Have you ever heard of shelter staff being blackmailed to take in animals that a person wishes to give up?
This has happened to Sue Sewell, Chairman of Hull Animal Welfare Trust, Hull, UK. Her rescue center is full or almost at capacity and therefore sometimes she has to turn people away.
The staff say that they are being emotionally blackmailed into taking kittens. One visitor threatened to put four kittens into a bin bag unless the rescue center accepted them. Shockingly bad behaviour, I’d say.
“On Friday, a lady told us she’d put her cat and four kittens in a bin bag if we didn’t take them in.”
Sue Sewell said that pet owners are becoming increasingly abusive when told that the shelter is at capacity. This is an unpleasant trend. It reinforces what we already know: the irresponsible people who are more likely to abandon unwanted kittens to shelters are also more likely to be unpleasant. The problems that we have with pet ownership are caused by a minority of people.
In another related UK pet story, a survey by MSD Animal Health found that 77.5% of cats in the UK are not vaccinated against illness. Personally, I find this a surprising statistic.
Another statistic hints at the reason behind the high percentage of unvaccinated cats. Eighty-six percent of pet owners said they would vaccinate their pet if a disease was present in the area where they lived. This is a risky decision because it may be too late to vaccinate. Vaccinations are meant to be preventative measures. Perhaps they don’t understand vaccinations.
The stats indicate to me that people want to save on veterinary expenditure and risk the health of their cat in doing so. Often pet owners are unprepared for the true cost of looking after a companion animal. The failure to spay and neuter resulting in unwanted kittens (as shown in this article) is another example of how irresponsible people force the burden of their misdeeds on others at shelters.
This is a profound problem in society as it undermines the whole process and concept of the domestication of cats and dogs.
Sue makes a plea in the video to cat owners to neuter their cats.
I think, perhaps, that there are more people in the UK who are not that good at looking after cat than we think.
My gut feeling is that it is for economic reasons mainly. There may also be an element of distrust about vaccinations because they have been overdone in the past. There are quite a lot of what I would call careless cat owners in the UK who don’t try and do the right things.
That said, a good veterinarian that I used at one time said that my cat did not need vaccinating because he (Charlie) lived in an area where lots of other cats were vaccinated and therefore there was a reduction in the possibility of contracting a disease. Set that against the fact that vaccinations can cause health problems and he decided that there was no need for a vaccination.
However, I still believe that most cases of not vaccinating cats are due to the usual reasons, which is failing to take proper responsibility.
I could relay so many horror stories about people who call a rescue group saying that they will drown or shoot litters if someone doesn’t come to get them.
I guess that it never occurs to these idiots to just stop the cycle by neutering.
I’m amazed when kit litters are dropped on my deck every Spring and Fall without the mother. Some have been as young as 2 weeks old. I can’t understand why anyone would do that. They don’t get their cats spayed and just dump the litters twice a year (here, much to my dismay). I want, so much, to catch them; but, they are wise to my cams and steer clear of them. All I ever pick up are hands depositing them one by one.
I also factored in additional cost in time and funding for my cats, who were planned wanted and loved from day one. And like many other responsible pet stewards and caregivers,I had no intention of opening my door to more than I had room for. My neighbors do not spay or neuter cats nor give any medical care. As far as they are concerned; cats are self sufficient and should be kicked out to door to live free[ right nice ideal if we lived in a ‘Utopian World’.
I resent them even being alerted to the simple fact that I care; because then they try to take advantage.
As long as I or those other like kinds exist, People who are lazy and apathetic and ignorant and abuse animals thru neglect or worse, can continue to remain uninvolved and shift their guilt to the next available parasitic host.The innocent victims are the abandoned strays & the good samaritans. Eva_
I’m not surprised at this. I’ve always factored in the cost of having an animal companion. It has never occurred to me to take an animal to the shelter because I couldn’t afford vaccinations or vet visits.
I’m also surprised at the high percentage of unvaccinated cats. I wonder if this is due to economic reasons or other reasons, like distrust of vaccines. I also wonder what the stats are for diseases that come from not being vaccinated…like rabies, distemper, and others. Are these disease rates higher than places with higher vaccination rates? Most shelter cats are given vaccines prior to adoption, and our shelter provides a certificate for free vet wellness exam.
Neutering and TNR should be the focus of donated funds, because these actions work at solving the problem.
In the case of “shelter blackmail”, those cats may end up euthanized, but at least they won’t suffer at the hands of a cruel individual.