I’m an animal lover who has only worked retail for the last 8 years… I can kind of understand why they’d want to shame them. Because first there’s the obvious:
A) You should not have adopted a pet living being if you weren’t absolutely sure you could ensure it’s well-being along the way. (btw I’m realizing the analogy between plant and animal is only so perfect)
And B) Now they have to deal with it. Not only that, but they know that the person returning that living being knows that they’re perpetuating a very dark problem in our society.
I’ve never worked with animals professionally, but I do have very strong feelings on the matter… I think recognizing that they fucked up and still bringing the living being to someone who can take care of them is commendable, but they still deserve to be shamed. Because while it will extend their life and give them another chance to have a life, they still catastrophically failed that being in a way that’s just sad, and there’s no way around that.
I have worked for a rescue charity and though you want to shame them, it’s really not a good idea as they were usually trying to do the best for their animal under difficult circumstances. Though sometimes animals would be_returned_ to us after being adopted for dumb reasons so I think those people did deserve some shame but the ones just trying navigate a bad hand, I didn’t feel too bad about. Life can be tough and unpredictable.
The ones who would just tie their dogs to the gate and drive off though, those people deserve plenty of shame.
I’m a wildlife rescue volunteer and we have to bite our tongues a lot. Many injuries are due to loose pets or people’s crap they leave out that ensnares/traps/smacks wildlife. We also get people that try to treat animals they don’t understand the needs of and will make them sicker or unsaveable when they could have brought them directly to us to save them.
We can’t scold people no matter how accidentally or purposefully they hurt wildlife because then people will either leave them outside to die a prolonged death or keep them themselves and they will die or have terrible health problems and live miserable lives. We only let people trained to properly receive patients talk to the people that come in.
We also get some plain insane people that will be kinda scary to the almost exclusively female staff, and we are fairly secluded.
I had to take some birds to a rescue years ago. I’m incredibly thnkful that lady was doing what she was doing.
I did not choose to adopt/purchase them. My mother did, then did nothing with them for years, then she died and I ended up with a pair of 7-ish-year-old unhandleable conures. Screamy birds. I get headaches daily, migraines weekly.
I cared for them for several years, got them sort of handleable, but I couldn’t deal with them for another 25 years.
That isn’t unique, people inherit animals all the time that they didn’t plan for, or their life situation changes drastically. Be careful with that shaming. People who don’t deserve it will catch strays (bullets, not pets)
You know, absolutely everything you wrote is spot on, zeroed right on the mark correct, as far as I’m concerned. Absolutely explains “why they’d want to shame them”. Truly, you translated human nature into the comment very well.
But…human nature is…well.
All that you wrote is what someone who is looking to make someone face and own their decisions and the consequences of their actions should do. But the reason why the poster you commented on is correct, is because the shopkeeper in the comic, by their own signage, isn’t someone who is looking to merely chastise to engender better behavior.
The other half, is actually dealing with those consequences. As you noted, the person who chose poorly has invited their consequences upon another living being, whether through willful action or unfortunate circumstance, doesn’t matter.
The person will need to learn, but the living being who is not the person, is actively enduring those consequences. The reason why they let you drop off babies at fire fighter stations without making you have to go in and sign a form, is because unrestricted absolution leads to more babies being saved.
When a person has an out, out of a problematic situation that they can utilize without furthering worsening their situation, they will take it. Note that I said without worsening, the sting of the original problem always remains as hook enough for self improvement. A person will have to eventually step up to fix themselves or they should be stopped, and discouraged, yes.
But if someone else is choosing to instead, rescue or protect or rehabilitate the collateral victims of the consequences of another’s actions, the most effective course is to focus solely on that which they seek to save, as the person who did the damage is not their responsibility and engaging poorly there, would result in less saving of that which they would protect.
I think the analogy of animal and plant is exactly what the comic was evoking. I think the problem with shaming is that people may decide to not bring their animal here because they don’t want to be shamed, which ends up being worse for the animal. So if the store truly cares about the well being of the animal (or plant), they shouldn’t shame so it encourages people to do the right thing.
Since editing crashes my client after the last update:
I know I’m giving a very serious reply to what was probably a joke comment, but I have a lot of feelings on this topic and needed an excuse to get them out lol.
Unrelated to the thread, but I had the same crashing issue. I went to play store and manually updated to 1.88.2 and the crashing stopped. For some treason it had only uprated to 1.88.1.
I respect that you’re very passionate about animal welfare. So this is not a critique. Surrendering an animal out of pure convenience is extremely shitty and the people that do that deserve judgement.
That said:
Sometimes, shit happens. An animal you’ve loved and cared for deeply is no longer going to receive the same care, or is in an unsafe environment for whatever reason. Maybe there’s an unexpected health issue. Maybe work suddenly requires a lot more travel. Maybe a newborn has come and the animal and the baby can’t coexist, either due to allergies or temperament.
I’m not saying every surrendered animal is a legit sob story, but many of them will be.
