How interesting that today I was told about one of our parent-acquaintances who referred to his dog (or should I say, "former dog" -- apparently the poor beast got tossed to another home once the kids came along) as a "practice child."
So perhaps that is the mentality that feeds the childfree stereotype -- the mentality that pets are just disposable "practice children," but the childfree haven't made it to the stage of disposing of our pets and replacing them with children.
I have cousins who've done things like this. It makes me furious to the point of rage. Using up animals and tossing them aside when they become "inconvenient" is disgusting. These are living, breathing, creatures you've committed to care for -- not dolls to be tossed aside when you find some other new, shiny toy.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to rehome your animal if there is absolutely no alternative and the animal and your child cannot get along. A friend of mine had to do this last year and was heartbroken... so she handpicked the new owners and receives regular updates and photos on how the dog is doing. It made me sad, but the happiness of her dog was at risk, and she knew that wasn't fair to the dog... interestingly, she approached the decision from the point of view of trying to give her dog the best quality of life possible, rather than from a "my kids are more important now" perspective. I'm so proud of her for that.
But it's quite another thing to go into caring for a living being, thinking they're just a 'practice' piece. That's abhorrent.
@shannonmherickson, I published your comment last night, and while I was trying to delete the e-mail notification about the comment, I accidentally deleted the comment itself. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteHere's what Shannon had to say:
I totally agree with Faith.
Another thing that really upsets me is seeing on the shelter tag as the reason for surrender: Moving. What?!!
I'm sorry but if you're moving and you have pets, you find a place that allows pets! They aren't pieces of furniture that you can just dump at Goodwill.
I always wish I could ask these people "So, if you had kids, would you move somewhere that didn't allow children?"
A person should not adopt a pet unless they are willing to make a lifetime commitment, IMO...
Faith, you bring up a good point that sometimes an animal would be better off in another home. What Shannon said about people who leave their pets when moving... that makes my blood boil too (I moved my pets 2000 miles cross-country with me - twice - it never crossed my mind to leave them). However, similar to what Faith described, I try to console myself that the animals are better off not being with people who find them expendable, that maybe now they have a chance to find their forever home.
ReplyDeleteNo worries. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I should have mentioned, I've posted as Gumby before (just started a new blog under this name).
Re: moving your pets. My cousin and her husband just moved their two cats with them from Wyoming to Germany! From what I heard it cost them around 2K in special passports or visas (or something to that affect to avoid quarantine or something?). But he has a doctor's salary so they can afford it. ;)
Re: your comment about the finding forever homes. I always hope that is what will happen but at the same time find it hard not to think about the numbers of shelter animals that are "put down" each year. :(
And I don't mean to imply blame towards the shelters by any means. I know they do the best they can - they can only do so much...
This was something I was almost to mention on my reply to earlier blog. ;-) When we got our dog(we got her from puppy stage), one neighbour lady of our's asked if this dog was a "practice" for us, as a lot of people did this before getting a child. We made it clear for her that this wasn't how we were thinking. I am happy about that she didn't ask nor say anything more afterwards.
ReplyDeleteWe are going for vacation this summer, and our dog is joining us. We want her to come with us, as we think it would be hard not having her around. Always feels a lot greater and much more fun having her together with us. So whenever we will go somewhere for vacation, our dog will always come with us too. And we like it this way. :-)
I do agree about getting upset when people only use dogs for practice or just have the heart to leaving them behind if they need to move away. One should take such a decision a lot more serious than that. People who do this and who can easily move on without any guilt within them, they are not fit to having any animals to take care of at all.