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/

I was very compliant with the COVID rules. But no way would I have allowed my cats to be killed under some government mandate. Kept indoors, yes. But PTS? Not a chance.

No, I absolutely wouldn't.

‘I sometimes reread the most dramatic COVID threads’. I remember the rage with which people addressed whether buying a cucumber was essential shopping. It was total madness.

It depends why
if my dog attacked and injured/ killed a child, then yes, sadly I’d have to face the fact that she was unsafe to humans and would need to be put to sleep humanely
In the case of a deadly pandemic, being spread by animals, again, yes I think the circumstances would mean that I would not be prepared to risk my own family for the sake of a pet.
obviously this was not the case with Covid, which is why the measures were never implemented.

Yes I would, in a heartbeat

If there is a bird flu outbreak within a certain KM all birds, pet or otherwise will be culled.

Foot and mouth didn't just kill farm animals, pets were culled as well.

There is no choice.

That, is fucking insane.

This is exactly what I came on to say

I think my cat is unkillable...
He's a bastard fighty bitey mad bastard but we love him - i would have hidden him and put up with him destroying all door thresholds, savaging us and destroying the house rather than let him be put down.

I would honestly rather die myself.

Sorry but that is BONKERS. Your children are so, so much more important than a cat.

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.

There is no scenario in which a cat forces itself onto a person it encounters in the street. It just doesn’t happen, they aren’t dogs. If you don’t want to touch a strange cat, you don’t touch it. I know there will now be a hundred people descending to tell me I’m wrong because this one time a really vicious cat blocked the path and hissed and spat and would have bitten their baby’s face if they hadn’t bravely flung themselves in the way, but bullshit. Doesn’t happen. So even keeping them locked down would have been a ridiculous overreaction, but of course we saw plenty of those.

How's that been going for you?

Absolutely no way would I allow this to happen to my cat.

We have pet chickens, we adhere to the bird flu guidelines, if they had to be put to sleep we'd be devastated, but we'd do it.
Because there's a bigger picture.

As much pets are part of the family I find it strange so many people are up in arms about this but no one is bothered by the horrors of the meat industry. Growing up in the country we had 3 pigs and they were not for eating, they were pets. When you have them from piglets they are trained in a similar capacity to dogs and are very loving friendly. People are still happy to eat pigs but horrified by the thought of a cat or dog being euthanised.

And I'd be right behind you ✊🏻

I wouldn't value a pet as much as the kids.

..but I wouldn't have them executed by the vet unless it was necessary.

Similarly I will be going to close family members' funerals from now on regardless of what mind games the government plays, and they can just fucking well arrest me at least I will have tried.

Some of these posts are completely crazy. Pets valued as much as your own children? Commit suicide if you had to have a pet PTS?

I love animals but that is utter madness.

Forgive me for not feeling sad for a poor farmer having to have a commodity euthanised. He’s lost revenue not love and a lifetime of happy pet memories.

I recall during foot & mouth outbreak there were people fighting to keep their pet livestock and one lady put them in her house ( goats or sheep I think) to try stop them being taken & slaughtered.

I don't think I could hand over my pets to be killed, especially if seemed was an
alternative and many in government don't seem to know arse from its elbow even with expert help and mainly concerned about £. COVID did show that we were slow try limit the spread and that many concerns over how it was transmitted later turned out to be inaccurate.

I think the government would have made sure the fear factor was such that people would have ended up going along with it.

I was ripped apart for saying I’d bought a bottle of orange juice from the hospital kiosk after an antenatal appointment. I was going to cause the death of all the hospital staff.

The Government could have introduced a 'scrappage scheme' - a bit like they did for diesel cars - and then offer a grant towards one of these...