| User | Comment |
|---|
| lizzie | | posted 22-Apr-2000 10:20pm |
I find this to be an obnoxious practice. |
| Matt | | posted 22-Apr-2000 10:39pm |
A lot of these easter presents are later abandoned after they outgrow their "cuteness"...
When the recent 101 dalmatians movie came out a few years back, the sale of dalmatians was band for a period of a month or a month and a half to prevent parents from buying them for their kids as Xmas gifts... it was a smart thing to do to prevent something like the sale of bunnies or
ducks or baby chicks as Easter gifts. |
they    | | posted 22-Apr-2000 10:56pm |
Obviously my suggestion in qualification was not taken seriously. |
| they | | posted 22-Apr-2000 10:57pm |
Matt: I was going to say that! I hated that movie because I knew what would become of it. |
| Matt | | posted 22-Apr-2000 11:13pm |
Its really sad, the same thing happened with turtles too when the cartoon started playing...
The pet shop was filled up with people bringing them back... who knew turtles dont stay as small as when you buy them! |
| they | | posted 22-Apr-2000 11:23pm |
I don't believe parents should ever buy their kids pets... I think it is okay to adopt a pet for the whole family to love and to care for... but if a parent is getting the animal JUST for the child.. they are doing the wrong thing. |
Strider  | | posted 22-Apr-2000 11:27pm |
Because who ends up taking care of the rabbits, etc.... The parents Right or they end up being put down. |
| seven | | posted 23-Apr-2000 12:48am |
Impulsive. Probably immature. |
| Frostbrand | | posted 23-Apr-2000 1:45am |
The bunnies and chicks end up being forgotten, then they end up going to the animal shelter, where they end up being put to sleep. |
| SueBee | | posted 23-Apr-2000 1:55am |
I think it's only okay for people who know how to properly care for the animals and realize that they will grow up to be not quite so cute. That is to say, in most cases it's probably not a good idea. |
| SueBee | | posted 23-Apr-2000 1:58am |
they - LOL I like your suggestion in the qualification comments! I'm glad you mentioned it here, or I would have missed it. |
| mandy | | posted 23-Apr-2000 3:11am |
I got the idea for this survey from a customer who rushed in Friday to buy a complete rabbit set up for her 6 year old son, for Easter. I felt like she wasn't really understanding what she was getting herself into. Our rabbit is a part of our family who owns a complete corner of our living room, numerous toys, she's been fixed and lives a wonderful life full of hay and nibbles and love. I never knew I could love a rabbit. I never realized how smart and funny they are. |
| SueBee | | posted 23-Apr-2000 1:07pm |
I've really become attached to our bunny, too. I never thought a rabbit would have such personality. She's a sweetie!
Anyone who gets a pet without researching the animal's needs first is a thoughtless idiot. It makes me angry when people don't have respect for animals. That's why I'm glad we sell pet supplies, but not animals. We can help people to help their animals. I wouldn't be able to stand selling an animal to someone if I didn't think they'd care for it properly. |
| mandy | | posted 23-Apr-2000 2:17pm |
Not that many people listen to our advice if it means any work or expense on their part. If we cannot give them "the quick fix" to their animal behavior(gee, your dog tears the house apart when you leave him alone for hours on end, imagine that!), eating(gee, your dog won't eat his food because you keep switching it on him thinking he needs variety and supplementing it with tablescraps and hamburgers and fries, imagine that!) or health problems(gee, your small animal has respiratory problems because you use the cheapest cage litter available and don't change it often enough, imagine that!) they shut down and go "uh huh uh huh" and then don't follow the advice to correct the problem.
