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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
WeWereInParis · 02/03/2023 13:59

It's interesting because I think if you'd asked four years ago "would you not go to see your dying mother" people would have said no way would they comply with that.
Or "would you be separated from your dying child" again people would have said no fucking way, they'd have to arrest me to make me leave the hospital etc. I know a family who had a severely ill and very likely to die baby diagnosed just before covid hit and only one parent was allowed to be with her at a time - I can't imagine pre-covid they ever imagined they'd allow something like that.

Thingshavegonetoshit · 02/03/2023 13:59

@UWhatNow Do you also feel the same about people who cause the death of animals?

HoppingPavlova · 02/03/2023 14:00

*Not even a tiny chance I would. I'd rather kill a government minister.

They're cretins aren't they. If they'd tried to push this policy they'd have had a public riot on their hands. The fact that it was even considered seriously alongside all their other failures proves they should not be in power.*

Spot on

MarshaBradyo · 02/03/2023 14:00

WeWereInParis · 02/03/2023 13:59

It's interesting because I think if you'd asked four years ago "would you not go to see your dying mother" people would have said no way would they comply with that.
Or "would you be separated from your dying child" again people would have said no fucking way, they'd have to arrest me to make me leave the hospital etc. I know a family who had a severely ill and very likely to die baby diagnosed just before covid hit and only one parent was allowed to be with her at a time - I can't imagine pre-covid they ever imagined they'd allow something like that.

Yes those are shocking as requests. The 13 year old boy always stuck with me

Thesharkradar · 02/03/2023 14:01

it showed their grit stupidity and poor reasoning skills that they didn’t just walk away from their pets
Just correcting that for you 🙂

Supersimkin2 · 02/03/2023 14:01

No. Pet and self stay together through thick and thin.

1984Winston · 02/03/2023 14:02

I'm a very compliant person but I would have died protecting my cats in this instance, it's something I worried about at the time (I suffer with anxiety) and I thought about where I would hide them

AllOfThemWitches · 02/03/2023 14:02

It would have been done humanely FFS.

How would it be done? Not professionally because that would have involved coming into contact with other cats and humans.

BadNomad · 02/03/2023 14:03

"AIBU to report my neighbour for hiding a cat?

My neighbour never leaves the house. Nor does her cat. Its the only company she has in the world. But what if her cat gets out and infects the entire village? I couldn't live with myself knowing I could have stopped it. Would I be unreasonable to report her to the police for having a cat against Covid rules?"

Followed by replies of:

"Mind your own business."

"Yes! You should report her. I haven't seen my mother in months. She should be made to follow the rules too."

"Can you sneak into her house at night and take the cat to be PTS? That way she will just think he's lost."

"My neighbours did this too. I fed chunks of meat soaked in rat poison through their letterbox. I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant death, but it's their own fault for not taking the cat to be killed humanely."

Plenanna · 02/03/2023 14:03

Nope, they can fuck off. I would seriously hurt anyone who tried to take my pets.

KleineDracheKokosnuss · 02/03/2023 14:04

If there was a proven link, to something with a very high death rate (or not Covid), which hurt children and the young - yes.

or if it was a war and the alternative is that they starve - yes

otherwise, no.

Tekkentime · 02/03/2023 14:04

BadNomad · 02/03/2023 14:03

"AIBU to report my neighbour for hiding a cat?

My neighbour never leaves the house. Nor does her cat. Its the only company she has in the world. But what if her cat gets out and infects the entire village? I couldn't live with myself knowing I could have stopped it. Would I be unreasonable to report her to the police for having a cat against Covid rules?"

Followed by replies of:

"Mind your own business."

"Yes! You should report her. I haven't seen my mother in months. She should be made to follow the rules too."

"Can you sneak into her house at night and take the cat to be PTS? That way she will just think he's lost."

"My neighbours did this too. I fed chunks of meat soaked in rat poison through their letterbox. I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant death, but it's their own fault for not taking the cat to be killed humanely."

Scarily accurate 👍

Aposterhasnoname · 02/03/2023 14:05

I’m not a cat person but there’s not a chance in hell I’d have stood by and let this happen.

