It’s confirmed…the woman who dumped kittens in my yard is a moron. Let me briefly explain the story:
Eleven days ago I found three kittens in a box who were placed over my front fence. Fortunately I was home and my dog was curious enough about them to bring it to my attention, otherwise who knows how long they’d have been stuck in that box on a cold day. Anyway, a few days later I had them playing next to me whilst I was gardening and a lady from further up my street walked past with her dogs. I usually have a little chat to her whenever I see her and we got to talking about the kittens. She said she had a neighbour who had two cats who had litters recently and they were both long haired cats and similar looking to the kittens I had. So I went and knocked on their door and the woman who answered got the shock of her life when I confronted her about the kittens. I eventually found out her cats have had litters before and she explained that she couldn’t afford to get them spayed. So, here’s this woman, puffing away on a cigarette, saying she couldn’t afford desexing. Spaying a cat costs $55 dollars. It’s cheaper than a carton of ciggies, which she can afford, oddly enough. After trying to explain responsible pet ownership with the woman, I finally gave up and offered to pay for the desexing of her two female cats. I told her all she had to do was book them in and take them to my vet ASAP.
I’ve just come back from talking to the woman again and she said she couldn’t manage to take her cats to the vet. I’m like, WTF? Did you even call to book them in? No, she hadn’t. Do you want them to have yet another litter? I’m paying for it, you only have to take them to my vet, which is a few blocks away. It’s a five minute walk and a one minute drive ferchrissake. How much easier can it possibly be? Obviously, a phone call and a one minute drive is too much for this woman. In utter frustration, I’ve called the vet, booked her cats in for Friday and my SO and I will take them there to get spayed…and of course, take them back home after their operation. I’m kind of tempted to find decent homes for the two mother cats instead of giving them back.
What is wrong with this woman? Why have companion animals if you’re a) not going to look after them, and b) if you can’t afford them?
Let me get this straight: you’re offering to pay to have her cats fixed and the bithc still can’t be bothered? What a moron. That woman should definitely not be owning pets. Do you have some animal control or animal abuse organization down there? Maybe they should get a call…
Necromancer - bless you for having a heart, despite your neighbor’s apparent lack of compassion. I will second Q.E.D’s comment as to contacting animal control.
I’ve been seeing so many posts related to this subject lately - why isn’t there a law against letting your pets have endless litters of unwanted kittens/puppies? I just do not get it.
Q.E.D., yep, I’m paying. You’d think that would make it so easy, wouldn’t you?
The woman’s cats seem healthy enough, it’s just a shame they’ve got a moronic owner who couldn’t get off her arse to make a phone call or a take a short drive. I figure once they’re desexed, her poor cats don’t have to worry about having litter after litter. She’s one of the many people who like animals but are extremely ignorant about responsible pet ownership, which is so frustrating to me. Owning pets and being a responsible owner goes hand in hand for me. I still can’t get over the fact she said she couldn’t ever afford to get them spayed…but she can afford to smoke. Go figure.
Blonde, I wish there was a law about endless litters of kittens/puppes too. The animal welfare societies here in NSW are now desexing kittens before they are given away to new homes. Of course, that doesn’t solve the problem with the kittens they don’t get their hands on, but it’s a good start.
You must be the good Necromancer. I’m afraid that I’d simply call animal control and be done with it. Finding the cats new homes is an excellent idea.
I’m amazed that some people think litters of kittens are somehow less of a bother than a one day procedure. Getting my animals fixed is as much for me as them. Fixed cats, IMO, are usually nicer.
All reputable dog/cat rescues neuter and spay their animals before adopting them, which is a Good Thing. There are laws in some communities that make it illegal to possess unfixed dogs and cats if you don’t have a breeding license, but enforcement is next to nil.
I had a situation like that a while ago. There was a stray living under my neighbors house who had several litters before I knew about it. One day one of the kittens got killed by a dog, and the dog owner knocked at my door to apologize because he thought it was mine, since he spotted the litter under my bushes. (The dog was off leash, but that’s another rant…) So my wife and I rounded up the surviving kittens, but the mom was off hunting or something. We kept the litter in our house overnight (which our own cats did not like in the least, let me tell you) and took them to the shelter the next day. They told us that if we could get the momma cat in they would neuter her for free. We tried to get the neighbor’s help in getting the mom, since she was usually in his shed, but he claimed it was his cat (clearly it wasn’t) and he didn’t want it neutered, not even for free.
