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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

638 replies

JackiePlace · 02/03/2023 12:31

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/

OP posts:
TheOriginalEmu · 03/03/2023 15:24

Everanewbie · 03/03/2023 13:44

Even if they could, a mild cold that the vast majority of people experience with covid isn't something worth killing an otherwise healthy and loved pet over.

Show quote history

Hardly a mild cold for the millions of people who died and it’s highly disrespectful to dismiss what has been horrific for many people in that way. Gross.

Ketchupwee · 03/03/2023 15:29

maddiemookins16mum · 03/03/2023 07:24

I think part of the reason this thread has (understandably) become so emotive is the title. It’s as if we would have had to kill our cats with our bare hands.
If the title had said ‘take to the vet to be PTS to save thousands of lives’…….some of the responses MAY have been different.

No chance, firstly they would need to prove that mine actually had Covid, and secondly that they had developed it recently enough that they were an actual active risk to my family (who would have already been living with them, cuddling them etc)

You would never be able to convince me to willingly sacrifice one of my family (and that is what they are) without it.

As for impact on strangers, well there wouldn't be any if the cats didn't come across them because they were kept indoors, so that wouldn't factor into my thinking

ÉireannachÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉ · 03/03/2023 17:06

Oreosareawful · 02/03/2023 12:35

My cats are valued as much as my children, there's absolutely no way I could have done it. I'd risk prison to protect them.

As much? Surely not.

letthemalldoone · 03/03/2023 17:28

TheOriginalEmu · 03/03/2023 15:24

Hardly a mild cold for the millions of people who died and it’s highly disrespectful to dismiss what has been horrific for many people in that way. Gross.

Show quote history

This ^!!!

Some of you were all 'big and brave' - well I'm an intelligent, well-educated person and I was afraid for me and mine. Ages, health conditions, etc etc. I don't know what else they could do other than lockdown, because so little was known or understood about the virus at the beginning.

Vast numbers did die or suffer long-lasting effects; can't imagine how many more there could have been without lockdown. It's not like it was only the UK who imposed it!! Even now so many people think they knew more than the actual scientists!!

We didn't know then that a vaccine would be produced, successfully, relatively quickly. I think some people have selective memories!!

But, killing my inoffensive indoor pet, not a threat to anyone, would have been my 'Custer's last stand' moment!!

speakingofart · 03/03/2023 17:48

Of course people would have done. They went batshit in every other way, why not that one?

Everanewbie · 03/03/2023 17:49

It was a cold for most people. A small percentage suffered and unfortunately many died, but as pandemics go, it was pretty lame. If killing cats was considered, god knows what we'd do if there was an actual killer out there like bubonic plague

AnwenDolly · 03/03/2023 19:14

We willingly complied with many things three years ago that would be unthinkable today.

Government and the media were so effective in scaring us that we willingly:

  1. Stopped seeing friends and family on and off for over two years. Easter (twice), Christmas, birthdays, weddings and other normally important events when family and friends would get together were given up with barely a murmur.
  1. We left elderly and vulnerable people alone in their homes for months on end.
  1. Allowed the dying to die alone without loved ones to comfort them in their final days.
  1. We stopped sending our children to school without argument (in fact the only outrage came when the government first proposed reopening schools).

And there were many people clamouring for stricter regulations sooner and for even longer.

If the government and the so-called "science" had claimed cats were spreading covid and had ordered the destruction of your pets, you would have almost definitely complied.

In the unlikely event you had refused, the inevitable condemnation of others (covidiot, granny killer, covid denier, etc) would have been your reward.

Such was the hysteria three years ago. How quickly we forget...

BashirWithTheGoodBeard · 03/03/2023 19:34

AnwenDolly · 03/03/2023 19:14

We willingly complied with many things three years ago that would be unthinkable today.

Government and the media were so effective in scaring us that we willingly:

  1. Stopped seeing friends and family on and off for over two years. Easter (twice), Christmas, birthdays, weddings and other normally important events when family and friends would get together were given up with barely a murmur.
  1. We left elderly and vulnerable people alone in their homes for months on end.
  1. Allowed the dying to die alone without loved ones to comfort them in their final days.
  1. We stopped sending our children to school without argument (in fact the only outrage came when the government first proposed reopening schools).

And there were many people clamouring for stricter regulations sooner and for even longer.

If the government and the so-called "science" had claimed cats were spreading covid and had ordered the destruction of your pets, you would have almost definitely complied.

In the unlikely event you had refused, the inevitable condemnation of others (covidiot, granny killer, covid denier, etc) would have been your reward.

