You are assuming that a lost pet is due to negligence. Some are , most are not. Dogs and cats get lost due to many different ways. Meter readers letting them loose, cats are pretty good for getting stuck in cars. Dogs dig, climb fences , jump, cats, get hunting and lose track of locations, Ilness can cause an animal to act irrationally and some illness have no overt symptoms in animals.,and of course kids do stupid ignorant mistakes involving their beloved companions, this alone may be the largest cause of lost pets. There are many,many ways that animals get lost. not just negligence.
Who cares for the animal while the bill is being paid? the owner of course. The society can do what the rest of creditors do, they don’t have to hold hostages. That is pure greed at the expense of humaneness. How humane is it to do that? Kind of goes against the name does it not?
I am an advocate for personal responsibility, but that does not mean I am not an advocate for fair treatment. Some times uncontrollable shit happens. Fair treatment is needed, not blackmail or kidnapping or theft.
If adults only were involved mostly in this you may have a point, but, kids are involved 95% of the time. You advocate teaching them to be harsh and cruel by siding with this treatment, you teach the kids that life and family is disposable and has a price. I can’t side with that, you know that, you know that too well.
We both know the behaviors of most of the animals kept as ‘pets’ and yes, they can and do find ingenious ways to go on a walkabout. But it is still the responsibility of the owner to control and curtail such excursions. Ignorance of animal behavior is an explanation, but it isn’t an excuse. This understanding has to be in place for those agencies responsible for controlling ‘pets’ on the loose. Is it harsh? Yes. But they didn’t create the problem.
I agree that an agency shouldn’t hold an animal as hostage, but if you really believe that people would honor their ‘contract’ to pay the expenses incurred by an agency after securing their ‘pet’, you are being slightly naive. The agency policies aren’t based on callous greed, but the need for financial survival. Ask anyone who has attempted to work on a ‘voluntary’ payment schedule how it worked out. It doesn’t. Too many people have the attitude that it wasn’t their fault, it was the dog’s fault. The problem is the dog doesn’t have any money.
I agree that kids are often involved in an animal getting the opportunity to run, but that isn’t the fault of the agencies responsible for picking up loose pets. Back to personal responsibility. Parents can teach their children before or after the fact, and if they have to scrape up the necessary money in between, it is still personal responsibility. Is that cold? Probably. But the harsh realities of pet control doesn’t provide the leeway you or I would have. Unfortunately, pets are seen as ‘property’ in almost all societies. Property is disposable, even pets. Until there is an education program in place to change this point of view, pets will continue to be disposable, and children will learn this as well.
Im not asking you to agree with the current situation because I don’t agree with it myself, but we can look it in the eye for what it is, and what we are as a society.
I still haven’t named my ‘walk-on’ cat, and she is still hanging around and killing birds…
