Squeely wrote:Sounds like Kops and Simbaholic have met some really terrible farmers. There are terrible people in every walk of life unfortunately. I'm sure most farmers do care, though, and are good, hard-working people.
It's sickening how much animal neglect goes on in the world. My dear Abigail would have died because her owners neglected her so bad. I think the other cats they had, bullied her out of being able to get much food and water, and she had serious fleas and mites. These aren't even difficult problems to take care of, and poor Abby would wail at them because she needed help, and they never flipping caught on.
We live a few doors down from them, and well, me being me, I made friends with Abby. We would occasionally give her food and water when she would come over to our front porch. Then one day, she came over to our porch and refused to leave. Ripped my shirt open when I tried to carry her back to her old house (much as I didn't want to, but y'know, she wasn't ours).
Ten years, man. Abby lived ten years longer than she would have otherwise. Best ten years of my life. We didn't have a perfect relationship as we would sometimes get upset at each other, but we were always there for each other. The both of us suffering from depression, but helping the other through it. Me coming home from whatever and Abby greeting me excitedly and curling up on my lap. It was the absolute best. Abby didn't want to leave me. She cried tears as she grabbed my pant leg with her paw, because she didn't want to say goodbye. I cried too. I'm crying right now.
You can't look me in the eye after that and seriously tell me you think pets should be released into the wild.
Yeah, PETA is full of hot air. Most domesticated animals have been changed so much from their original state that they wouldn't survive well out in the wild, anyway. But of course, they don't listen to science, so...
And in reply to the farmers thing - well, of the operations I've visited (and been to several now) most farmers around here at least seem like they're just doing what they can with what they have. It's a tough business. There's a lot of farms around here but basically profit margins are low and can fluctuate wildly. You're dependent on things like the price of feed and how much product you can make and what the demand for it is. There's a lot of pressure both economically from the market as well as from consumers (who are, sadly, very often uneducated and making demands for things they often don't fully understand, and aren't even beneficial for the animals). The dairyman here at UCD on our school facility was saying that he'd have people call him up over "welfare concerns" that aren't even real things. Like, people would get after him over dehorning his animals and he would just have to be like "look, I give them anaesthetics and analgesics, as do most dairies. The procedure takes about ten seconds. The animals aren't stressed out and I do it at just the right age to try to minimize stress for me and for the cow." And if you think about, what's the alternative? Let them grow their horns out so they can mangle humans and each other? Really, guys. Think through this a bit. Is it cruel to go to the dentist? Might hurt a bit but if the alternative is losing a tooth and potentially not being able to eat, then...?
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Also I leave for two hours cuz I'm drunk and need to sleep and apparently the entire Telegram chat implodes in on itself. Damn. What a thing. o___o