Such was the hysteria three years ago. How quickly we forget...

Who is this 'we'? This is not a picture I recognise of the behaviour in my circles. I opted out of as much of that as I could after it became clear how things were going to shake down, I had plenty of company, often literally, and was uninterested throughout in the feelings of anyone who might disapprove.

I don't disagree that some people would've done this, and I don't have a cat any more so it's a moot point for my household, but there are sixty odd million people in the UK and we did not all behave in the same way.

AnwenDolly · 03/03/2023 19:52

BashirWiththeGoodBeard - Your experience is not representative of the general population.

During the first UK lockdown, an estimated 95% of the population were in compliance with restrictions. Although compliance diminished over time, it was still substantial throughout the 2+ years the restrictions were in place.

I have attached a link to more detail.

blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2021/06/15/who-complies-with-lockdown-measures-in-the-uk/

Puzzledandpissedoff · 03/03/2023 20:05

I don't know what else they could do other than lockdown, because so little was known or understood about the virus at the beginning

I agree completely, but the key words are surely "at the beginning"

As said I understood why the first lockdown had to happen, though I still think the media carry-on was allowed to have a disproportionate effect; it was only when widespread abuse and manipulation became more obvious that I started to question things more closely

Not that it did any good since even the mildest questioning brought howls of granny-killing, but fortunately the shrieking interested me not at all

BashirWithTheGoodBeard · 03/03/2023 20:16

AnwenDolly · 03/03/2023 19:52

BashirWiththeGoodBeard - Your experience is not representative of the general population.

During the first UK lockdown, an estimated 95% of the population were in compliance with restrictions. Although compliance diminished over time, it was still substantial throughout the 2+ years the restrictions were in place.

I have attached a link to more detail.

blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2021/06/15/who-complies-with-lockdown-measures-in-the-uk/

A few issues with this.

One, some of the behaviours you listed weren't illegal. There were always exemptions for seeing vulnerable people, although certainly those were communicated badly to the public (probably deliberately). The many visits made to the vulnerable people in my family were some of the only gatherings we had that were legal! So data on lockdown compliance isn't going to catch that.

Two, we can't assume people tell the truth about illegal actions. People giving what they think is the 'right' answer to researchers is quite a well documented phenomenon, with obvious implications for identifying noncompliance. I'm entirely convinced that my actions were ethical, but even then I wouldn't have participated in this research in 2020. Nothing in it for me.

Three, you discussed a much longer time period than simply the start of the first lockdown in the post I quoted, and you acknowledge yourself that compliance waned with time. Even by the end of May 2020, still very early days in the restrictions period, the number of people saying they weren't adhering in the LSE research you've posted was 12.5%. Applied across the UK, that's in excess of eight million people. Even at the very start, 5% is over three million. It certainly isn't a high enough number for you to assume that a notoriously animal loving population would've willingly handed their cats over to be culled.

The reality is that some people would and some wouldn't. That was the case with lockdown even from day one, it would've been the case with something most people would've found much more unpleasant.

ProbablyDogNappersHunX · 03/03/2023 20:18

I was compliant for about the first fortnight, before it became clear that I was expected to shut down my business, get zero help from the government despite paying my taxes in full, and continue to pay all my rent and bills in full - there was no mortgage holiday for private renters!

I very much took the attitude that when the support started applying to me then the rules would start applying to me (it never did).

I would have been even less compliant than I was, but a lot of rule breaking required you to find someone else who was equally willing to break the rules. Friends sat at home on furlough were much less tetchy than I was.

catlovingdoctor · 03/03/2023 20:18

No.

If this had been entertained in any seriousness we would have seen a Cat Protection Army springing up! And I'd have been leading from the front!!

BashirWithTheGoodBeard · 03/03/2023 20:22

I would have been even less compliant than I was, but a lot of rule breaking required you to find someone else who was equally willing to break the rules.

Yes, I learned on here that there were people who didn't want to adhere to all or even any of the restrictions but who ended up doing so by default because they didn't have anyone to do it with.

Museya15 · 03/03/2023 20:49

Xol · 02/03/2023 22:45

All the people saying absolutely not: would you say the same if presented with absolutely irrefutable evidence that the alternative would be the deaths of, potentially, hundreds or thousands of people?

Yes, I would say the same. Don't really care much for the human race.

Spectre8 · 03/03/2023 20:53

Museya15 · 03/03/2023 20:49

Yes, I would say the same. Don't really care much for the human race.

