To think some pet owners are nobheads

[Ishouldprobablywax]

Mainly people who 'rehome' their pets for stupid reasons.
They are for life, not until I have a baby/Until it irritates me by not sleeping when I want/chewing the sofa/making noise

other nobheads include people who don't read about what animal they're getting - 'my kitten scratches'! 'my beagle howls!'

plus I think it's a really shitty message to send your kids, that pets are disposable based on how much they annoy you or get in the way.
Aibu?

The chap next door who has a dog is a nobhead indeed. He leaves his dog in his flat for days so it howls and barks. All night.

But I can sleep through that.

I can't sleep through his meth amphetimine induced all-night rave parties and his techno 'music' blasting through the walls with the bass at max all night, so I'd rather put up with his howling dog, tbh.

i think the OP might have meant that there are some people (and I know some) who have a pet and after a fwe months get rid of it because it acted like a pet. If they had perhaps thought a bit more, they might not have had the pet and saved everyone turmoil and anguish.
my friend wanted a dog, she can just about cope with 2 kids and a disabled husband. i suggested she borrow my dog for a weekend, as a trial run, or at the least she walk a toy dog every night for a week to see what it was like. But no, she went to the dogs home, got a lovely dog, had him for a month, declared him 'too much effort' and just gave him right back.
I was cross with her because had she THOUGHT A BIT it might not have happened like that. (and that is not to say disabled people can't have dogs etc).
but there are poeple who get a pet (even a stick insect) and don't think it through, and cause unneeded harm.

some pets have to go for all sorts of reasons. but lack of forethought is not a very goodone.

dogs are a fecking nuisance. that's the sum of it all. so i tell folks, do you want a fucking nuisance in your life? if so, consider getting a dog.

YANBU

I am 7.5 months pregnant and struggling with tiredness, painful pelvis etc, but it would never cross my mind to give up my beautiful pooch or even resent the walks and interaction she needs. It makes me so sad to think of dogs whose owners give them up for reasons like that. :(

we have a dog, on sunday we won't as he is going to his new home. we bought our puppy in 2006, our son arrived in 2008. we have tried to teach our son to respect the dog, but to no avail. even with people in the room the dog has managed to nip my ds a couple of times as my son just wont leave him alone.luckily the skin was never broken. as he is utterly fantastic with other children we put it down to jealousy.

we tried everything but nothing worked. it broke our hearts to consider rehoming but we have found an absolutely wonderful new family for him who will spoil him rotten.

i am a firm believer in children growing up around animals but our dog is just not happy around our ds, so we have had to make this decision for the dogs sake as well as my sons (plus im pregnant again so that would be another child maybe pestering him)

once you own a pet, its yours for life, a part of the family, so i agree that people enter pet ownership too lightly sometimes, and the amount of abandoned pets is just horrifying. I'm just so thankful that we found a new loving home for our special little dog.

Witchy, I agree, your situation is totally different! You have apparently done everything in your power to sort the problem out and are taking the responsible decision, regardless of how hard that is .

It is the people who seem to have the view that they are disposable in some way that are worthy of the vitriol, not people like you!

i really thought i would cry. you do see them as part of the family, but after meeting his future owners i can see how loved he is going to be. we spent an hour with them last night and their immediate family (along with grandchildren) joined us. (my dog loved the grandchildren, was getting treats and played with) but i was actually happy that i knew he would be fine :)

i couldn't imagine abandoning a dog because of laziness etc, its just wrong :(

it is not only pet owners that are nobheads.They are all over the place

"I wonder if Vallhala has seen this yet?"

She has, and she thinks that ISPW is spot on. :) In fact, there are days when Vallhala could quite happily swing for people owing to their views that pets are disposable items.

Now, where would you like me to start...

Yay Val :o

Witchywoowoo- so sorry for you about your dog- I really wasn't having a go at people in your situation, like you said, the dog was good with other kids etc so how were you to know?you were just being a responsible parent.

I just get a bit fed up with it- a friend has dumped her cat on me, she's a foreign national who doesn't have permission to stay in this country, now she has had to go back to visit her father and she may not be returning,:(
my point is that she should never have gotten this cat, knowing she could be deported at any time. She's lovely and I desperatly hope she can come back because she's a great friend but still :(

The thing is that everyone thinks about dogs and sometimes cats in these situations, but what really, really pisses me off is the way animals are bought (rarely will anyone bother going to a re-homing centre) as pets for young children, which are usually hamster, gerbils, guineapigs or rabbits. My neighbour bought a hamster for her two year old's birthday present. This says animal = toy. The hamster's home was rarely cleaned and she died very prematurely. Wish I'd got her out of that situation when I had chance!

