Does this seem cruel to anyone else

[BookstoreEscapee]

Maybe he means a throw rug in the bathroom? Or the edge of the carpet outside the bathroom door...if the cats are trying to get out, they may be reaching their paws under the door and clawing the carpet in the process (one of my cats loves to do this...he sticks his feet under my bedroom door in the morning and we play 'whack-a-mole' wherein I catch his foot with my toes - then again, my cats don't have claws).

And yes, we have the ASPCA in the US. I would report the guy if I could. My cats used to be confined to one room when they were small, pretty much all the time for the first month or so, then just at night and when we went out, but they had a whole bedroom with a bed they could sleep on or hide under, and a desk under the window where they could look out, and their litter box and food/water/lots of toys. When they were babies they shared a carrier for vet visits, but now they each have their own. If he can't afford proper accomodations for the cats, he's really gonna have problems when the vet bills come after one of them claws the other's eyes out.

[Becks]

It's cruel to the poor cats.

No animal deserves that.

[protege]

When I first brought the kitty home, he stayed in his carrier (aka his "house") the first few days. I guess he felt safe in there. Even so, I hate to put him in there, even if it's just a few blocks to the vet's office. He doesn't like it, and is usually pretty pissed off when we arrive.

There are only a few people who I'll let kitty-sit--my neighbor and her daughter, and my parents. I had a bad experience when my cousin watched him--she kept him caged up the entire weekend, and didn't bother cleaning out the cage. Let's just say when I picked him up, I was pissed--he was covered in crap, and it took a good hour to give him a bath. Kitty hates water, and nearly cut me to ribbons!

[ShadedWings]

People like him are the reason I didn't work in a pet store for longer than nine months. I couldn't stand it when people didn't get the point of buying all the necessary items for their new pet... most of the time when people told me "I have a cage/bowls/etc at home already, I don't need all that!" I really seriously doubted they did. I couldn't stand it when people would be shocked and dismayed and argumentative about all the things I tell them they need, because obviously I didn't know as much as they did about animals! Regardless of the fact that I grew up in a house where my mom has owned pretty much almost every species of pet possible, and bred several of them as a hobby... cats, dogs, snakes, bearded dragons, birds (several species of them), guinea pigs, mice (for the snakes), fish... over the past 25 years, and showed me every possible reason and need for each species to have what they do. No, I don't know anything. *sigh*

(Even the store owner would not believe me and basically call me a liar when I told him something... but then again he was a liar, a thief and an overall jackhole.)

[Jester]

Please, tell the guy from the original post to not move too much, as I have something for him....



I love cats, and shit like this just pisses me off. I have gotten into arguments with other cat people about declawing, whether to let the cats out, etc., and while the phrase "cruel" has been thrown around by both sides, it wasn't meant in its truest sense. But THIS...this is cruel.

The one bit of satisfaction that I get from this story is that I am pretty certain after the first day or two of being confined to such ridiculous quarters the cats in question are going to put up quite a fight when Sir Sucks-A-Lot tries putting them back in said cage. Hope the scar him but good!


EDITED TO ADD:

This weekend my nieces' mother was out of town and I was in charge of them. The younger one (14) was supposed to feed and walk her dog. She did a pisspoor job of this, and when I found out about it, I was furious. Since her older sister (16) cleaned up the mess the dog made after the younger one fed but didn't walk the dog one day (she was too busy with her friends), I made the little one do a little cleaning of her own. Basically cleaning up a lot of stuff that the older one was supposed to. Also made her come home earlier from her friends' house than originally planned. When she started to argue about the earlier time, I pointed out that I could make it even earlier, i.e., could make her come home immediately and not let her go out at all. She pretty much shut up after that.

And yes, I gave her the lecture about how a dog is not a toy, but a living thing, and that as such, she needed to take care of it appropriately, or her mom would see to it that she would no longer have said dog. It's weekends like this that remind me why I am still not a parent. Personally I can't stand the dog in question, it being a very annoying, very yippy Yorkie, but even those little furballs should be taken care of properly.

I was furious over a teenager being a little irresponsible about a dog I don't even like. So you can imagine how incensed I am by the original story about the cat cager.

[raven_illusion]

wow... I feel guilty when I have two of mine share a carrier for a 10 minute ride to the vet's office. This guy should not be allow to own animals. I would hate to see what would happen if he had children.