MarshaBradyo · 02/03/2023 14:05

WeWereInParis · 02/03/2023 13:59

It's interesting because I think if you'd asked four years ago "would you not go to see your dying mother" people would have said no way would they comply with that.
Or "would you be separated from your dying child" again people would have said no fucking way, they'd have to arrest me to make me leave the hospital etc. I know a family who had a severely ill and very likely to die baby diagnosed just before covid hit and only one parent was allowed to be with her at a time - I can't imagine pre-covid they ever imagined they'd allow something like that.

And there was a fair amount of support on mn as extreme as it was.

So who knows re pets

WiltingLobelia · 02/03/2023 14:05

1984Winston · 02/03/2023 14:02

I'm a very compliant person but I would have died protecting my cats in this instance, it's something I worried about at the time (I suffer with anxiety) and I thought about where I would hide them

I was also worried about it at the time- especially when it was reported that they were doing this in China. I thought it was only a matter of time and was surprised it was never brought up. I seem to recall (although DH does not so maybe I am misremembering) that the advice was to not touch or pet other people's dogs when out and about for example. Assuming you could even get close to them with the distance rules.

ScottBakula · 02/03/2023 14:06

I wonder how many would of complied if the government offered some sort of incentive , either cash , priority queuing in shops, permit yo allow you yo gather in groups etc

4EyesandBigThighs · 02/03/2023 14:06

All these “not in a million years” “I’d risk prison” “I’d kill for my animals” people who have probably never actually been in any form of reality where law meant they HAD to euthanise their pets in order to minimise the risk of death to other humans, makes me roll me eyes so hard it hurts.

Be realistic fgs.

Everanewbie · 02/03/2023 14:06

My first response is 'over my dead body' but then again if I was told in 2019 that I'd stand on crosses in freezing supermarket carparks, not see my elderly parents for 4 months and then sit in the garden 30 feet apart leaving my tea mug to 'decontaminate' overnight, miss christmas and wear a skanky bit of cloth over my face to my grandmothers funeral I'd have said the same thing, but somehow that's what I did. In 1939 in Germany, we'd all like to think we'd have been nazis, but chances are we would have been.

AlwaysGinPlease · 02/03/2023 14:06

Absolutely not. Worrying that we are governed by such fucking morons.

Murraydeservedit · 02/03/2023 14:06

I would love to see answers to the reverse.

My cat would probably throw me under a bus without a backwards glance if I posed a danger to his species.

There’s no way he’d die for me. We used to have a very sensitive smoke alarm - he was out that cat flap and over the garden wall like a rocket every time it went off, not a thought for my safety 🤣

Workinghardeveryday · 02/03/2023 14:07

Serrassi · 02/03/2023 12:38

This question has already been answered by history.

When the Second World War was starting, the government distributed leaflets asking that people euthanise their pets, and in London people queued around the block to tearfully do so.

What!!!! What have I just read!!

TimandGinger · 02/03/2023 14:08

Tekkentime · 02/03/2023 14:04

Scarily accurate 👍

Show quote history

Yep. Or masked their very young children. In parts of America you saw nursery children in masks. Here in Scotland under 12s were expected to - I refused to allow it.
I like animals but it disturbs me that people are more up in arms about their mogs than what was done to children.

GloomyDarkness · 02/03/2023 14:10

in the Second World War, the government did tell people to put down their pets, and many did.

I knew about this but I think it had a lot to do with fear of food shortages - a large proportion had lived through first world war with high food prices and food scarcity. If I was I really frighten about feeding my kids, worried sick about being called up and having no one to care for pets or faced serious concerns about bombing leaving them hurt and afraid and possibly a lone and on streets then I might.

I wouldn't for covid as they are indoor cats - so really can't see how they would be a risk to anyone else.

Having said we did comply with covid restrictions around hospital admissions - which were hard so image we might have if we'd had relatives in care homes -because there is less power in those situations not least because you need decent care when you can't be there and there are real fears not complying with get care withdrawn or taken out on venerable relatives - my DMum kept stum for those very reasons post covid around family members care.

Mycatsgoldtooth · 02/03/2023 14:10

@TimandGinger me too and put up with the abuse for it. If everyone had stood strong so many of the awful things - letting people die alone - would not have happened.

Iheartmysmart · 02/03/2023 14:10

Dear god no, absolutely no way would I have allowed my dog to be euthanised. I like him and really couldn’t care less about most people.