Showing posts with label surrenders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surrenders. Show all posts

Monday 25 March 2024

Somebody TOSSED two cats in a box into an animal shelter lobby and RAN

This is another example of how some people surrender their cats and obviously it isn't the best way. Sometimes people surreptitiously arrive at the doors of an animal shelter and leave two or three cats in a cardboard box outside to be collected the next morning which is dangerous for the cat if it's in the middle of winter.

Other times they give up their cats in cruel ways but on this occasion the Brother Wolf Animal Rescue center in Asheville, North Carolina, United States Of America, reported that, "Somebody tossed two cat in our lobby. They opened the door, tossed a box in, sliding it across the floor, then ran out to a car waiting in the road that sped away."



Guilt?


How does that look to you as an outside observer? I'll tell you how it looks to me. It looks like they feel very guilty about what they're doing and they don't want to confront the shelter staff and explain to them why they are surrendering their cats. 

But this is stupid behaviour. No one is going to judge them. No one is going to criticise them. Shelter staff will, I am sure, accept cats surrendered even if the reasons are poor. That's because their primary objective is to care for unwanted cats and find a new home with them.

So it is very stupid to abandon cats in this way. Far better to face up to it and admit that you can no longer care for your cats and hand them over. You don't even have to explain why you are surrendering the cats. You just surrender them. You don't have to justify it.


It does indicate a cowardice on behalf of the people who tossed this box into the shelter lobby but I don't want to be too critical because we are all human and we are all, in some way, vulnerable and have our own weaknesses.

Still high numbers of cats given up


The cats' names are Juniper and Theodore. They were written on the box. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reports that annually in America, 6.3 million pets are surrendered which equates to 17,260 per day. Obviously, I'm sure that 99% of them are super surrendered across the counter in the animal shelter and not in the way described.

Stressful experience


We all need to be reminded sometimes that animal shelters are stressful places for cats and dogs to be rehomed. They are strange places. They are noisy places with strange people and strange goings-on. They are confined to cages and it's very difficult for them to behave normally and in an attractive way to do their best to find an adopter.

One caption on the video of the above-mentioned surrender said, "We always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Not make quick judgments. Check our biases. Not to shame them for needing help. Some days, it is really hard to do that. Today is one of those days."

The video is on Instagram from the above-mentioned shelter. Sometimes these embedded videos stop working so if it has stopped I apologise but I don't control it.


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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Thursday 25 August 2022

Animal charities swamped due to UK's cost-of-living crisis

There is another report today in the news media about animal charities being swamped with abandoned cats and dogs because of a double whammy of major problems. Firstly, there was the surge in cat and dog ownership during the pandemic with those owners now giving up their pets because they've decided they can't afford to keep them which has been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis. 

In isn't just the cost-of-living crisis which is causing this abandonment of pets. People adopting pets during Covid now see the reality of cat and dog caregiving and have decided that they were unprepared or uncommitted for a lifetime of cat or dog caregiving.

RSPCA shelter
RSPCA shelter. Image: RSPCA

The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has reported a 25% increase in abandoned pets during 2022. They say that their employees are overwhelmed at their call centre from owners reporting that they are struggling to feed and care for their animals.

During the first seven months of this year, they recorded 22,908 cases of abandoned pets paired with 18,373 during the same period last year.

They have reported such events as a terrier dog being thrown from a truck travelling at 50 miles an hour and 20 puppies being abandoned in a box in a layby in Essex.

They put most of this problem down to the extraordinary number of 3.2 million cats and dogs that were bought or acquired during the lockdowns coupled with the increased pressure on the finances of many cat and dog owners in the UK who are facing extraordinary bills to heat and power their homes this winter. 

Some economists have predicted 22% inflation in the UK thanks to a projected £6,000 annual bill for a typical family home to provide gas and electricity to that home beginning in the early part of next year.

Cats Protection has seen a rise of 46% in the number of animals on the waiting list in July of this year compared to last year. Peter Shergold, the head of operations at Cats Protection said: 

"This is the worst situation in organisational memory in terms of the pressure on our services to take in cats. The rise is directly linked to the cost-of-living crisis."

I can also see, by the way, problems with the cost of running animal charities. There are reports of numerous small businesses going under because the cost of gas and electricity is just too high so their overheads become unbearable. I can see some small animal charities having to close at least potentially because of the extraordinary rise in the price of gas which has a knock-on effect on the cost of electricity in the UK.

Pet owners are struggling to afford basics such as food and litter for their cats. The extreme cost of gas is due to Putin's attempt to force Europe to loosen their sanctions against Putin. It's blackmail basically. He doesn't care about killing thousands upon thousands of innocent Ukrainian citizens and he doesn't care about the dramatically negative effect that the price of gas is having upon so many organisations and individuals in the UK. In fact, he wants the Brits and Europeans to suffer.

