So killing a litter of kittens. That wouldn’t be my vet.
Killing a litter or saving the pregnant female, depends how you look at it. Pregnancy is not a risk-free state. I’ve known several people who could not afford a c section, where the alternative is humane euthanasia.
I know it’s their policy, and that policy seems to be pretty consistent across the no-kill, TNR rescue groups of which I’m aware. I don’t know the reasoning.
Ok, I didn’t understand you meant only one or the other(s) could be saved. I thought you meant a standard spay when the kittens were almost at term, which I found horrifying. I agree that it would be a difficult choice most likely made on the assessment of who had the better chance of survival.
Who the hell decided the journalistic standard for reporting on a tweet was to put the text of the tweet in quotes, then put it again in a slightly indented box in the same font? It just looks stupid.
Just to clarify, in this case, the mother’s life was in no danger. It was not a choice of removing the litter or saving her life, and she was within about two weeks of giving birth when they found out she was pregnant.
In other news, I cracked my head but good on a concrete floor on the 19th, and while the lump and the tenderness have greatly reduced, it still hurts. And putting an ice pack on it directly (that is, not wrapped in something) actually makes it hurt worse. Ugh.
I’m watching the same one. I couldn’t get away to sneak a peek to see how the kitten was doing so I got the sad news when I got home today. Glad the surprise kitten is doing well.
I’m too lazy to dig up the workplace rants thread so… Fix the goddamn elevators already! Our building is just about a year old and the elevators have never worked right for any stretch of time. This morning I was greeted by the building manager who was manually working the elevators. He could get them to stop on only three of the eight floors. I don’t like elevators much anyways so to get into one and not trust that it’s going to work is no fun.
I’ve worked in the no-kill shelter business and doing spay/neuter surgery since 2003. Spay abort is standard, and if we found out another shelter in the area wasn’t doing it and perpetuating litters, possibly generating hundreds to thousands more preventable cats in the area, the rest of the shelter community here would make sure they weren’t a shelter any more.
Finders, fosters, and TNR caregivers who refuse spays (and often it’s not obvious the cat is pregnant until the incision is done), after it’s all explained, are no longer welcome to receive services.
Contact the state inspector. Most states require annual inspections of elevators, and they are quite concerned about ones not working properly.
There should be an inspection permit inside the elevator (usually in with the emergency phone) that will have the contact info for the inspection authority. Or just google your state = ‘elevator inspection’.
The one’s I’m referring to allow the momma to have her litter. ALL of the kittens, and the momma, are fixed before they’re adopted out.
Get the state involved as it is a huge ADA violation to not have the elevator working.
So what you’re saying is that killing near-term kittens is standard practice?? Or am I having trouble with my reading comprehension? I certainly understand and agree with controlling the population, but that blows my mind and no shelter I’ve ever worked with has done it. What’s done with the live kittens?
OMG. If that’s true, it’s sickening.
This is standard for cat shelters around here, and I only support shelters that do this. The pregnant female is the patient. It is safer for her to remove the pregnancy than it is to allow her to go to term.
I just now realized that the word “defecation” basically means “de-fecalize”.
I’m so stupid.
It’s gonna be up to 115 degrees this weekend. Sigh.
No, you’re not. I’m a smarty-pants teacher, and I learned it from you!
If I were defenestrated, I’d be simultaneously defecalized.
I’m astonished. In the several shelters where I’ve volunteered, healthy pregnant mamas were allowed to give birth. If there were problems, appropriate decisions were made. Not ONCE have I heard that the mama was spayed so as not to have to deal with the babies. Not once. How can attitudes be so different?
How are the live kittens killed?? Are they euthanized or just allowed to die? Jesus.
I’ve participated in spay-a-thons (Doris Day spay day). Sometimes a barbiturate is injected into a uterine vessel after the uterus has been removed en bloc. For early pregnancies, where the fetuses are tiny, the tissue is just discarded.
A question for you: in the shelters you’ve volunteered in, how is pregnancy diagnosed preoperatively? When cats are being spayed, early pregnancies are often the case and not known until surgery. Indeed, in cats trapped in the spring, the vast majority are pregnant at time of spay. Is your objection to any aborted pregnancy or only later stage pregnancies?
Holy crap, it’s already morning and nobody has won the race to be the one to start the minirant thread and give it a cutesy title?