I am jaded by a family member's actions.
Her adamant and oft-declared refusal to bear and care for any children is legend - and when she was about 40 she began treating expesnsive stuffed animals as if they were persons.
Then she began adopting dogs.
Then she began "resuing' dogs with severe "mental problems".
Thats when she began paying thousands of dollars on therapy and medicine for the dogs.
Now every spare minute of hers is spent on dogs sports and dog rescue.
And to think what all this energy and effort could have done for children in her community who needed support.
Yes nutty selfish people who think animals are holy but children can go pound sand are annoying.
Your priorities are the misguided ones. Go lecture the Freepers who brag about how much their SUV guzzles gases on car/gas threads on where their money should go before you lecture Freepers who are already spending their time and money doing community work.
Good grief. That is what she loves. There are plenty of good causes in the world, we aren't all required to commit our lives to yours.
In 1996 I took my 9 y/o Calico cat to the vet because she started to walk funny - her back legs didn't seem to support her. Took her to 3 different vets. The first two did x-rays - found nothing. The third had an idea of what it was - a blood clot - and tried to treat her with aspirin. By this time she was paralyzed from the waist down and couldn't urinate. I had to make the agonizing decision to put her down, and I stayed while they did it. As she drifted off I cried and whispered into her ear how sorry I was, how much I loved her and thanked her for loving me. To this day I tear up when I think of her. She was my baby, sleeping with me every night. Years later I went to a vet website and asked a vet there what he thought it might have been since we never had an actual diagnosis. He said that she likely had a blood clot in her spine - a saddle thrombosis - and that Calicos tend to have these things for some reason. If there was anything I could have done to save that cat, I would have spent any amount of money to do so, and my husband would have too. If she would have been able to use the bathroom but had stayed paralyzed, I would have made her a cart to strap onto the back half of her body in place of her back legs. That's how very much we loved her.
I think that it takes a lot of guts to admit that one simply does not want a kid. Why should your family member pay for others who have them when they shouldn't ? It's a free country, she can do what she wants. Pets are way easier than kids. I applaud her honesty.
Last time I checked, this was a free country. Anyone can choose to or refuse to bear children. And refusing doesn't make them unamerican, unloving, selfish, etc etc etc.
A lot of us have damned good reasons for not bringing children into this already difficult enough world, only to live in a situation where they cannot be adequately emotionally and physically cared for. Caring enough not to put someone through that is a hell of a lot more compassionate than anything that any of the "thou must bear" types on this forum can come up with.
Free country? Individual rights? My non-pregnant a$$!