I can remember reading an article about a man who said that he has to use the dregs from his shampoo in order to make ends meet. He could then, and only then, maintain enough funds to look after his cat. But it occurred to me that most people add some water to the bottom of their shampoo bottle in order to get out the last bits because by doing this you can get two or three more washes. I don't think that it is a particularly clever thing to do or something which indicates that a person is on their uppers.


I can remember reading an article about a man who said that he has to use the dregs from his shampoo in order to make ends meet. He could then, and only then maintain enough funds to look after his cat. But it occurred to me that most people add some water to the bottom of their shampoo bottle in order to get out the last bits because by doing this you can get two or three more washes. I don't think that it is a particularly clever thing to do or something which indicates that a person is on their uppers.

I can remember reading an article about a man who said that he has to use the dregs from his shampoo in order to make ends meet. He could then, and only then maintain enough funds to look after his cat. But it occurred to me that most people add some water to the bottom of their shampoo bottle in order to get out the last bits because by doing this you can get two or three more washes. I don't think that it is a particularly clever thing to do or something which indicates that a person is on their uppers.
Also, I think that a lot of people have built into their lives overheads such as subscriptions to smart phone providers, Sky television all broadband Internet. Or they are buying a car on hire purchase as opposed to outright. So, they burden their lives with overheads and they are not prepared to release themselves from these overheads which leads them to a precarious financial situation under the current cost of living crisis. 

They should divest themselves of some of these expensive overheads and ensure that their expenditure is less than their income and then they can put some money aside for those unexpected veterinary bills in a self-insurance policy. 

Sunday 21 August 2022

Owners abandon the cats that kept them company during lockdown

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has reported that 148 cats have been surrendered to the shelter for financial reasons. This is double the number compared to last year. They've all been handed in because their owners are cash-strapped, hit by the cost-of-living crisis which has been so heavily reported on in the UK. And the winter is yet to arrive. This is when gas and electricity prices are going to double or treble or whatever the figure is. That's going to push up inflation even further perhaps to around 13% in the UK. There will be more surrenders.

Pictured: Dustin 2-month-old male tabby and white kitten gifted to Battersea his as owners were no longer able to look after him.
Pictured: Dustin 2-month-old male tabby and white kitten gifted to Battersea his as owners were no longer able to look after him. Image: Battersea Dogs & Cats Home (believed).

What is particularly sad about this story is that the people who adopted kittens and cats during the Covid lockdowns are now abandoning them because of, yes, the cost-of-living crisis and inflation and, frankly, because they didn't really work out how much it would cost to look after a cat for the life of the cat.

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home say that it costs about £1,500 annually to look after a cat properly. You might do it cheaper than that but let's put it this way, it does cost money and it is something which is often overlooked.

RELATED: Shanghai residents fight back against state-sanctioned Covid-related animal cruelty.

Battersea say that the people who are giving up their cats are often devastated and that it is a very emotional time for them. I would doubt that applies in every case. If you casually adopt a cat during lockdown to keep you company it signals to me that the attitude of the adopter is incorrect and that being the case giving up their cat is not going to be as hard as they state.

Battersea state that the number of cats relinquished to their shelter because owners can no longer afford to look after them has reached 9.6% of families relinquishing cats whereas it was 5.9% last year.

An example is Amanda - a fictional name to protect her identity - who found her two cats were a huge support during lockdown is but she's been forced to give them up for financial reasons. She said: "I was struggling to afford things and I didn't want my cats to suffer, so it was best to find them a better home. I struggle with mental health and the cats were a big part of my life, so it was upsetting to get rid of them."

There is a double problem which is this. More people are giving up their cats and it is harder to rehome cats because people are wary about the rising costs ahead of them and are therefore hesitant to take on the added financial responsibility.

RELATED: Fears that starving Russian soldiers are eating abandoned cats and dogs.

In one instance a couple of cats were surrendered because they became pregnant and their owners said that they could not afford to take care of the kittens as well. Well, you have to think why did the owners allow their cats to become pregnant? That is careless cat ownership.

Another high-profile cat rescue organisation, Cats Protection, said that a survey of 10,000 cat owners found that 30% were concerned about affording bills.

I can foresee many more cat surrenders taking place over the forthcoming winter. What is happening now was entirely predictable and predicted a couple of years ago during the first lockdown. And the same problem is occurring with dogs. In fact, I would suggest that the problem is bigger with dogs because more dogs were adopted during Covid lockdowns than cats.

On the other side of the coin, cat owners determined to hang on to their cats are getting pet food from food banks. Animal charity Blue Cross already has four pet food banks and is looking at rolling out more across the country according to the Express newspaper online.

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