Most pets are high maintenance if you want them to live a long and healthy life. I am surprised by the number of people that think you can just take a pet home and it will be this self contained pleasure giver that they don't have to deal with unless they feel like it. These are living things...nicer and more valuable than some humans...man, it pisses me off. |
| anonymous | | posted 23-Apr-2000 3:26pm |
mandy and Suebee: Being such courageous crusaders for animal rights, surely you must be vegetarians? |
| picklesmom | | posted 23-Apr-2000 6:39pm |
We purchased my daughter a dwarf rabbit for Easter when she was in 3rd grade. The little fellow is still hopping around in our den in his cage right now and my daughter is finishing 11th grade!I think the little guy will live forever! He really is the easiest to care for pet we own.(We're down to 4 dogs,2 cats,3 horses and the rabbit now.) |
| SueBee | | posted 24-Apr-2000 12:55am |
anon - Actually we were vegetarians for a couple years, but it just didn't work for us. For one thing, my iron level was too low to be allowed to donate blood. I realize I should be able to get the proper nutrition without eating meat, but I don't like those foods. I'm not a strong enough person to stop eating meat forever. But I can, at least, do my part to help some of the pets and other animals in the world. Does it have to be all or nothing? |
| mandy | | posted 24-Apr-2000 1:18am |
so anyone that eats a porkchop has to be an uncaring soul who is for the abuse and mistreatment of pets?
Anyone who is for a cleaner planet should never drive a car or throw anything in the garbage? |
| mary | | posted 24-Apr-2000 3:17pm |
I think it is good. |
| they | | posted 24-Apr-2000 5:47pm |
Mary: Why didn't you vote then? Is it okay if I ask what you think is good about it? |
| mary | | posted 24-Apr-2000 6:42pm |
they: I did vote that it totally depends.........it depends on the child, some will just kill the pets, and it also depends on the parents. My mother got me a little rat thing when I was little as a learning experience for me, she would not feed it and left it as my responsibility, it died, and I still feel bad about it.
Later I always had chickens and ducks and took wonderful care of them, maybe that first experience with a pet really helped me.
As far as Easter being the reason for giving pets, I think any reason is a good one, I love pets. |
| drdt | | posted 24-Apr-2000 7:22pm |
On my parents' farm we raised rabbits, and scads of people came asking to buy pet bunnies for their kids every Easter. We instigated a program to combat this, in which we would *give* a bunny to them, with the stipulation that it had to be returned in eight weeks. If it was well cared for, we would give them another one, for another eight weeks, ad infinitum.
For a while, more than half of our growing meat rabbits were being fed and housed by other people, and none of them ever figured out why we thought we were getting a good deal.
|
| Zang | | posted 24-Apr-2000 7:33pm |
I've heard the SPCA make a big fuss about this. I think a lot of people are irresponsible when it comes to pets. This situation is apparently one where there tends to be a lot of people bringing the bunnies and duckies to be euthanized at a later date, when they aren't small and cute. |
| phi | | posted 25-Apr-2000 12:40am |
wow. drdt, that's an incredibly good idea. |
| anonymous | | posted 26-Apr-2000 1:43am |
mandy: "so anyone that eats a porkchop has to be an uncaring soul who is for the abuse and mistreatment of pets?" No, but you certainly did disparage some of your customers for less. I'm just pointing out an interesting bit of hypocrisy, and fear your wrath too much to do it w/ handle attached  |
| mandy |
I suppose I don't equate my eating the meat of an animal I was never in charge of caring for or butchering with the total disregard for the proper care of living pet animals. My bad. But is that my fault or the fault of a factory farming society in which I have never had to slaughter my own meals.
Maybe if all humans(not just the slaughterhouse employees and the butchers) were responsible for raising and butchering the meat they consume...or hunting and dressing it.....we wouldn't be so far removed from associating that cleanly tightly wrapped package of hamburger with a living feeling being.
Would I then, be a hypocrite? If I cared for the animal and took it's life myself before consuming it..and also kept other animals as pets? |
| mandy |
or maybe once the job fell to me...I would not be able to look into the eyes of that animal and still take it's life.....and then, I would be a non meat consumer.