Sorry, this probably isn't relevant, but so many cutesy "perfect-for-young-children" pets aren't perfect for them at all. The animals often end up re-homed at best and neglected at worst.

There are very, very few reasons that would make me rehome my dogs. We are currently having to keep two completely seperate from each other as they attack each other on sight. It means a lot of faffing around and a lot of extra hard work for me, keeping doors/stairgates etc shut and locked so the DC can't accidentally let the dogs together, seperate walks all the time etc, but that's fine. I also have a rescue pup that can't be totally trusted not to bite people/dogs he doesn't know as he is nervous.

I know someone who has rehomed 3 dogs in the last year. The first was a six month old puppy she rehomed due to her new baby, only she was pregnant when she got the dog. The second she only had for a week and it didn't get on with her other dog. The third is a husky she got when she was pregnant with a second baby right after the first. Apparently it needs too much walking and she can't manage with two babies and a dog, only she again knew she had a baby and was pregnant when she got the dog and anyone who does the slightest bit of research knows huskies can be difficult.

I get sick of hearing people's pathetic excuses for rehoming. Often it could have been avoided if they did their research in the first place or if they were bothered to put the time and effort into owning a dog. An untrained, underexercised dog IS a nightmare. I wouldn't want one long term, but it's not rocket science ot get off your backside and train it.

Sadly we get this type coming to rescue (and expecting a space to be available NOW or they will have the dog PTS) all too often Midori. Not only do the feckers act like c, they then try to blackmail us into doing their bidding!

I really have to sit on my hands and button my lip sometimes, purely for the dogs' sakes.

The problem multiplies when idiots go around insisting that X breed is dangerous, because he is X breed or "it was in the papers" and that it is perfectly normal and acceptable to dump your dog when you have kids. Unfortunately ignorance breeds ignorance, hence too much of the work I do isn't with animals but with people, educating the buggers,

I'd far rather be out there saving, walking, socialising and just being with dogs!

So, it's back to work for me. I was just going to add before I go that there is one person on this thread who consistently speaks utter crap about dogs with no justification bar prejudice. Then I flicked back up just to check that I wasn't being unreasonable when I noticed the Spikey's comment, "One person on this thread is stoopid". :o

Well said Spikey!

Some people are nobheads.

Some people own pets.

There's bound to be some overlap.

YANBU at all.
We got a cavalier last may who is now 1 and a half yrs and still a whingy bum (she is in fact whinging now). We have a baby on the way (due next Friday) and have had countless people tell us to get rid.
She is our first baby and we don't want to give her away without reason. Obviously we don't want her to attack baby and baby will be priority but we have to see what she is like.
If I had known i would be pregnant we would have never have gotten the dog, but we have her now and we adore her.
Who can possibly say what will happen? Would it be fair to dump her? Of course it wouldn't. People need to learn to be safe with their animals. It's ignorant to think all dogs will harm a child.

This was spotted by a member of BigGSD forum very recently.

"Description
hi there i have a 23 month old german shepherd called Bobby he is the most kind loving dog you would want but as i have not long had my 3rd baby 9weeks ago i am unable to take him out as he is a big baby he need a bit of work with other dogs he dose not like male dogs but great with kids my 20month old sits jumps and lies on the floor together and he dose not even move i will hate to see him go as i go him when he was 3month old he is fully house trained and he will tell you when it is 8pm for hes last feed best dog i have every known i need the money from the sale to put to a car. if you would like to know more please give me a email and i will be happy to reply kind regards Kathryn must be a loving home"

.

Just give me five minutes with her...

boojab Totally agree, too many small animals are boughts as if they were toys. For example two of our rats are rescues, they were barely ever cleaned out/handled, and the previous owners hadn't bothered to check what they were allergic too. SO had them in bedding that caused respiratory problems, and fed them food which did not agree with them. They were handled little enough that they didn't realise that a third rat (RIP) had a giant tumour.

I'm waiting to be told to get rid of our rats if I do get pregnant, despite them being no danger at all.

Dear god Valhalla at first I thought, ok fair enough, but surely if this is such a loved dog then they'd give it to a god home, not sell it for a car? :(

That's so sad kaloki and val.
I cruise gumtree.com quite alot and there is hundreds of those types of posts. As you know I'm considering a cocker spaniel at the mo - saw one that was 3 yrs old on sale for 450 because they were moving to a new house?!?

If, god forbid, we had to rehome any of our pets I wouldn't want money for them! Just the promise of a good home!