Animals being bought and discarded like toys. WTF!

[Sibsmum]

I have just been reading about chickens , bought as pets in lockdown being dumped , literally in parks and tips , because they're no longer novel, no longer laying and bird flu concerns.
I can't abide people considering animals as things, they are live creatures and taking them on is a lifetime committment, not a quick human happy fix.
I would like every household that wants to keep a live animal, have to apply for a license and do a basic online care course to prove their commitment prior to purchase, and a formal registration afterwards which could be administered by a body like the RSPCA who end up dealing with so many unwanted pets.
It's really time we stopped seeing our fellow inhabitants of this planet as objects, and afforded them the respect, dignity and compassion that they deserve. They are live , sentient beings with feelings, not home decor , not accessories and not toys.
I would appreciate your sharing your thoughts.

@Ifailed

I would like every household that wants to keep a live animal, have to apply for a license and do a basic online care course

Would you also like the same rules to apply when having a baby?

Yes. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have pets or children.

@Ifailed- I think there is another thread in that. I was talking non humans in my op and would like to explore that, as it was my original intention.
Who should/ shouldn't human -wise is whole other debate and not one I was intending to start up myself, but as it's obviously a point you're interested in, then maybe you could start a thread on that subject.

I would be for licenses BUT dog licenses never worked because the responsible pet owners got them, and the irresponsible ones didn't with no consequences. Similarly I'd like to see breeding regulated but all that would happen is that good breeders would have increased costs and hurdles and puppy farms would get better at faking the certificates.

@Sibsmum I did vote YANBU as I do agree that pet ownership is a big responsibility and shouldn't be entered into lightly. I own a hamster and sadly its a very popular children's pet and on facebook there are some minors whose parents buy them a hamster for £10, some bedding and a tiny cage. Then they realize that hamster care is a lot more expensive- a proper 100 by 50 cm cage is £75 (so not exactly child pocket money territory), they need masses of paper bedding, proper food and tons of enrichment, not to mention hundreds of pounds vet bills. After a while, the parents refuse to pay the vet bills and the animal suffers.

But I just wonder how would it be enforced. the dog licensing scheme was terminated as it was too costly to run and the uptake was only 50%.

It's not just the chickens that were bought and dumped, even worse were those that hatched eggs for something nice for the kids to do, then seem surprised and concerned when 10 weeks later that have half a dozen Cockerells that have outgrown the rabbit hutch they were using, stink and are fighting and neighbours are chuntering about crowing. Hens usually get rehomed, but cocks end up getting dumped.

I don't think that people should need a licence to buy a pet, but people should definitely need a licence to breed and then sell a pet. If we get rid of fb pages, free ads etc where people advertise these animals and make it illegal to advertise without a licence number it will go some way to helping address the overbreeding issues.

Dog theft is a massive issue atm and it's mainly to do with the prices puppies are going for right now.

A lot of these puppies will now be 4 or 5 months old, chewing new Christmas presents and trashing the house and will end up in rescues shortly.

A friend has chickens, they’re lovely. I look after them when he goes on holiday, they’re hardwork and I don’t think people realise that they will destroy your garden.

We’ve had our dog six months now, he is almost two years in the planning, he has been really hardwork, which while it wasn’t always enjoyable it was expected. I pretty much knew I wouldn’t like most of the four weeks because of lack of sleep, wee breaks every half an hour or so.

If you’re prepared you know the sort of things that are going to happen, but its still bloody hard work. If you get a puppy on a whim you’re going to have a massive shock.

I think you should pass a test before they let you have children, controversial... My daughter adopted my grandson a couple of years ago and the hoops she had to jump through, courses, references, details of all the grandparents, places she'd lived schools she'd attended. amazing

We live in a consumer society. Buy and dump whatever we want.

We need to change society not regulate to the extremes.

Make it harder for people to dump, for businesses to make shoddy items, for breeders to breed animals so easily, for them to be SOLD so easily too.

I can see dogs becoming too much from Easter (when the majority in furlough or part time WFH have to go back full time) and their cute laid back dogs become anxious messes because they’re no longer used to being home alone and ruin the place.

