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Worried I'm becoming a bleeding heart lib. [vanity]

Posted on 10/31/2011 9:52:06 AM PDT by Feline_AIDS

While visiting my cousin this weekend, I drove through South Carolina country roads for long stretches, because for some stupid reason, they live out in the middle of nowhere. No, they don't farm, keep livestock, or even own much land. They are also scared of the quiet loneliness of the country, so there's no good reason for them to be there. Yet I digress.

It was dark on my way in. I saw movement at the side of the road and slowed to see a yellow lab / retriever dog licking an identical dog who had been hit by a car and was lying just off the road in the grass. Just beyond them was a deer that had been hit, too. I called 911, informed the operator it wasn't an emergency, but a dog was by the road and one had already been hit, so I wanted animal control to come get them.

On the way home from church yesterday, we saw a dog running along the road against traffic. He was a mastiff. His hip bones were sharp jutting out of his back, and the rest of his skeleton showed, too. He was scared. I slowed down and he kept running along in front of my car, and eventually moved into a field by the road. Again I called animal control and told them where he was.

Now, I'm not a moron. I know that animal control will come and pick them up, give people a day to claim them, and if the dogs are unclaimed, put them down. The only reason I call animal control each time is that I think dying slowly on the side of the road after being hit by a car is worse than dying in an oxygen/CO chamber. Just like the time I was in a bigger city's interstate at rush hour and saw a deer that had just been hit by a car and I called the state police to ask them to send an officer out to shoot it, because it was writhing around on the side of the road.

As I understand it, South Carolina has very lax spay and neuter laws. As a result, there are uncountable unwanted animals trotting along the road and getting run over or being put down by over-crowded shelters. Not long ago there was a news story about a county animal control in SC taking dogs to the dump and shooting them, presumably because they were either unable to deal with the numbers or too lazy to do it the lawful way. This is not to mention the dog fighting, which the mastiff probably wandered away from, considering the way he looked.

So here's my dilemma. (1) Animals are property. In most of these cases, irresponsible owners let their unspayed/unneutered dogs wander around, resulting in unwanted puppies or dogs in the road, or dogs on other people's property, where they're a problem. (2) I don't think the government should dictate what we do with our property. (3) Animals, though, are capable of suffering in a way that the rest of my property isn't. (4) They also are at the mercy of good citizens. Don't think I'm equating animal life with human life, because I'm not when I make the following comparison. Liberals would have us believe that "fetuses" are property, too--property they can destroy if they wish. We think that human life is sacred and needs to be protected when vulnerable. Does the same not apply to vulnerable animals, too? It doesn't take much to see that animals are vulnerable when bad owners treat them poorly, which is different from liberal hand-wringing about distant possible must-save causes like global warm-cool-whichever's-convenient-ing.

If it costs $40,000/year to keep an inmate in prison, (that's just a recent general statistic I heard, and it may not be exact), could we find a way to recoup that loss and use that money to improve the way we treat our animals? Why not make inmates pay for their accommodations? Or at least part of them. (Unrealistic, I know.)

Best idea yet: why not take the money Planned Parenthood gets and use it to control breeding of a species that should be controlled?

So, does this make me a bleeding-heart liberal?


TOPICS: Pets/Animals; Society
KEYWORDS: dogs; ittakesavillage; sc; spayandneuter
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To: Cyber Liberty

I like to think I am a responsible pet owner and I really try but sometimes things happen that are out of our control.

We were urban up until 4 years ago and then when we moved to the country, I told dh that we needed to have a couple cats for mouse control.

I am beyond devestated to say the least about the kittehs. There were four kittens. One found a home by accident and I found the leg of one of the kittens yesterday so I know he has went to the Bridge and then found another kitteh this morning.
Totally freakin heartbroken.
I think hubby is tired of me calling him at work crying but wow.....I’m very heartbroken.

Hubby is starting to hate winter as well and I keep telling him I have a good friend in Texas with some land we could move to.

Lucky you to have escaped winter.


41 posted on 11/01/2011 1:21:29 PM PDT by simplesimon (Never kick a cow turd on a hot day ~ Hank Williams Jr on the Glenn Beck radio show 10-12-2011)
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To: Cyber Liberty

Thank you.

I’m really sorry too. It was totally senseless and tragic and cost some kittens their lives. Whomever let them out of the barn and out of the kitten corral better hope I dont find out who they are.

I know at least this one I found this a.m. was not attacked by another animal like the one whose leg I found yesterday and still searching for his body. So now there is one missing still and I’m afraid she’s went to the Bridge as well.

One of the four kittens had found a home and I’m praising God for that but at the same time I’m just heartbroken that I didnt find 2 them until it was too late.


42 posted on 11/01/2011 1:26:49 PM PDT by simplesimon (Never kick a cow turd on a hot day ~ Hank Williams Jr on the Glenn Beck radio show 10-12-2011)
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To: simplesimon
We live in the city, and we have indoor housecats. I would fear for their safety constantly if they were indoor/outdoor kittehs. There was a rash of animal cruelty episodes involving cats recently, and one of our babies is a totally black kitteh (prime target for sickos). Someone said upthread a vet advised neuter/spay just to make the cats' lives easier (Never mind our lives!), and for a housekitteh situation I have to agree 100%. It's not just the right thing to do, a boxed-up feral will drive you NUTZ!

Ours were all walk-up strays we adopted. Went to the vet for shots, snip & chip, so they have IDs. S, S & C hurts the wallet a lot more than non-pet owners realize. RFID chip was the cheap part.

It's never easy when a little one has to go over the Bridge. We cried a few tears when we had to help a geriatric kitteh go over last year...but he was starting to suffer.

43 posted on 11/01/2011 3:14:53 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Cain = National Sales Tax; Perry = Amnesty for Illegals; Romney = Obamacare forever. Who's left?)
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To: Cyber Liberty

No, it is never easy to help a loved pet to the Rainbow Bridge. Never.

My oldest lab is 10 and while she’s not as much of a wild child as she was in her youth , she is slowing down a little bit ( never though on the counter surfing... any food is fair game to her LOL ) and I’m really not looking forward to her end days.
I thought I was going to lose her last Christmas and I was worried about her spleen since her sire died of his spleen rupturing on his owners truck seat as they pulled into the vet office and her grandsire had his removed due to a tumor at her same age, both of them.....
But she’s okay Praise God.

Now just to find my little black kitteh. Pray for her if you would please.


44 posted on 11/02/2011 10:35:11 AM PDT by simplesimon (Never kick a cow turd on a hot day ~ Hank Williams Jr on the Glenn Beck radio show 10-12-2011)
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