We tried capturing her anyway, but she was understandably wary of us after that. There’s a rather large stray population in the area, but Animal Control won’t do anything about it. They want us to rent traps, which they will then pick up, but only during their ridiculously short hours.
The moral of this story: NEUTER YOUR DAMN PETS, OR I WILL SAY “NI!” AND OTHER UNPLEASANT THINGS TO YOU. Oh, and people suck. Verily.
Well, sturmhauke, just a few days ago I had a jaundiced view of our Animal Control here in Topeka, because I was offput by one dispatcher on the phone. But since then I have been very impressed by the officers that have come promptly to pick up cats in the cages they set out. For free. From 8:00AM to 8:00PM. I have a fourth cat waiting now for pickup, one to go, out of the strays that had been hanging around. It’s too bad that the AC where you live aren’t more like ours.
Well said, and the same to freido and Beagle.
I have a big problem with cat breeders - yes, I do understand that there are distinct strains of felines whose bloodline should be kept intact, so that they survive and prosper. There are, however, just too many irresponsible “breeders” out there. I, for one, have never purchased an animal from a “pet store” - although, given their ultimate chance of finding a decent home, perhaps I should have. I just refuse to hand over money to companies that contribute to the crisis. We share our home with three half-breed felines, all rescued. Baker has authored a thread in the BBQ Pit about his attempts to rescue the stray cats in his neighborhood.
There has to be a solution.
I haven’t ever bought an animal from a pet store either, Blonde. All of the animals I’ve acquired (and I have a lot of them) have been abandoned or abused. The only animal I’ve ever paid for is my Australian Cattle Dog, Bodhi. We payed to save him from death row at a local animal pound…we bought him just one hour before he was slated to be put down.
Baker, I’ve already posted on your thread about my kittens, but I just wanted to say that I’m really glad you’re working with your local AC and trying to catch those stray cats.
Not that it’s really relevant, but Baker is a she!
Well, I guess I should have picked up on that, girlfriend!! :smack:
Good job, Necromancer.
Spaying cats should be fucking mandatory, especially in Australia. Not only is it best for the cats themselves, but anyone with one ear and half a brain should know about the damage done to Australian native wildlife by feral cats.
Frustrating!!! Why do people do this? Our neighbor got 3 kittens for the daughter he has custody of every other week, and guess what, one of them is pregnant now, and I’m sure in no time we will have tons of kittens in our area. But hey, they have on those hartz flea collars that work so well:rolleyes:
This is the same guy that has kept his dalmation on a 10 foot chain for a year. He leaves the dogs food out when it rains so it turns to mush. If we didn’t tend to this dog while our neighbor is away the dog would be dead. I bet he has heartworms. (The dog, unfortunately, not the guy). We “advantage” this dog once a month, and this guy is nonplussed.
Why don’t we adopt some kittens? We have 2 14 y.o. cats and a 11 y.o… and two dogs.
We have spoken to several animal control places-they say the dog is a borderline case, (neglect vs. abuse) and the cats-if we catch them and bring them in they will probably be put down…
Our neighbor, to his credit, is not a mean man, just not a very intelligent one. But on the other hand, I have known some very intelligent people that are very mean, but I digress…
Some people should not own pets. My spam sucking white trash neighbors. The Spitters as we called them, becuase they would spit, moved away a few weeks ago. They, of course, left their cat. I came from work the other day to discover that not only had she had kittens but that they, kittens and mother, are now housed in my laundry room. My 10 year old daugher found them under the porch and brought them home. We have two cats who are not happy about this. What really pisses me of that that we HAD our two cats fixed. I felt it was the resposible thing to do, and I DID NOT want to deal with kittens. My wife called the shelter which is also the county animal control and they refused to take them!!! They said they had already taken 19 cats today and had no more room. *** warning here comes the hijack **** No kill shelters are foolish and misguided. I am not a cruel person and I do care about animals but there is a huge cat overpopulation problem. I called a local vet to ask about bringing them in to have them destroyed. You would have thought I called to ask for a recipe. After much bluster and stunned silence, that perky receptionist voice changed very quickly to a disapproving snarl. After I talked to the vet and explained the situation she told me she agreed this was a reasonable solution and offerd a discount . It sounds really bad to call it a group rate but if the shoe fits… My biggest regret is that I could not call to have the Spitters put down.
