Could you work at a pet store?....

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Anntann

Anntann

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..or the Animal Shelter?

I don't think I could. A pet store that didn't sell pets, yes...but they always seem to have a room with pets for sale. The shelter? Definitely not. I'd end up with every dog that no one wanted, every cat that looked too scruffy or mean to sell, and all the small animals :x
 
I don't know if I could do it or not. It takes a special mix of tenderness and toughness, compassion and practicality, that I am not sure I possess. The politics would drive me crazy too... and also decisions to spend mega-bucks on an animal that will never have a good quality of life or be a good companion. No, I don't think I'd last long.
 
done it ... @ least the shelter side and enjoyed a lot about it

"decisions to spend mega-bucks on an animal that will never have a good quality of life or be a good companion" - can honestly say that has never ever happened on my watch


"The politics would drive me crazy " that for sure

my current role is a better fit for me - a consultant of sorts you might say - and operating within a small rescue where I have a lot of say in day to day operational matters and bigger picture stuff too (though not liking politics of shelters I often opt out of that - nice to be able to leave that to others - I couldn't when it was all me!)

the only really tough part for me was/is euthanzising healthy adoptable animals because of space issues and dealing with the MoRonS at the front desk somedays - though to be fair you meet a lot of really good people too
 
Politics would kill me for sure. Compassion and practicality for ANIMALS I've got, it'd be the people who would send me around the bend. I haven't nearly enough tact or diplomacy. Waitressing was quite enough for me, and there all that hangs in the balance is the crispiness of someone's fries. People are crazy.
 
I also like no longer doing actual euthanasias myself - though picking who dies still sucks
 
I couldn't do it... at a pet store, I'd be dealing with people who have no idea how to take care of an animal, yet think they do.

At the shelter, they'd be euthanizing animals that were healthy and adoptable, like Brody said, and if not adoptable, then edible. If they would let people use these animals for food, we wouldn't have to have the expense of housing and feeding and euthanizing and disposing of all these animals. And I mean dogs and cats, too... there are plenty of countries around the world that don't have hangups about animals being multi-purpose... I don't know why it's such an issue in this country. They'll sell you a dog on a leash, or the same dog skinned and cleaned. Just like we do with rabbits. These animals are just killed, when they could serve a useful purpose.

Then there's this story from http://therabbitrevolution.com/butchering-and-eating-rabbit/

Dear Rabbit Revolution people.,

I want to tell you to be careful to secure your rabbits, and keep them safe. And keep your address hidden! No accidental revealing of name or location!

I just had all three of my rabbits stolen from my yard. I have had a pair of Red NZ for meat for about 4 years-plus their biggest daughter. I tried them in the house (too much pee), the garage ( too much pee) and then in hutches in the yard. Learned to care for them, learned to eat them. It has been and is a spiritual journey into self suffiency and my values with meat eating etc. They produced well.

Somehow someone decided my rabbits needed rescuing. I have exhausted the paranoia trying to figure out how and why. Was it a disgruntled neighbor, a vegan acquaintance, a kid? This person probably told a bunny rescue group that my bunnies needed to be rescued.

The rabbits were fed on a Tuesday night, at 8:30 pm. The next morning they were gone. The cages were closed again. The fence gate was bent. One water bottle from a cage and a cat carrier that could not hold all 33 lbs of 3 big rabbits was also missing. It would have leaned against the one hutch. Most of their food and water, except the missing water was gone. We were in the house. It was a dark night, and though my son said he heard fence noises he saw nothing. Even closing the hutch roof doors took a very sneaky hand, as they usually slam.

Two of my rabbits are tattooed. I do not think they were stolen to eat because of the water bottle and carrier thing. It seems if a bum was grabbing them for barbecue he would haul them off in his napsack or something, not a carrier with a water bottle. Since this happened in mid August I have found out that there is an active rabbit rescue society in our area. I thought that no one would find it worth while to steal these rabbits. Now I find they get 90 bucks a rabbit in rehome fees, plus all kinds of donations they milk with stories of saving rabbits from horrible barns were there were sixty rabbits. Umm does that mean they are bragging about stealing sixty rabbit from a farmer. Yep. Look up rabbit rescue on the internet and keep reading.

