Outraged clueless woman at food donations

[Evannah]

That's better than some people I've seen commenting that "poor people" shouldn't have pets.

I was once targeted on an online forum about this. I was on benefits at the time and made a passing comment about my financial status and the fact that I had two cats. One member accused me of animal cruelty and neglect because I couldn't afford to keep animals and be on benefits at the same time. She told me that she was going to find out where I lived and have my cats taken away from me. Sad thing is, a lot of other members agreed with her and labelled me as an animal abuser. I've still got my cats. I live with family now. They're loved, fed, clean and have good skin and fur, just like they were when they lived with me in my flat.

[Slave to the Phone]

I'm so sorry that happened to you Evannah. If it helps I'm now mad in your behalf. Poor people often take better care of their pets than they do of themselves. I've known people who couldn't afford to go to the doctor, but if their pet got sick, they found a way to get the pet to the vet. I donate pet food to meals-on-wheels because its well known that people feed the meat from their meals to their pets if they don't have pet food. Sometimes a pet is the only reason to get up in the morning.

[Cecily]

Over here, the vet school holds clinics for homeless youth's pets, about every month I think. In a newspaper article about the clinic, the students said the dogs were very well taken care of by their owners: up to date on vaccines and they would feed their dogs before themselves.

[notalwaysright]

In a newspaper article about the clinic, the students said the dogs were very well taken care of by their owners: up to date on vaccines and they would feed their dogs before themselves.

In the article I read about the local pet food bank, it addressed concerns that people would abuse it by continually getting free food. Basically it said that they have not observed this, in fact it's the opposite. That the people who use the food bank do it for a short period of time, and are often the first to donate once they are in a better position financially.

[wolfie]

For anyone associated with a food bank (human or animal), if you're located near a grocery warehouse it's a good idea to see if you can get your contact information posted at the receiving office (I've only been to one which had a food bank's contact information listed). Many times, part of a load will be rejected for various reasons (earlier this year I had some jugs of cat litter rejected due to the cardboard shipping cartons being damaged - product itself was perfectly good), and the driver will need to dispose of the rejected goods in order to have an empty trailer to pick up their next load.

If the contact information is posted, it makes it VERY easy to get rid of the "good product with damaged packaging" - and the usual response from the customer is "just get rid of it", since if they wanted it brought back they'd have to pay the return freight. I'm sure a food bank that also handled pet food, or an animal shelter, would have been able to find a use for 500 pounds of cat litter. As things stood, dispatch couldn't find an animal shelter in the area, and I wound up stashing the jugs in any available spaces in my cab (company's shop wound up getting a supply of spill absorbent) so that I'd have an empty trailer to pick up my backhaul.

[Sleepwalker]

That is some good advice, wolfie! Products will get refused/ wasted out for some pretty minor reasons, and be perfectly good to use.

[katzklaw]

13 years ago, i adopted a dog as a surprise gift for my husband. we both had steady jobs and a decent house. we weren't rich by any means, but we had enough. 6 years ago we hit a rough patch... i was the only one working, and it was only part time hours, hubby couldn't find any work at all, despite trying...we ended up on food stamps for a few months till we both found other jobs and started making a bit more money again. food stamps don't pay for pet food... so our dog ate rice and beans and boiled chicken right alongside us, because that's what we were eating. hubby would make 3 plates, one for him, one for me, and one for her. 3 months ago we had to let her go... cancer crept up on her and stole her from us. she was sleek, sassy, happy, shiny, and apparently healthy all the way up til nearly the end, none the worse for her short period of time spent "poor".


she was the larger white dog, and this pic was taken only 7 months before we lost her. you really couldn't even tell she was 13 1/2.

point being... you never know what someone's situation is... you can't make a judgement on someone and say they're being cruel or unfair to their pets for owning them while they are poor. should they acquire a pet when they currently have no monetary means to care for it? probably not. should they be forced to give up a family member if they happen to fall on hard times? absolutely not.

[Slave to the Phone]

I'm sorry for your loss, she looks like she was a happy dog. Beautiful.