Show quote history

And if it was your mum, dad, kids in that who died....would you still say you dont care that much for the human race.. ?
You'd be okay if its someone close to you or immediate family

UWhatNow · 03/03/2023 21:06

Just can’t believe this batshit thread. Hypothetically people would actually save their sodding cat over saving human lives. Over saving children. Babies. The elderly.

Fuck me, what a bunch of absolute weirdos with abhorrent priorities. We’d deserve to wiped out as a human race if this is the hill. Cats…Fucking arse-licking, bird-killing useless cats. Jeez.

MarshaBradyo · 03/03/2023 21:08

AnwenDolly · 03/03/2023 19:14

We willingly complied with many things three years ago that would be unthinkable today.

Government and the media were so effective in scaring us that we willingly:

  1. Stopped seeing friends and family on and off for over two years. Easter (twice), Christmas, birthdays, weddings and other normally important events when family and friends would get together were given up with barely a murmur.
  1. We left elderly and vulnerable people alone in their homes for months on end.
  1. Allowed the dying to die alone without loved ones to comfort them in their final days.
  1. We stopped sending our children to school without argument (in fact the only outrage came when the government first proposed reopening schools).

And there were many people clamouring for stricter regulations sooner and for even longer.

If the government and the so-called "science" had claimed cats were spreading covid and had ordered the destruction of your pets, you would have almost definitely complied.

In the unlikely event you had refused, the inevitable condemnation of others (covidiot, granny killer, covid denier, etc) would have been your reward.

Such was the hysteria three years ago. How quickly we forget...

You’re right on the list.

Re compliance I agree it was high, higher even than expected due to the effectiveness of the campaign.

Re pp it wasn’t just research as questions but data in form of reduced foot fall and driving figures and likely others

whumpthereitis · 03/03/2023 21:12

UWhatNow · 03/03/2023 21:06

Just can’t believe this batshit thread. Hypothetically people would actually save their sodding cat over saving human lives. Over saving children. Babies. The elderly.

Fuck me, what a bunch of absolute weirdos with abhorrent priorities. We’d deserve to wiped out as a human race if this is the hill. Cats…Fucking arse-licking, bird-killing useless cats. Jeez.

You’ll cope. No, I wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice any of my loved ones, human or animal, ‘for the greater good’.

IAmTheWalrus85 · 03/03/2023 21:12

Yes. If it were genuinely a question of saving other humans I definitely would. I wouldn’t be happy but I would do it.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 03/03/2023 21:26

They can only get to my dogs over my cold dead body.

The bloody cat from across the street that keeps shitting in my garden is fair game though.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 03/03/2023 21:28

UWhatNow · 03/03/2023 21:06

Just can’t believe this batshit thread. Hypothetically people would actually save their sodding cat over saving human lives. Over saving children. Babies. The elderly.

Fuck me, what a bunch of absolute weirdos with abhorrent priorities. We’d deserve to wiped out as a human race if this is the hill. Cats…Fucking arse-licking, bird-killing useless cats. Jeez.

Oh don't so bloody dramatic. No one's killing babies.

Cats. on the other hand...

XenoBitch · 03/03/2023 21:29

UWhatNow · 03/03/2023 21:06

Just can’t believe this batshit thread. Hypothetically people would actually save their sodding cat over saving human lives. Over saving children. Babies. The elderly.

Fuck me, what a bunch of absolute weirdos with abhorrent priorities. We’d deserve to wiped out as a human race if this is the hill. Cats…Fucking arse-licking, bird-killing useless cats. Jeez.

I have no emotional investment in strangers. I love my dog though, and she keeps me going. I wont be sacrificing her for anyone.

Grumpybutfunny · 03/03/2023 21:31

UWhatNow · 03/03/2023 21:06

Just can’t believe this batshit thread. Hypothetically people would actually save their sodding cat over saving human lives. Over saving children. Babies. The elderly.

Fuck me, what a bunch of absolute weirdos with abhorrent priorities. We’d deserve to wiped out as a human race if this is the hill. Cats…Fucking arse-licking, bird-killing useless cats. Jeez.

Babies and children I would put the cat/dog under house arrest so he can't catch or spread anything. The elderly nope not even locking the cat in when they can stay home.

You can't control Mother Nature our issue is we think we are better than other animals and then spread disease by eating them.

How we tackle bird flu is more of an issue as it could kill kids which is a big concern.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 03/03/2023 21:43

XenoBitch · 03/03/2023 21:29

I have no emotional investment in strangers. I love my dog though, and she keeps me going. I wont be sacrificing her for anyone.

Show quote history

That's exactly how I feel about my cat. He's far more important to me than a bunch of strangers