I've been in a horrendously abusive situation,moved house twice, changed jobs twice and still kept my (rescued) dog.

Are you implying that those in horrendously abusive situations who do not find themselves able to keep their dogs are immoral or cruel @Lisibeth81 ?

@Godimabitch

I agree. Humans have such a weird perception if animals. As if they exist purely for our benefit.

To be fair, my cat has similar views about humans.

People are weird generally these days. I may be just getting old and grumpy but more and more people seem to be as shallow as hell.

I cannot stand people who buy animals for how ever long it suits them.
A relative of mine would do this and then just drop them to my mother when they had had enough or couldn't look after it anymore. We had every breed of dog going at one point. The last one was when he dropped off a rottweiler and a staffy at my mother's. She has extremely poor mental health and bad eyesight and couldn't cope. But they couldn't give a hoot. My mother struggles with simple activities even going to the shop for food. She couldn't get to the shop on some days to purchase dogs food and would end up giving the dogs her own food, so she would go without. Finally they went to a rescue home when my relative point blank refused to collect them after my mother had them first months. They were also snapping at her hands and growling at her. She would even have to clean their mess off the carpet. I was so relieved when they went to a rescue home. It was pretty dire.

My only quibble with your idea, is who is going to adopt the animals ending up in rescues if we are made to jump through so many hoops.

I agree. We would love to have a dog or even a cat as we both grew up with animals but the reality is that all our time atm is taken up with work and caring for our small DC. So we will wait until we can give a pet the attention it deserves. Also, we don't really agree with having pets (especially dogs) in the same house as small DC (especially if the pets weren't there beforehand). Plenty of time to have a pet when children are older and more able to respect it.

[quote hopingforonlychild]@Sibsmum I did vote YANBU as I do agree that pet ownership is a big responsibility and shouldn't be entered into lightly. I own a hamster and sadly its a very popular children's pet and on facebook there are some minors whose parents buy them a hamster for £10, some bedding and a tiny cage. Then they realize that hamster care is a lot more expensive- a proper 100 by 50 cm cage is £75 (so not exactly child pocket money territory), they need masses of paper bedding, proper food and tons of enrichment, not to mention hundreds of pounds vet bills. After a while, the parents refuse to pay the vet bills and the animal suffers.

But I just wonder how would it be enforced. the dog licensing scheme was terminated as it was too costly to run and the uptake was only 50%.[/quote]
Pet shops don’t help with this. The cage recommend for my hamster was tiny (great for the first couple of weeks) but I could afford to buy a second cage and had the smarts to wire the two of them together to make a very large cage with lots of bits and pieces for the little guy to chew and explore.

It takes effort too, to keep the cage enriching or they will chew the bars. And this includes rotating items in and out so they become ‘new’ like you do with toddler toys.

Plus a lot of the ‘cute’ stuff for them just don’t suitable. Mine has a wooden house designed for chinchillas that gets loaded with bedding (I spread it round the cage to encourage activity after a clean). We buy kapok pods again to encourage the foraging side. Food hidden inside terracotta pots or in a pile of sawdust to again encourage foraging or activity. It’s simple stuff but takes time.

I’ve come across so many lonely, stressed rodents that need just a teeny bit of environmental enrichment and most people think they can just leave them for days.

Mine comes to the cage door when I get up in the am. Gets a pet and I give him a piece of fresh food like a blueberry, a meal worm or a tiny bit of cooked plain chicken. Then he’s off on his ball adventure around the house

During the first lockdown Pets At Home told us they were not selling pets at the time as people are buying them because they're at home and bored, and they don't want the pets to be abandoned after lockdown ended.

Feral cat had a litter of kittens in one of my outbuildings at the start of April. I got them well handled and tamed, put two of them up for rehoming at 10 weeks old. Within 9 hours, I had over 400 messages and calls.

98% of them were from people who said they were bored, and had nothing else to do. Some said they needed something to keep their children amused. Others just said ill take them, why not.

They were eventually rehomed to an older family after I done a home check.

People only think of their own needs, not the animals.