For the record, dogs do very well on chicken and rice. Dogs are garbage guts, they can pretty much eat anything. I donate dog food to meals-on-wheels so the shut in elderly eat their food and give their dogs dog food. I want the people to eat their full meals instead of giving half of it to their pets. Does that make sense?

On the other paw, cats need commercial food. Tuna and other processed meat is a tasty treat, but shouldn't be fed to them on a regular basis. Cats need Taurine. Their only source of Taurine is raw meat. When meat is cooked, the Taurine goes away. The only way to fix that is to buy suppliants or to just buy commercial food that has the required amounts.

/lector off/

[Racket_Man]

Dogs are garbage guts, they can pretty much eat anything.

THIS ^^^^^^ hence one of my dogs nicknames ----- RoverHoover. If it is even slightly edible and on the floor it gets hoovered up by the K9 eating machine. He even a few times re-ate something that came back up from his own stomach-----

[BlaqueKatt]

I was once targeted on an online forum about this. I was on benefits at the time and made a passing comment about my financial status and the fact that I had two cats. One member accused me of animal cruelty and neglect because I couldn't afford to keep animals and be on benefits at the same time.

I've eaten ramen* and generic mac and cheese every day for a month because my cat's have food allergies and therefore expensive food. my pets come first, I can decide to skip eating for a day or two without much of a problem, they can't, and I chose to take them in. about 90% of pet owners I know are just about the same.


*I know how to make ramen a more balanced meal by adding cheap frozen veggies and eggs or tofu, I wasn't suffering horribly, I was just stretching my $80 in grocery money for the month.

[Lace Neil Singer]

This is something a mate told me. At the place where she works, there was a collection for Christmas boxes for poor people. Some people donated pet stuff, like beds, food, carriers etc. Anyway, she caught this woman red handed trying to take a dog bed and a cat carrier out of the donation bin. Her excuse was that she thought it was free stuff to be given to the community. Yeah, lady, for the poor; not for someone like you that wears designer clothes and drives a people carrier. After that incident, my mate assigned people to stand guard over the donation bin.

[nutraxfornerves]

I attended an event that was sponsored by a bunch of farming groups. They had all sorts of food products on display that they didn't really want to have to haul off after the event. A group of business people offered to deliver it all to the local soup kitchen. A woman grabbed the artichokes for herself because the homeless didn't deserve luxuries like that.

[Seshat]

If you're planning to actually take this advice, please check it with a vet or a vet tech first.

Cats are obligate carnivores who can't make taurine for themselves (as we can't make vitamin C for ourselves and thus are obliged to have some green matter in our diets).

Taurine is available in raw brains; thus if you need to give your cat cheaper food than the good commercial stuff, but wish to give them something healthier than cheap comercial stuff, give them raw brain acquired from a butcher along with meat-and-bone in whatever form is affordable. Ideally muscle-and-entrail-and-bone-and-skin, such as the cheapest form of whole fish (sardines?) you can get.
A vet or vet tech should be able to give you the correct ratio for brain vs other-stuff.

[Kogarashi]

I always worry about people with sticky fingers lifting things out of donation bins. I took my girls to the store this week so they could each pick out a toy to buy and drop in the Toys for Tots bin, and I can only hope that someone else doesn't wander by and think, "hey, free gifts for my kids!" and swipe those.

Cats need Taurine. Their only source of Taurine is raw meat. When meat is cooked, the Taurine goes away. The only way to fix that is to buy suppliants or to just buy commercial food that has the required amounts.

Or give them Red Bull?
I kid, I kid! I love cats and would never do that to them.

But I will have to remember the pet food donation idea. It's honestly something I hadn't thought of before.

[notalwaysright]

Raw chicken heart will also have taurine, I'm pretty sure, and I've seen that in the regular meat department. Speaking of garbage guts, I have to be careful because my cat will attempt to eat anything and everything. If I leave a box of cheez-its on the counter he will break into it, eat a bunch, then throw up orange on the light colored carpet. It's not pleasant to come home to.