I cannot tell you how sad I am to have my hope and future plans of rabbiting just undermined like this. It is a violation to have your yard broke into. There is no question that my rabbits were healthy well cared, happy rabbits. The only thing worse is if they would have hurt my kids or us physically. It is up there with dog theft or worse, because dogs are not often eaten. Not only that but I was very attached to these rabbits, which watched tv with me, especially the buck. All my yard waste, maple leaves, branches, grass, weeds went mostly went through cages and I can’t even pull weeds without getting sad. They changed me to organic gardening. I think what you are doing, your revolution here, is extremely important KEEP IT UP. but protect your rabbits.

Tattoo them. Then we have to come up with a national registry for tatoo ears and rabbit histories in a secure way. No way should a rescue group get by selling a tatooed rabbit to someone without getting closed down. This could work with microchipping but that is expensive for rabbits. Tattooing is cheaper.

These rescue groups are not harmless innocents. They have economic incentives to do what they are doing. Their non-profits, for these economical animals, are very profitable. Then they regularly have disasters ?such as disease outbreaks or wild animal break ins that get rid of their rabbits. The rescue people are a mixture of confused sentimentalists and the worse in self serving money hungry power grubbers. What a power trip-to think you are doing a wonderful thing to B & E my rabbits out of my fenced yard!

My Red NZ bucks was one of seven good bucks of his breed that I could find in this state, and Red NZ are not even a rare breed. How are they helping rabbits to neuter him? If someone cares to live with rabbit poo in their house and their rabbit perhaps, does not produce garden improvement like mine did, that is there right. What right have they to say I cannot have a yard pet? ann
Click to expand...

The rescue people are tied to the shelter people. I know that many of them are good and decent people, like Brody. I know that it is necessary to remove animals from people who are actually abusive to them, but some of them go beyond that, deciding that things like raising rabbits for meat in your backyard is evil. I just can't take the bleeding-heart politics.

:soap: Okay, I'll get down now.

I hope I didn't offend you Brody, because I don't want to and I'm not talking about most rescue/shelter people. Just some of them.
 
You didn't offend me AT ALL :)
Bits of that tirade offend me heartily - but like anything else a few lousy profit motivated "rescuers" give the whole thing a bad name. Abusive teachers give teaachers a bad name too but in rescue and animal welfare it seems very easy to get tarred with a rather yicky brush.

The thing that stands out most to me is the profit bit (The creating tragedy is a joke too- nobody in animal welfre or rescue needs to create tragedy it happens just by the nature of the biz).
If somebody can do rescue right and still come out ahead a little I'm all about props to them actually. If the animals are being spayed/neuetered vaccinated and treated for what they have; homes are being screened (at least a little) and the adoption agency has and upholds a policy of animals being returned to them if there is a problem, I think it would be FABULOUS to make enough money to be able to susutain a reasonable quality of life for the people it takes to run the organization. The volunteer rescues really struggle with this. If the bulk of the laundry I do as a foster home is animal related why should I have to pay for a new wasing machine out of pocket? I shouldn't but if donors hear that money went to a washing machine they tend to not support the organiation unless you specifically have a "new washing machine needed" fund.

It's awful to have rabbits stolen - I very very much doubt they were stolen to make money - one reason rabbit adoption fees tend to be so high is rabbits can sit in rescue their whole life time without being adopted.

as I've strayed far from only rabbits I'll bck away unless people have questiosn or comments ;)
 
Thank you so much, Brody! :)

I doubted that lady's rabbits were stolen for profit either, but when I came across that letter last week, it confirmed something I had thought -- that in the situation I find myself in, raising rabbits for food in the city, I need to be careful. If the rabbits don't need to be mentioned, then they aren't mentioned.

