I didn't realize that was a point of any importance. Yes, I have had to euthanize my own pets, including one where due to my negligence and disobedience as a younger child (~6 years) I injured a cherished hamster (it was dropped when it wasn't even supposed to be out of its cage at the time) beyond recovery and had to help my dad put it out of its misery with a garden hoe. I also was there holding my dog Sheba, the black lab I mentioned earlier, when she was injected, though it was the vet who technically pushed the plunger in on the syringe. Helped get her back end situated in a plastic bag and watched as her pleading eyes grew dull and her head sank to the table between her paws and listened as the urine was released into the bag. You think it was easy or something? Or do you presume that because I take a pragmatic approach, placing the value of people over strays and abandoned pets, that I have no practical experience in the matter and am simply presiding in sneering judgement because I've never had to actually be involved in it, in turn judging me based on those presumptions?
I don't know how things work in Tahoe or Sacramento or San Francisco or whatever, but one thing about growing up in Texas and among the impoverished streets of Latin America (which make the areas in the US with the highest populations of strays look entirely bereft of life) is that you learn the value of an animal is less than the value of your fellow human being. Whether that animal is livestock, a stray born and bred on the streets, or a family pet abandoned for reasons unknown, there's unpleasant business to see to, and we don't get to shirk that responsibility just because it's unpleasant.
I do not understand this. There was a shortage of mice in your area, thus creating a situation where all the stray cats were starving? Mice generally multiply and thrive without direct human help. In fact, they are generally regarded as vermin the world over due to their prodigious numbers, a tendency to consume and/or destroy food and other items of value, and carrying parasites and disease. Why you would take steps to very unnecessarily further shore up their numbers is beyond me. I'm surprised you managed to keep this a secret from your neighbors, who I think would be less than pleased to find you spreading vermin in their neighborhood. In fact, all you have to do is change the animal to a similar one that you personally find less cute, and the ridiculousness of it all should be apparent even to you. Let's say cockroaches. Your neighbor has a thing for cockroaches and breeds clutches of them to release into the hallway or whatever. You think you'd rush to his door with a basket of fresh-baked cookies to thank him for his noble work? Scorpions? After all, I'm willing to bet less food is ruined and fewer people are injured or fall ill (or, yeah, even die) from scorpions than from vermin like mice.I raised animals to be out in the wild and probably eaten.
When those tax dollars could instead be spent keeping a deserving human life in this world, yeah, I'm concerned. Sentimentality and the warm fuzzies of releasing animals to be eaten or keeping unwanted animals caged until they die, these ideas are not in and of themselves worthy of glorification, much less of taking tax money (and donations!) from programs that can help people. And yeah, by the way, one other thing about being here in Texas right now is that the leading 3rd party candidate (well, the Democrat doesn't stand much of a chance, so it's really more like simply the first runner-up) has made the installation of taxpayer funded no-kill shelters part of his campaign platform. And it's been quite the hot topic in city politics lately on slow news days, which bleeding heart reporters (susupiciously all female, for some reason) present with bottom lip protruding in a pronounced pout, saying, "Isn't it sad how these animals are dying?" Yeah, it is sad. But City Council then moving to put a temporary stop to all euthanizations while figuring out how to extract more tax money to pay for even more overflowing shelters isn't the answer. Yeah, you're real clever coming up with lines like, "you seemed more concerned with your tax dollars being wasted on keeping another life in this world," and, "Go make your own rant about kittens taking your money." But has it occurred to you to actually consider that you're saying such things are indeed more deserving than people? Yes, even innocent children? Awww, but kittens are so much cuter than a homeless child, right? Perhaps we simply should've been more understanding of Old Yeller and found a way to peacefully coexist with rabid animals. If only Congress would pass a resolution to redirect a few measly billions of dollars we could establish the grand Utopia where irresponsible pet owners go unpunished while the abandoned pets and their offspring are caged until they die.The fact of the matter was, that you seemed more concerned with your tax dollars being wasted on keeping another life in this world.
Death is, actually, a part of life, and it is not a sin or an evil thing when a superfluous stray is put down. It is instead our responsibility to prevent a long, needless incarceration for these animals while keeping our neighborhoods safe and disease free, and doing so in a fiscally responsible manner.
If it's not worth arguing about, why would it be worth arguing about arguing about it?
