Leaving pets behind.

[Grandpa Shooter]

I was reading a thread on THR.us about a guy who's hunting dog died.  Many posters lamented the loss of their pets in sympathy with him.

Got me wondering again about something which has puzzled me for a long time.  Why do people leave pets behind?  My tenants left in the middle of the night and left behind two dogs and a cat.  Many of the Katrina evacuees left their pets behind. People who come to the tourist spots near me, often leave their pets when they go home.

Some of the folks who live up here let their dogs out at night and the dogs "disappear unexpectedly" like they have no clue we live in a forest.  With predators!

What is the mentality of people who would just up and leave, or turn their pets loose, on endanger them by their negligence?  I just don't get it, I guess.

[K Frame]

I don't know what the mentality is. I don't understand it, could never understand it, and never will understand it. I don't even want to make an attempt to understand it.

All I know is that someone who does so becomes non-human in my eyes.

I've broken off friendships with people who view their companion animals as disposable products.

When I get a critter, I get a critter for life -- mine or theirs. If it's theirs, I mourn them mightily when they die. If mine, I've already made arrangements in my will for whatever companion animals I have when I die.

[charby]

Because they are irresponsible heartless a**holes.

[AJ Dual]

I don't know. I can't imagine abandoning a pet. You'd think people who do it would at least take the dog to a shelter and lie, saying "he snapped at the baby" or "we lost our jobs and can't find a pet-friendly apartment"... something. I'd give Harlow or Kennedy a .22 between the eyes before I let them go anywhere but into another loving family that wanted them.

However, some people let their pets roam, even knowing they might be killed/eaten/run over etc. do so because they know it makes that pet happier.

My mother lets her 10 year old cat "Buster" out of the house in Suburban D.C. even though he's been ripped up by Raccoons and other cats, and once was hit by a car, and he's currently got partial paralysis in his rear legs either from diabetic neuropathy or spinal/bone inflammation because if she locks him in, he's miserable.

So for some, at least in regards to allowing dangerous roaming, it's a "Candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long" kind of thing.

[Nick1911]

I have a written list, in order of importance, of things I need to load in the truck if I need to leave in a hurry.  If I don't have time to load everything, I'll get as far down the list as I can before leaving.

Of the first 5, two of them are the dogs and dog food.

I don't understand the mentality either.

[K Frame]

If I have to evacuate in a BIG hurry, the only thing I worry about getting is Mason.

Everything else is stuff that can be replaced relatively easily.

[Ben]

Count me in as not understanding. I can not fathom moving and just leaving the pets behind like they're old furniture. If I ever had to evacuate for an emergency or something, if I couldn't get to the home of another family member or friend and had the option of shelter with no dogs allowed or nothing, I'd take the nothing and happily camp somewhere or just sleep in the truck with the dog. I think me and the dog would take that option instead of a public shelter regardless quite frankly. :)

[charby]

If I have to evacuate in a BIG hurry, the only thing I worry about getting is Mason.

Everything else is stuff that can be replaced relatively easily.

So true, my firearms can be replaced. Which is next after my wife and two dogs which can't be replaced.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

my dogs come right behind if not next to my kids. and i'm happy to say my wife and older kid think that way too.

[41magsnub]

Count me in as not understanding. I can not fathom moving and just leaving the pets behind like they're old furniture. If I ever had to evacuate for an emergency or something, if I couldn't get to the home of another family member or friend and had the option of shelter with no dogs allowed or nothing, I'd take the nothing and happily camp somewhere or just sleep in the truck with the dog. I think me and the dog would take that option instead of a public shelter regardless quite frankly. :)

That would be my choice as well unless it is super dangerous cold. 

[Viking]

Way to common over here. People rent houses in the countryside during the summer, and because they are spineless, stupid, ignorant aholes, they cave in to the whining of their kids and get a little kitten. Oh how fun, look at it, ooops, we're going back now, and we can't bring the kitten with us, so leave it, he/she will be alrigth, there's...mice, yeah, mice that it can catch and eat. It'll be OK. 
Kitten is promptly abandoned, probably asking itself "why did they leave me ?", and eventually they die either of cold or starvation or are eaten by some predator.

I don't have any pets, but my parents have, and well, they are family. Hairy, sometimes smelly and odd family, but still family. If I had pets, and had to leave, pets go with me.

[Jamisjockey]

Not everyone is attached to their animals completely.
Some people value them less than certain properties.
Just drive down the street and look in your neighbor's backyards.  How many have dogs that are chained to a tree out back?  Those are the people who would abandon their animal in an emergency, or leave the animal there if they had to move unexpectedly.

[Grandpa Shooter]

Not everyone is attached to their animals completely.
Some people value them less than certain properties.
Just drive down the street and look in your neighbor's backyards.  How many have dogs that are chained to a tree out back?  Those are the people who would abandon their animal in an emergency, or leave the animal there if they had to move unexpectedly.

We had a summer visitor here awhile back who was in the hardware store buying chain and snap hooks.  I didn't think anything of it at first until I went out of the store and saw two dogs in the back of his truck.  I went back in and asked if the chains and hooks were for the dogs.  He said yes and that his wife wouldn't let them in the house and he had to chain them outside while they were up for the weekend.  He was about to check out with his stuff when the clerk asked him if she had heard correctly.  He said "Yes, Why?"  She replied that she wouldn't sell them to him for that pupose.  He tried to demand they take his money and when they refused stormed out of the store.

