AIBU to be so fed up/angry with people taking on animals they have no clue how to treat properly

[esloquehay]

I'm so sick of stupid people buying 'pets' unethically/ill-informed, then re-home-ing them, as they miraculously discover they are ill-equipped to care for them properly.

Then, the almost inevitable virtue-signalling of re-home-ing.

Pets make me really really sad. I dont think people should have animals unless they are working animals (and well looked after).
We had guinea pigs. i felt so bad that they were stuck in a (very large open top cage) and then put out in a large run on the grass on dry days.

We have a dog and i feel sorry that he is stuck in the same couple of rooms/garden while DH works from home. he does get walked but even prisoners get yard time! We are going away in a couple of weeks so he will have to go to kennels. he was a rescue so I'm worried he wont cope well with it. its just not fair, unless you are a farmer and the dog is out working with you all day or its an assistance dog then its not fair on the dog. I read that the reason pet dogs sleep half the day is because they are bored out of their brains!! it would be like expecting a 9 year old to sleep half the day!

I kept rabbits for many years, my oldest lived until she was 8 I often miss them but won't be getting any more. Mine lived in a hutch at night but I let them out into the fully fenced garden every morning so they had plenty on space. They would come back to the hutch themselves when I called them to come in. I didn't pick them up much but any time I was in the garden they would come to see what I was doing. I thought the only real downside of having rabbits was it was difficult to find someone to care for them if we went away, you can't put them in kennels like a cat or dog.

Pets make me really really sad. I dont think people should have animals unless they are working animals (and well looked after).

I don't really see my cat as a pet, or as belonging to me. He belongs to himself, what belongs to me is the responsibility to keep him as healthy and happy as I can. And that's been my belief with all the cats I've lived with. None of them have moved out so I have to assume I've done ok.

I dont think people should have animals unless they are working animals (and well looked after).

I don't agree with this; well cared for companion animals are easily as happy if not happier than working animals. If you choose a species and breed that is well suited as a pet and that you are capable of providing good care to, then pets and owners can have wonderful mutually beneficial relationships. For a canine companion breed, being with their human(s) is their job.

I've worked with older adult mental health services and in a vets at different points in my life, and seen some really beneficial relationships where a pet has been an isolated older person's reason to keep going, & in return that pet has really been well cared for & enjoyed their warm lap and doting companion.

What do you think happens to working animals at the end of their "useful" life? Some are lucky and kept well in retirement but many aren't so lucky unfortunately. Dogs from working lines do need a job but this need can be met through a dog sport or other activity too.

I'm not keen on the keeping of exotic species as they are some of the hardest to provide for, but guinea pigs in a large cage, with warmth, food and shelter, are usually very happy little creatures. I have two (rescues) and they are currently zooming around their enclosure as I just topped up their big hay pile and added some forage. They'll be even happier when I chop up a pepper for them later.

My rabbits (also rescues) live in a big enclosure, I'd love to let them run free but they'd be eaten by a fox within hours here. I popped out to see them a little while ago; they are snuggled up together grooming each other. They have safety, food, water, tunnels, protection from disease, and a dig box to enable them to enact natural behaviour.

We had guinea pigs. i felt so bad that they were stuck in a (very large open top cage) and then put out in a large run on the grass on dry days.

Don’t feel bad. At least some guinea-pigs like the security of their enclosure. I’ve visited an animal sanctuary where the guinea-pigs have a lovely shed (with a heat lamp in winter) and are free to go out into a large, grassy enclosure during the day. Some choose never to go outside, which seems a shame.

Although one of my guinea-pigs did escape from his run, briefly. He was trying to get at a large tuft of grass the other side of the netting and eventually managed to squeeze through. I found him sitting just two inches from his run, eating.

Totally agree...my cat came from a woman who rehomed a dog she couldn't manage, rehomed the cat when she moved in with a new partner, then got a puppy and last I saw she was enquiring about a kitten.

My cat was 1, and had been raised as a house cat, when I got her. Unspayed. She is now spayed, chipped and loves her adventures in the fields catching mice. She hears my car coming home and comes to greet me. I'm not a cat person at all but mine us lovely, and loving, and deserves so much better than being discarded for convenience