pet care... who cares ?

[Boudi]

unless you find yourself on a desert island with one......which is what I was always being asked when I became vegetarian.....why????????????????

[JJ]

Because you were going to be on the desert island long enough for you to be so hungry that you would eat your pet for the sake of their argument and then you would be miraculously rescued as soon as you had sucked on the last bone and live a long life eating meat.  Mad.

[Boudi]

No madder than  the idea that you'd somehow end up on this island with your pet and a self lighting BBQ!

I think anyone who knows me also knows that we'd go down together, whoever went last grieving over the lass of the one who went first, because that's rreally what pets are about.

[JJ]

That's the thing.  We would go down together.

[tranchiebabe]

My Irish Great-Grandmother was permitted to remain in a room of our family home when the Germans occupied it during WW2. The allies blockaded the island just before the end of the war, and everyone was running out of food including the Germans. They took to eating pets including cats. When they wanted to eat my grandmother's moggie she somehow managed to convince them that as an Irish citizen she and her cat were exempt. Strangely enough they left it alone!

I would have no hesitation in eating pets if our family were starving. If you eat cows, sheep, pigs etc, there is no real difference in eating cats and dogs is there? Over here people don't eat horse meat as a rule finding the idea distasteful, but in France they don't have a problem with it.

My father had a Chinese labourer working on our property in the 60s, she said they used to eat cats, dogs and rats in China.

[Jan]

for me, to kill and eat an animal that you have love and affection for would be like cannibalism.

Somehow not having the love and affection connection/bond with a pre cooked chicken purchased from Tesco, means that I can eat the chicken and be fine about that (detachment) . We had a pet duck when I was growing up. I could not have eaten him ... or our rabbits, but now I can and do eat duck (occasionally).

[tranchiebabe]

Hardly cannibalism which only applies to humans. But I have never regarded pets with love and affection, especially cats and dogs of which we have had loads over the years, more toleration and respect. If push came to shove I wonder if I would eat a dead human if really hungry? I am not sure about that one. Obviously I wouldn't kill someone in order to do so!

[Boudi]

if you tolerate these creatures, why have them, or is this just the biggest insight we may ever get into your character?

[Jan]

Hardly cannibalism which only applies to humans.

Well I actually said 'like cannibalism' (if you read carefully) - which is what it would be like for me. What it would be like for you of course could (and probably would) be quite different

But I have never regarded pets with love and affection

that is a shame since animals can be  great givers of unconditional love &  affection  towards people - not to mention the companionship. Put it this way - some animals are capable of showing love (friendship love) far more than some humans - which is why for some humans they would rather have their animal companions as friends any day 

[tranchiebabe]

We had them for the kids, and my husband liked to have them around too, although I was usually the poor mug who ended up looking after the things. They were well looked after and God help any of the kids if they mistreated them in any way.

I put my foot down when the last dog fell off its twig in 2002, I did all the walking of it, feeding, grooming, worming etc and I had got fed up with doing all that so insisted there were no more dogs. We have had about 36 cats and most of them disappeared into some blackhole or other, probably getting shot and quietly buried somewhere, there is a shoot in the field next door to our property,  a waste of cat food so I put my foot down about them too.

We continue to keep gerbils (only one at present) as organic paper shredders, and very useful they have proved to be too. They shred personal papers much better than an electric shredder! One popped its clogs the other week, and had a state funeral and grave stone in recognition of 3 years hard work!

I like to have a tarantula spider as I am quirky, and it is talking point. The rest of the family think I am crackers so it lives out of sight in my bedroom!

We have a tank of goldfish too.

[ecuworrier]

well you would if you regarded livestock as pets....  eg perhaps rabbits more than cats and dogs and gerbils?


GOD BLESS!

Peace and Love,

[tranchiebabe]

I would what ecuworrier?

[AndrewF]

I have to say that the calves we butchered had been hand-reared by us, and were individually known ... and named! Having said that they showed no particular affection for us (other than as a supply of buckets of milk) so I had absolutely no compunction. I think a cat/dog which is kept as a companion is a different mater - at least as far as deliberately killing them for food, and by the time it died of starvation there would be little benefit from trying to cook it :-)

[ecuworrier]

Hardly cannibalism which only applies to humans. But I have never regarded pets with love and affection, especially cats and dogs of which we have had loads over the years, more toleration and respect. If push came to shove I wonder if I would eat a dead human if really hungry? I am not sure about that one. Obviously I wouldn't kill someone in order to do so!

i think it was this one Tf

ah i see there was another post... i am sympathetic to the put upon carer of folks wot wants their animal folks looked after too!.....

GOD BLESS!

Peace and Love,