As would a lot of us, I'm guessing. |
| SueBee |
Several years ago, I raised 4 steers. I got them when they were 3 days old, bottle fed them, played with them, and gave them what I think was a good life -- romping in a green pasture with plenty to eat. I even wrapped one up in a giant towel and snuggled it when a bad storm blew rain into its shelter and the poor little guy was cold and wet. (I did that because I cared about the animal's feelings, not for financial gain.) When they were about 1 1/2 years old, I had them butchered. I couldn't have done it myself, and didn't want to be home that day, but I had no trouble filling my freezer with the meat that someone else cut and wrapped.
It is my feeling that those animals had a content life, and died quickly and humanely. I wish all animals that died so people can eat meat were so lucky. I wish all farmers were compassionate, but I fear it has turned into such big business that many of them care only about profit. And yet I buy meat at the grocery store because I feel like I have no other choice. Being a vegetarian didn't work for me. I would buy all my meat from local people who loved their animals if I could, but I can't afford to pay the premium prices, so I don't know what else to do. |
| liquidliqhtninq | | posted 7-May-2000 10:10pm |
I think that is a very cute idea actually...as long as you can afford to keep it clean and feed it and stuff, I guess it's fine. |
| leemanette |
My parents bought ducklings for my sister and me when I was about three. Since we lived in the city this was bad idea. I would never do this for my children. |
| mandy |
Never buy a monkey |
| joachim | | posted 15-May-2000 12:42pm |
SueBee: how were they killed? I've heard people say that slaughterhouses are quite inhumane (your case may be an exception) but I don't really know much about how it's done. |
| sequel | | posted 18-May-2000 3:00pm |
SueBee: That is very, very disturbing. To get to know an animal and realize that it has feelings, and then slaughter and eat it is absolutely beyond my comprehension emotionally. I don't know how you could have done that. |
| natsim | | posted 18-May-2000 4:15pm |
If they are going to care for them it's fine. |
| natsim | | posted 18-May-2000 4:24pm |
sequel: When I was a kid we always bottle fed the baby lambs that were orphaned by their mothers (sheep sometimes desert their babies), and it was always understood that even though lambs, and full grown sheep were cute, they were going to end up on the table. My parents were pretty careful at first: we would swap orphan lambs with a friend, so that her family ate the lamb I bottle-fed and we ate the one she bottle-fed. It never bothered me, and eventually we ate our own bottle-fed lambs. We also had ducklings, and we ate them too when they were fully grown. If it's what you're used to, it's not emotionally difficult. |
| SueBee | | posted 21-May-2000 1:57pm |
That's it right there. If it's what you're used to, it's not emotionally difficult. I can understand why you find it disturbing, sequel, if you didn't grow up on a farm. Are you a vegetarian?
joachim - The truck came right out to the field, and they were shot in the head at point blank range. From what I understand, it is instant and supposedly painless death. They never knew what hit them. Sorry if this disturbs anyone. It may seem cold, but I'm just being honest. |
| joachim | | posted 23-May-2000 10:20am |
Sounds like the right way to me. My impression is that cattle are slaughtered that way in the big slaughterhouses as well but I've heard some people say otherwise. |
| daver | | posted 23-May-2000 11:14am |
**joachim: When done indoors, the implement used is usually a bolt gun. It's an air-powered widget that "fires" a captive bolt a couple of inches. Slaughterhouses go to some lengths to avoid distressing the cattle before killing them: e.g. preventing the cattle from interacting with cattle from a different herd or hearing loud noises. Basically, anything that stresses the cattle will deplete their glycogen reserves, resulting in a higher pH ("dark cutting" is the industry term) meat. Good meat comes from unstressed cattle. |
| icelamb |
Those kind of parents will probably have to take care of the things too (laughing) |
| joachim | | (reply to daver) posted 21-Jun-2000 11:43am |
So that's what a bolt gun is. I'd heard of it but I never knew why they didn't just use a bullet gun instead. |
| kirst | | posted 12-Jul-2000 2:12am |
It depends on what the family is then going to do with the pets. Will they take care of them properly? If so, no problem. |
| Frostbrand | | posted 12-Jul-2000 1:47pm |
My cousin Becky has abuuny. She named her Smokey. |