If you’re going to shame them, nobody will want to bring you their neglected plants.
I’m an animal lover who has only worked retail for the last 8 years… I can kind of understand why they’d want to shame them. Because first there’s the obvious:
A) You should not have adopted a
petliving being if you weren’t absolutely sure you could ensure it’s well-being along the way. (btw I’m realizing the analogy between plant and animal is only so perfect)And B) Now they have to deal with it. Not only that, but they know that the person returning that living being knows that they’re perpetuating a very dark problem in our society.
I’ve never worked with animals professionally, but I do have very strong feelings on the matter… I think recognizing that they fucked up and still bringing the living being to someone who can take care of them is commendable, but they still deserve to be shamed. Because while it will extend their life and give them another chance to have a life, they still catastrophically failed that being in a way that’s just sad, and there’s no way around that.
I have worked for a rescue charity and though you want to shame them, it’s really not a good idea as they were usually trying to do the best for their animal under difficult circumstances. Though sometimes animals would be_returned_ to us after being adopted for dumb reasons so I think those people did deserve some shame but the ones just trying navigate a bad hand, I didn’t feel too bad about. Life can be tough and unpredictable.
The ones who would just tie their dogs to the gate and drive off though, those people deserve plenty of shame.
I’m a wildlife rescue volunteer and we have to bite our tongues a lot. Many injuries are due to loose pets or people’s crap they leave out that ensnares/traps/smacks wildlife. We also get people that try to treat animals they don’t understand the needs of and will make them sicker or unsaveable when they could have brought them directly to us to save them.
We can’t scold people no matter how accidentally or purposefully they hurt wildlife because then people will either leave them outside to die a prolonged death or keep them themselves and they will die or have terrible health problems and live miserable lives. We only let people trained to properly receive patients talk to the people that come in.
We also get some plain insane people that will be kinda scary to the almost exclusively female staff, and we are fairly secluded.
I had to take some birds to a rescue years ago. I’m incredibly thnkful that lady was doing what she was doing.
I did not choose to adopt/purchase them. My mother did, then did nothing with them for years, then she died and I ended up with a pair of 7-ish-year-old unhandleable conures. Screamy birds. I get headaches daily, migraines weekly.
I cared for them for several years, got them sort of handleable, but I couldn’t deal with them for another 25 years.
That isn’t unique, people inherit animals all the time that they didn’t plan for, or their life situation changes drastically. Be careful with that shaming. People who don’t deserve it will catch strays (bullets, not pets)
You know, absolutely everything you wrote is spot on, zeroed right on the mark correct, as far as I’m concerned. Absolutely explains “why they’d want to shame them”. Truly, you translated human nature into the comment very well.
But…human nature is…well.
All that you wrote is what someone who is looking to make someone face and own their decisions and the consequences of their actions should do. But the reason why the poster you commented on is correct, is because the shopkeeper in the comic, by their own signage, isn’t someone who is looking to merely chastise to engender better behavior.
The other half, is actually dealing with those consequences. As you noted, the person who chose poorly has invited their consequences upon another living being, whether through willful action or unfortunate circumstance, doesn’t matter.
The person will need to learn, but the living being who is not the person, is actively enduring those consequences. The reason why they let you drop off babies at fire fighter stations without making you have to go in and sign a form, is because unrestricted absolution leads to more babies being saved.
When a person has an out, out of a problematic situation that they can utilize without furthering worsening their situation, they will take it. Note that I said without worsening, the sting of the original problem always remains as hook enough for self improvement. A person will have to eventually step up to fix themselves or they should be stopped, and discouraged, yes.
But if someone else is choosing to instead, rescue or protect or rehabilitate the collateral victims of the consequences of another’s actions, the most effective course is to focus solely on that which they seek to save, as the person who did the damage is not their responsibility and engaging poorly there, would result in less saving of that which they would protect.
I think the analogy of animal and plant is exactly what the comic was evoking. I think the problem with shaming is that people may decide to not bring their animal here because they don’t want to be shamed, which ends up being worse for the animal. So if the store truly cares about the well being of the animal (or plant), they shouldn’t shame so it encourages people to do the right thing.
Since editing crashes my client after the last update:
I know I’m giving a very serious reply to what was probably a joke comment, but I have a lot of feelings on this topic and needed an excuse to get them out lol.
Unrelated to the thread, but I had the same crashing issue. I went to play store and manually updated to 1.88.2 and the crashing stopped. For some treason it had only uprated to 1.88.1.
I respect that you’re very passionate about animal welfare. So this is not a critique. Surrendering an animal out of pure convenience is extremely shitty and the people that do that deserve judgement.
That said:
Sometimes, shit happens. An animal you’ve loved and cared for deeply is no longer going to receive the same care, or is in an unsafe environment for whatever reason. Maybe there’s an unexpected health issue. Maybe work suddenly requires a lot more travel. Maybe a newborn has come and the animal and the baby can’t coexist, either due to allergies or temperament.
I’m not saying every surrendered animal is a legit sob story, but many of them will be.