animal down, and instead made her pay 50 to give the cat to him. Then the costs would be for their vet office, and the cat would be put up for adoption. She said it didn't feel fair to let the cat go through the pain of surgery etc... and then she was bothered that the cat could not go back to her since she didn't pay the costs. Why on earth was she bothered ? Because it personally bothered me that she rather had her cat dead than helped. Back to

And finally, animals are NOT a HOBBY
Please don't be one of those people that considers an animal their hobby. Perhaps training animals can be a hobby but owning an animal should not be viewed as one. Although less common with cats and dogs this "hobby thing" is extremely common with smaller animals like reptiles. When searching on second hand material for a reptile, I came across so many posts were people stated "Stopping my hobby, you can take in my terrarium+reptiles". People it was one thing to read this in one post.... but reading this in over 10 different posts ?? It broke my heart slightly how people can materialize these animals. Some of these reptiles had been with the owners for more than 5 years, they are used to their owner and suddenly they are thrown away as if they are items. If I say, I stopped my hobby of collecting rocks then obviously i'm not hurting rocks. But imagine saying, "I've stopped my hobby anyone wants a free dog ??". It's sad to see that some people thinking owning animals is a hobby, and such people tend to have no issues to get rid of the animals either. Don't go collecting animals as if they are frigging pokemons from a game. 

If there is a good point I might not have added feel free to let me know 

-free stock images were used


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