I asked her if she realized he would just go somewhere else and she replied, "Let him.  At least its not on my conscience."  Needless to say that young lady is one of my favorite people.

[ilbob]

I think some people may have left their pets behind during Katrina because they knew the government run shelters would not let them in, and thought they might have a better shot at survival staying at home. They might well have been right if the scope of the disaster had been a little less.

Wilma is coming with us if we have to bug out. We have a five gallon bucket with dog food in it that would go too.

Sadly, the no cage place we used to board her at went out of business. We are trying a new place this Saturday. Not no cage, but they have individual 8X10 "rooms" with outdoor access. If it had been our previous dog we would probably have brought her with us. Woofie was perfectly happy sleeping in the car while we would be inside, and she would be fine in a motel that allowed dogs. Wilma is not much of a car dog.

<added>My wife just called to say she had reserved a "suite" instead of a normal room for wilma at the boarding place. You know, some dogs are just spoiled.  :)

[buzz_knox]

We won't leave our dog to stay by himself overnight, let alone through a crisis.  In the incredibly unlikely scenario that we were caught away from home in a disaster situation and couldn't make it back, there's an extraction team (consisting of the paternal "grandparents") who could and would retrieve the dog. 

[MillCreek]

My current cat was a feral that was abandoned by neighbors who moved in the dead of night.  They left two dogs and four cats.  My own cat had just died, so I took in the abandoned cat that was already familiar with me.  I don't know what happened to the other dogs and cats.  They just disappeared.

[txgho1911]

I will not move where I cannot take my dogs.
SHTF and it's time to bugout. If I discover I cannot take my dogs whichever dogs to be left will be put down. The dogs will be part of surviving if at all possible.

[zahc]

I don't understand the mindset that drives people to have pets in the first place, sometimes. People use them as an emotional sink, and get all attached. Yet it's those same people that abuse them or leave them because they are 'just animals'. Make up your mind.

I personally like animals sometimes. Dogs can be useful. To some extent so can cats. When they outlive their usefulness the relationship is over. If I had an emotional relationship with an animal, then I would have an emotional responsibility to it. I refuse to harbor emotional obligations towards animals, so I don't invest emotion in them, and for this some people think I'm a cold hearted bastard. Oh well.

Personally I think the logical thing to do, if you cannot take a pet with you, and cannot sell it, is to kill it. If you are too spineless to kill it, you shouldn't have taken it in the first place.

[BrokenPaw]

Two of our cats we adopted because they were left behind (and by "left behind" I mean "they were indoor cats that were tossed outside") when their former owner decided that her boyfriend (a neighbor of mine) beat her just a little too much and she moved out.

The poor cats were used to living indoors, and were just going from house to house trying to find people who would feed them.  We took them in and renamed them (because, face it, cat names are for our purposes, not theirs).  Two days later, Hurricane Isabel blew through.  Steve probably could have survived it, but his brother Fidget would likely not have.

They're awesome cats.  I don't understand how someone could have left them behind.

I'm a big soppy about all of my cats.  When we had to put Griffon down this past summer (bladder stones with a <50% chance of operational success, and a horrible QOL prognosis even if the op was a success), I was a wreck for a week, and it still comes back and kicks me in the arse from time to time.  Like now.   

I could never leave a pet behind.  Not a chance.

-BP

[Jamisjockey]

Two of our cats we adopted because they were left behind (and by "left behind" I mean "they were indoor cats that were tossed outside") when their former owner decided that her boyfriend (a neighbor of mine) beat her just a little too much and she moved out.


They're awesome cats.  I don't understand how someone could have left them behind.

Lets face it....pets are pets and people are people.  Sounds like she had a good reason to leave the cats.  Not to abandon them, she should have taken them to a shelter.

[K Frame]

"Lets face it....pets are pets and people are people."

Which is certainly no ringing endorsement of the human race, and certainly no reason for me to treat Mason worse than a some random "human."

[Grandpa Shooter]

Lets face it....pets are pets and people are people.  Sounds like she had a good reason to leave the cats.  Not to abandon them, she should have taken them to a shelter.

If people were more like pets, I probably would tolerate them better.  I guess that is why we have 5 dogs and 4 guinea pigs.  They depend on us and give us love all of the time, not just when they feel like it.

[RevDisk]

Lets face it....pets are pets and people are people.

I'm more inclined to treat pets in a better manner than most people.  Pets are generally loyal and kind.  If nothing else, they provide entertainment and companionship.  Humans rarely display such redeeming characteristics.  I'm a rather firm believer in being kind towards those kind to me, and being wary of those with ill intentions.   So...   please explain why I should put all or most humans automatically above a pet?

[Firethorn]

That would be my choice as well unless it is super dangerous cold. 

A couple medium to big dogs and the inside of the truck/other vehicle won't be so cold.  Might be a bit smelly, but you'll be warm.

And if it's 'dangerously cold', well, the weather would have to be pretty bad to run the engine low on gasoline before I get a couple states south.

[K Frame]

"If people were more like pets, I probably would tolerate them better."

You know, you and I have had our issues, but I'm feeling a certain empathy, appreciation, and kinship for you right now.