One of our next-door neighbors (very, very nice lady) supports the ASPCA. It says so on a sign in her yard. She also works in the neighborhood homeowners' association. What would she think of our rabbits being raised for meat? I have no idea. She appeared at the back of the house one day while we were working on the new rabbitry. The kids were outside with the rabbits, who were overcrowded and definitely not in ideal conditions at the time.

Since she was already there, the kids excitedly showed off the rabbits. Coming around from the rabbitry, I was horrified. What if she called rescue on us because of how the rabbits were being kept? I quickly welcomed her and took her around to show her the brand-new, nice, clean home the bunnies were about to move into. But, knowing that there are people who believe that rabbits shouldn't even be kept outside, I didn't know if that would help. She did seem impressed, though, but I was still nervous, especially when she asked us what we were going to do with the babies.

Well, I replied, the kids are raising rabbits for 4H. Not really a complete fabrication, since they are going to join 4H here shortly because of the rabbits. She seemed satisfied, and animal rescue hasn't shown up. I don't know that she would call them. But I don't know that she wouldn't. What sort of animal rescue people do we have here? People who take only animals that obviously are being abused or neglected? Or people who take animals who aren't being raised the way they think they should be raised? Are there groups around here who, upon hearing of a meat rabbit herd, go to steal them in the middle of the night? I don't know. If the neighborhood homeowners' association learned we were raising meat rabbits, what would they do? I don't know.

I am not against animal rescue, and I hope it doesn't sound like that. We bought Pearl from a farm that takes in rescue animals. They had a couple of horses that had been brought to them a short time prior that were malnourished and mistreated. The owners of the farm were surprised that the one mare would allow our kids to rub her nose, since she normally didn't let anyone get anywhere near her.

Like you said, Brody, the few bad ones out there make us afraid that the ones in our area might be bad. Probably an unreasonable fear, but I wouldn't be so concerned if we lived on a little farm in the country (someday... :) ).

Whoa... I think I went seriously :eek:fftopic: :nono: ... Sorry, Ann!
 
LOL- i think the homeowners association thing is a legit concern - I simply don't understand them - we have nothing like that here that I know about!!

I'm pretty well known in animal welfare up here but (I hope) I am also known for being open minded - I think if the lady thought the rabbits were being kept in good condition but would prefer they were indoors she'd discuss it with you rather than reporting you - I certainly know that's what I'd do.

I mind my own business as much as possible but if I can't sleep I try to figure out how to have a "difficult" discussion (in all areas of my life. I work VERY hard not to be a hypocrite - I eat meat therefore I won't pass judgement on anybody who eats any type of meat. I don't kill for pleasure and I will have diffcult conversations with people who do and then do nothing with the animals.

If animals are kept humanely and dispatched humanely I actually agree with the other post that discusses the personal honour or whatever you call it about being that involved in food production.

Could I do it?Honestly I don't know - I do know I have loved enough rabbits to have trouble thinking about eating them personally. I am quite prepared to try chickens and turkeys sometime soon though.

ok - see I'm even more OT then you ;) and I otta know better :)

(and don't apologize to Ann - she's a WAY worse digreesor than me!!)
 
HEY! topic? what topic?! :lol: I'm just sitting here sipping my tea thinking about the "honor" bit....and how many of the older civilizations (like the native americans, ancient greeks, etc.) would actually perform a ceremony honoring the animals that they hunted.

I'd never be able to take a healthy animal and euthanize it, just because there was no room. They'd go home with me. And then I'd be put in jail for having 100 animals in my house :x It's such a tremendous problem..so many pet animals, so few people to adopt them, so many "puppy mills".

One of our pet supply stores has teamed up with the local/county animal shelter, tho. They've been partnered for a couple of decades now. Putting on "adopt a pet" days, big weekend events, and actually shelters some of the animals in their stores so that shoppers can see them and hopefully take them home :) It seems to work REALLY well.
 
I'm glad Ann - the more local partners folks doing good work have the more people get to meet animals

One interesting place I have run adoption events is at churchs when they have blessings of the animals :)
 

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