I agree with so much of this thread and it's heartbreaking. The whole 'lockdown effect' upon the acquisition of pets - dogs in particular - has been horrific in so many ways and is yet further proof (IMO) of how selfish and ignorant some people are. And I fear the situation is a ticking time bomb we haven't seen the worst of yet once the novelty wears off and/or people are hit hard by future redundancies etc. It's not 'just' the unsuitability of many homes and owners but also the demand driving unscrupulous only-in-it-for-the-money type breeders who couldn't care less about the health of their breeding animals, nor the destination of their offspring. Furthermore there's been a huge increase in dog theft recently, presumably again, to meet selfish, irresponsible demand....leaving genuine, loving and responsible owners heartbroken and worried sick about the fate of their pet.

Then again, the pandemic has brought into sharp focus any number of selfish behaviours and attitudes so it's inevitable that animals would also be adversely affected. I pity the rescue centres who'll be picking up the pieces. :-(

I'd love to keep hens but I know I don't have the time or the inclination to commit to them so sadly it's never been an option for us. They seem to be one of those birds that need a lot of time and attention.

My only quibble with your idea, is who is going to adopt the animals ending up in rescues if we are made to jump through so many hoops.

Rescues already make potential adopters jump through loads of hoops, so any new rules would not impact adoption.

Actually tighter rules would mean fewer pets being bought without proper thought, so fewer pets would end up being abandoned or surrendered to rescues.

Agree completely- we are our tortoises third home. It’s not rocket science that they live for 80 years, why get one ‘for the kids’ then get rid when they get bored? Poor thing. Lots of pets aren’t properly looked after- reptiles are much more complicated than most people think and even fish need proper cycling of the tank, filtration, water changes etc. Hamsters are left in tiny cages and people are surprised when they are awake all night (duh). I know a couple of people with lockdown puppies who haven’t been socialised or trained and are getting bigger and more difficult to handle by the day. Very frustrating.

Totally agree. Even something as "simple" as a goldfish. I've kept goldfish and to do properly requires proper knowledge of water chemistry and fish health as well as adequate equipment and space (clue: they need much more stuff and are more difficult and expensive to keep well than most people think).

By the sounds of it above, other "easy" animals (e.g. hamsters) are the same. I've never kept hamsters but it's not surprising that they also require more space and knowledge and care than is typically assumed.

I imagine with chickens this is mostly due to bird flu and the current keep inside order. Probably put a lot of people off who suddenly didn’t have the means to keep them, but still no reason to dump them all over the place, they’re sentient beings.

I ordered some female fish online in October and they turned up as a mixture of females and males, so the females were all pregnant. They are a species that can continue giving birth for a few months after having contact with a male so fry still appearing! Got a refund as no returns as they most likely would have died in the bags if I’d sent them back, so I now have 120 fish and 8 fish tanks! Seller said to cull the fry or add some species that would eat them but I couldn’t, there were already newborn fry in the bag and they’re so cute. My dh felt the same. Was planning on selling some but have so far ended up keeping them all, have separated males and females so they can’t keep reproducing. I run a business from home so I’m here all day, has been tons of work but I’ve been much happier looking after them during the new lockdown and tier 4!

Read an article the other day that Dogs Trust are having less dogs and transfers, but they are worried about what will happen come summer if people are back at work and don’t have the time for a dog anymore.

Here’s the article: www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-55405651

Have googled not seen any dumped chooks so guessing this is on a local page, sad but not an epidemic of dumped hens. At the price of puppies now they will not be dumped but resold sadly.

@Mypathtriedtokillme

I think people think hens are cute and fluffy but realistically they are garden destroying, stinky shitting machines on legs who actually take a fair bit of work to care for correctly. (We have 4 backyard hens and have had chooks for years) They haven’t taken the time past the Romance if backyard eggs to think it actually through. Plus most people don’t seem to know the stop laying and moult in winter (why you’d want to be half nude at the coldest time if year is an evolutionary oddity)

@Mypathtriedtokillme

On a slight tangent here, but at what point in winter do hens tend to stop laying? I knew this could happen with the lack of daylight, but mine are still going strong...

(In case you couldn't tell, I'm somewhat new to hen keeping, loving it though!)

I think hens and babies could be described in the same manner... "cute but disgusting" (lighthearted, before anyone jumps on my comment!)