Would you kill your pet if ordered to by the gov't?

[JackiePlace]

I read in the news this morning that at the beginning of the Covid crisis the gov't considered ordering the culling of all domestic cats in order to prevent the spread of Covid. This idea was later abandoned after it was proven that cats couldn't transmit Covid to humans.
AIBU to think that this would have caused a mass uprising? We are a nation of animal lovers, after all. Or would people have accepted it as they did some of the other draconian regulations (not visiting dying relatives, etc).

www.lbc.co.uk/news/govt-cat-cull-covid-pandemic/

That's really harsh. For some people who don't have family a pet is their ONLY companion.

Having wild roaming animals doubling as pets in peoples' beds is conceptually wrong, and it is pure luck it hasn't hit us yet.

With COVID we were lucky that this SARS variant wasn't even more lethal, but it was luck again. And noone can guess the long-term effects, thought some life insurance companies around the world are already seeing it in numbers.

Many of the posts here are so incredibly shortsighted and selfish. Yes, this time it wasn't the case, but there is no law guaranteeing a quiet life, as noone can guarantee that.

No, I wouldn’t have killed my pet. Continued to keep him as a house cat, whilst I continued to wfh without contact with anyone else, yes of course.

You don't know real pet lovers then if you think that

No way no sir just NO. They would have to kill me first.

Even so you have to be pretty dumb to sacrifice your life for a cat

Nope, I wouldn’t, but I’m in the position where they could be isolated too

The specific cases I gave were actually pets, not livestock. But regarding farm animals you really don't know what you are talking about. I can't believe how devalued farmers, the people who provide the food for your table, actually are.

Well sure. If the human race was proven to be at stake and you said ‘you’d have to kill me first’ then I guess it would be done forcibly and you’d be arrested. As if anyone would care about your dog/ cat/ rat?

Well it was an awful time that had an outcome that was dire for many but not as bad as many first thought.

When a country is genuinely short of food or a disease like bird flu which if it transferred to humans has a projected death rate of 56% that’s the kind of time people will make decisions that they currently think are unthinkable. It never reached anywhere near those levels of despair even though it was very upsetting.

How is your life being sacrificed being in prison?

No. I would have resisted. We know more now and future generations without incredibly solid facts will also resist.

Newyeardietstartstomorrow · Today 13:28
This already happens. If your animal is carrying or has been in contact with a notifiable disease then they are euthanised. Farmers face this every day. During foot & mouth a neighbour's pet pigmy goat escaped inside a protection zone and was shot. Geronimo the pet Alpaca was euthanised because he showed TB indicators, even though he didn't have the disease. Avian Influenza is already potentially spreading to mammals, so if your cat likes to hunt birds then they are at risk. Certainly if a pet was suspected of having rabies they would be shot. Human health and biosecurity will always be prioritised over pets.

Absolutely this - a cousin of mine had to have her Jersey cow Maureen culled during the foot and mouth outbreak - not infected, but in an outbreak zone - and we had sheep, horses and pigs at the time. There was an outbreak not that far from us, we were just a few miles outside the cull zone. It would have emotionally destroyed me, but there was no escape from the cull.

For whoever said that farmers don't care, in the majority of cases, their animals aren't just a commodity, they're their life. Many have bred generations of them, know them personally, and will often sit up nursing them back to health when it would be far more economically sensible to cull.

Ok crack on, do time for your cat if that's what makes you happy 🤣🤣🤣

Also to add - I refused to let my DD wear a mask in school so I would be up in arms about both my moggy and my child.

Not for that, no.

But I cannot say there would never be a situation that would lead me to allow my cat to be put to sleep.

Eg there's a cat disease that's killing 80% of the global human population and the only way to stop it is to eradicate cats.

That sort of thing. Yes. I would. So I can't say that there is nothing in this world that would ever make me do it. It's just that it'd have to be damned near apocalyptic!

I was talking with a guy one day who said they should not stopped the old practice of pts after x days in the pound. I felt sick and he backed out of the conversation straight away (I must have looked so disgusted)

That's disgusting.

What I don't understand about this 'news' item and therefore take any reporting of this type with a large pinch of salt is why cats? Cats can be kept in doors if necessary therefore removing the potential issue. Why was a cull on dogs not proposed as dogs generally have to taken for a walk 3-4 times a day?

The whole thing makes no sense which is why I think it's all just journo bollocks designed to make the govt look bad (again).

BTW I'm not saying I like the govt, I just think this is scraping the barrel in finding cause to get people the criticise them.

Hell no!!!

No, I would have kept them indoors (cats), so they couldn’t be spotted and reported on.

I wouldn't trust the shower of shit in 'Government' to tell me the correct time of day.

Perhaps we'd have been better off getting rid of Johnson et al.

And yet that is what some people will do.

Kill their pet and them kill themselves

I was merely replying to your I initial post you said people were stupid to risk prison for a cat. I merely pointed out pets are folks only companion.

You sound extremely foolish. Especially using 🤣

No way, they'd have to kill me first to get to them.