Um…wtf.
I’d like you to elaborate, because I can’t imagine anyone thinking it’s “foolish and misguided” to give a loving, healthy, good-tempered, perfectly-adoptable animal a chance at going home with a family who will love and care for it (the only kind no-kill shelters will ACCEPT, due to the fact that they will retain the animal for it’s entire lifespan unless it is adopted) rather than death by injection in a clinical environment.
The woman’s parents should have been spayed long ago.
The cat overpopulation is because stupid people don’t get their cats spayed/neutered…stupid people like ** G-RAY**'s neighbours and mine.
I try my best to desex every animal I find, even if someone else owns it…just ask my neighbours and they’ll tell you. I don’t have a problem with paying to get them fixed. My problem is with the owners who decide to take on the responsibility of an animal without thinking of the consequences of not desexing them. Including the two cats I mentioned in my OP, that makes about 40 cats I’ve had fixed…and several dogs. One of my sisters has probably payed for just as many animals to be desexed as I have. Many other people do the same thing. I don’t do it to be a nice person to the owners. I do it because desexing these animals is the right thing to do. If I have to pay for it to be done, then so be it, as long as it gets done because cats can’t desex themselves. One female and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in 7 years. It breaks my heart that millions of cats and millions of other animals are euthanized every year when they shouldn’t have been born in the first place.
friedo, many animal welfare groups here in Australia rehome desexed animals only. Some animal shelters run by local city councils offer a nice cash rebate if you buy an undesexed animal from their shelter and return with a sterilisation certificate…that’s what we did with one of our dogs. Unfortunately, this incentive doesn’t always guarantee the new owners will get their pet fixed so a lot of these shelters are phasing this out. It’s now becoming common practice here for animal welfare groups to sterilise female kittens at a very young age (approximately 10 weeks) before they are found homes. Some vets don’t like to do it before 4 months, but they realise that it’s the best way to ensure these cats don’t ever breed.
What those in favour of putting unwanted animals down do not realize is that killing them does not have any significant effect on the population of stray cats.
Cite from http://www.metroanimal.org/feral/main.html
"Eradication is the traditional method for feral cat control, although several studies show that eradication programs do not work. According to Louise Holton of Alley Cat Allies, this method has failed to reduce the feral cat population, but has increased euthanasia figures in the United States dramatically.
Cats are removed, but the food source – rodents, dumpsters, etc. – remains. Thus, the surviving cats have less competition for food. They will breed several times a year, quickly recolonizing. A study by Karl Zaunbrecher, DVM, published in The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, also showed that removal creates a vacuum, which can be followed by an influx of an equal number of new cats. With the new cats, fighting and nuisance spraying increases as the new cats compete for a place in the community. In little time, you are back to square one. "
Putting a healthy animal down is illegal in Germany. All our animal shelters are no-kill shelters. The animal rescue organisations catch stray cats and dogs. If the cats are young and/or nice enough to have a chance to be adopted, they will be kept. If they are too wild, they are neutered and put back where they were caught (if that is an OK place for a cat to live and nobody is bothered by them). All dogs are kept in the shelters and one tries to find a new home for them.
Necromancer, that’s a wonderful thing for you to take in your irresponsible neighbor’s cats.
I’ve never understood people who cannot get their pets fixed. Aside from the sheer irresponsibility of it, pets in heat drive you freaking nuts!
Long ago I had a neighbor who didn’t want to get her female cat fixed before she’d had a chance to “have at least one litter of her own.” No amount of telling her that the cat would not be bemoaning her childless state in middle age would convince her otherwise. That is until the cat went into her first heat. I can still hear the yowling to this day! Luckily, that yowling and constant kitty but dance convinced my asinine neighbor to take the cat for a spay pronto!