I'm an animal lover. I gravitate towards cats. We seem to be kindred spirits and maybe in a former life I was definitely feline. But I love all animals and can never understand how some people can treat them as if they are nothing or worse abuse them or watch them die a horrible death. I just don't get it!
I was inspired to write this post after becoming, like many in my area, outraged when I heard of a house fire that occured last week here in Wilmington, NC. I try really hard not to be a judgemental person. I know it's not my place or my right, however sometimes things anger me so badly that I have to give them a voice. That fire is one of those things. I'll be honest, I don't know every detail of what happen but I do know enough to know that the owners of the house senselessly let two animals die in it, and in my opinion they should never ever be allowed to have another pet!! Period!!
Here's the story - apparently someone was smoking something and decided not to properly extingish it before going to bed. Being the animal lovers that they were, they thought nothing of keeping their family dog locked in a crate in their garage. Yes, please note I said garage. You know the room that not only has a regular type door but has one of those huge, almost covers a whole wall type door that lifts up. Well, apparently at around 1am, the family was awoken by the barking of the dog and realized the house was on fire. They all managed to get out of the house with no complications, in fact were just hanging out when fire crews arrived. It was then reported that their cat and their dog, YES, THE ONE WHOSE BARKING SAVED THEIR LIVES!!, both of these animals perished in the fire. Several days later after receiving much condemnation from people in the community for not trying to save their animals (if you see pictures, you will note the house was not completely destroyed, in fact much was still livable), they blamed it on their 14 yr old child, and said the child opened the garage door from the house and saw flames therefore shut it and they could not get to the dog that again was responisible for saving their lives. That was apparently the only effort made to save the poor terrified and loyal animal.
I don't know about anyone else, but I love animals. My animals are like my children and if my house ever catches on fire I would die, literally before I would let them perish inside. But then I would do that for any animal, because in a fire they can not defend themselves. They don't know what to do. They are alone and terrified and I would rather mine get lose and have to try to find them later than let them suffer that agony. So, you see why I am outraged by this story. Is it just me? Are there others who feel as I do? Am I wrong to be outraged and feel they should never be allowed to own a pet? Please leave your comments and thoughts.
I know the concensus is to get out and save yourself and your human family, but...
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. I would not leave my house without Rocko & Spunky. They are my children. It's like if I ever came home and found someone had broken into my house. I'd go looking for my cats first. I'd be extremely upset at the stolen computer - I'd have a complete freak-out if they hurt my cats!
And sho keeps their dog in a crate in the garage???? That puppy would be curled up at the foot of our bed in our house.
As I sit here with tears in my eyes, I am heartsick for the perished animals. I've often said that some people simply should not have animals.
ReplyDeleteNot only do they NOT treat them as members of the family, some don't even give merit to the word "pet." I have never and never will consider my cats "pets" - but to some people they are, and they would have rescued their pets.
I'm with Diane, I would FREAK if anything happened to my furries. Well, I have. I still hurt over the loss of my Mittens. As you said, they are our children.
Those people should definitely be banned from ever having another animal under their care! (What care?)
That does seem wrong - especially after the dog saved their butts.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see I'm not the only one who loves animals so much. We see cruelty to animals all over the news & TV and also sometimes some wonderful stories of people who have gone above and beyond for an animal, but something about this story just really got to me. I heard about it a week ago and it still makes me mad.
ReplyDeleteI am a big time animal lover (especially cats) but this story made me literally makes me sick. Why would someone have a dog, and crate it in a garage anyways? How hard would it have been to open the garage door from the outside? Sick sick sick...those people should face charges IMO.
ReplyDeleteI think your outrage is completely justifiable. There is no way I wouldn't try to save my beloved cats if our apartment caught fire.
ReplyDeleteI feel so sorry for those animals.
I'm in agreement, I too abhor the casual cruelty some owners inflict on their pets.
ReplyDeleteBUT, I do hate it in films when a giant tornado is inches away from killing an entire family and they sit there yelling "come on boy" as the dog outpowers a mammoth cyclone.
Also, I hate it in films when the indecisive character is killed for hesitating in the face of a massive tornado, but the very courgeous dog survives. As if you wouldn't hesitate: it's a bloody tornado!
Sorry. Just venting.
The only time I ever put a dog in a kennel is when we had 14 of them here in my little 12 x 21 (not counting my 12 x 12 bedroom) house. There just wasn't enough floorspace for that many airdales in the house at night. During the day they were on a chain out in the yard - another thing I have never done before or since. They weren't my dogs and this is the way their owner kept control of them. Then again, I've seen pack mentality, and the last thing we needed was to have a pack of dogs take off into the wilderness after some hapless rabbit (I won't even to possibility of moose or bear). We'd never see them again. Myself, I've only had more than one dog a couple times, but still, I never kept them in a kennel. The only difference between my puppies and my kids is that I only had to change diapers on my kids, the puppies got scooped up and rushed outside the moment they squatted and that included in the middle of the night. I didn't sleep well when my babies were little. After all that, it goes without saying that I would never leave any of my babies to die in a fire, not unless it was 200% impossible to get them out. Meaning, we were far from home when the tragedy occurred. A neighbor of mine lost a couple cats that way. I forget where they had gone, but when they got home, they had no house to come home to and out here, there's no one to call and put the fire out and no neighbors to do the calling.
ReplyDeleteSad as that story was, there was no helping those cats. This story, however, is the worst. How cold, how thoughtless. I can see maybe not being able to find the cat in all the smoke, but not getting the dog out is just . . . wrong.
Sorry for my rant. It made me mad too.