Does this sound like animal cruelty?

[metalheadjessus]

This might sound like a muddled ramble and for that I apologise, there are just so many things to mention.

They are fed and watered regularly. That's important to mention. Most of them are loved as well, by my friend and her other siblings at least. Noone in the family is abusive to them, that I know of, unless you count the cat and dog breeding incidents below as that, but i'll leave that up to you.

My friend lives on a chicken farm; as well as the chickens for the family egg business, they have dogs (one of which is a chihuaha), cats, fish, one of those little pet pigs, goats, horses, and they have had things like mice and hamsters. Their house is really dirty, I mean really dirty. There are two layers of 'carpet'; one the actual carpet and then another layer of matted animal hair and other animal related secretions/ sheddings (I don't have a clue about the technical terms, guys). I think that they are all fed and watered, which is something, but I'm concerned about the conditions they live in, as it can't be hygenic for them which is obviously not going to be beneficial to their health, or the health of the people living in the house! My friends mum bred some kittens on purpose, and said that if she couldn't sell them, she would drown them. Luckily they were all given homes, but I cannot understand why you would breed them if there was a chance that they would not be wanted. I don't even think that people paid for them, she just gave them away, so it's not as though she was just doing it for money! Now she says that she is going to breed the chihuaha, which have health problems of their own as it is, without adding to the fact that she will probably have to 'get rid' of them should noone want to take them all, especially seeing as though these are hard times and I doubt that there is a pleothora of people in our small town looking to buy 'designer' dogs for a designer price tag.

They are fed and watered, although once when I was round, my friend just poured cat biscuits and food on the hairy floor, not bothering with a bowl or anything, for her cats. Licking food off the hairy floor must result in fur balls and promote the spread of germs, surely? Her boyfriend told me that there are old biscuits and stuff on the stairs that just haven't been eaten, which would suggest that little cleaning takes place.

I have a few examples of things that I think are concerning, as well as some of the things mentioned above:

They have this garden table with a fish pond in the middle. It had fish in it, but I had to point out that two were dead for them to notice. My friend didn't seem in the slightest bit bothered, which is kind of understandable, because they aren't dogs or anything, but I would have expected something, but all she said was "Oh, I'll get Dad to get it later"; I was absolutely gutted when my SeaMonkeys started to die SEA MONKEYS. I was about six, but still, that's probably just me! The table itself was just positioned in a way that would suggest it wasn't used often ( there were no chairs anywhere remotely near it and seemed to be abandoned amongst other rubbish, so they probably weren't being seen to that often, although I can't tell for sure.

My friends went to the fair and my friends mum had the little chihuaha dog in one of those handbags for dogs. The dog jumped out of the bag and was hanging there by its lead. Literally hanging. It took a while for her to do anything, even though she must have noticed and felt something! I know they are small dogs, but it must be a weight to have hanging from your wrist!

My friend has a horse, but she's outgrown it, so it just runs around in a field and has done for years. I'm not a horse expert and so don't know wether they need exercising by a rider, but that could be something. I'm not sure whether anyone does things like clean their hooves and things.

Her mice died a few weeks before I went round once, and there were empty cages on her windowsill, still with droppings in and the straw and what not, so I asked her what animals she kept in there, and she was like: "Mice ... before they died." I thought they must have died the day before or something, but she said not! So if she couldn't be bothered to just empty out an empty cage into a bin, would she be bothered with doing more, like having to catch the mice, put them somewhere safe and then clean out their cages properly when they were alive? There were many droppings in the cage, which would suggest that they had been left a while before being cleaned out in the period before they died.


There are more examples, but these just give you some idea as to the scale of things. Hopefully it's enough for you to forge an opinion, but I apologise if not


I just wonder whether people think this sounds like animal cruelty, or not? I really don't want to ring the RSPCA or anything, because their livelihood is based on animals, but others have threatened it to them in the past but haven't actually gone through with it, so I probably wouldn't even have to. Even my friends grandad fell out with her mum because of her getting yet even more animals, as did one of the farm hands/family friends. If you think i'm being unreasonable, then please tell me! I'm just not sure whether i'm seeing things as worse than they actually are, because I live in a house with only one cat which is a stark contrast to their house. I do know other people with lots of animals, though, and their houses are completely different in regards to cleanliness. Just to clarify, it's clear that the family, and my friend love the animals. Well, most of them, anyway; she didn't seem bothered when I mentioned the dead fish, or when she told me that her mice had died.

Reading this back before I post it, I do sound like a moaning old witch, and I really am sorry if i'm sounding in any way bitchy or unreasonable, but I really don't know what to do or think, and hate to see animals suffering in any way at all!

Thank you in advance for any help or words of advice at all!

[Nenya]

Hey there,

Don't worry you don't sound like a bitch or like you're being unreasonable. It's obvious you're concerned about these animals and from what you've said it sounds like you have good reason to be.

Even though you said you think the animals are all well-fed and watered if the environment they're living in is neglected then that could count as animal cruelty. The fact that they don't clean up the animal hair definitely shows neglect of their environment and the fact that they let the animals eat off of this floor is pretty neglectful too.

Also, I'm pretty sure that drowning kittens is illegal at least in the UK so if she had have done that then she would have been breaking the law and the fact that she may do it to the puppies is worrying.

I think it might be a good idea for you to ring the police with regards to animal cruelty. Obviously, like you said it might not be as bad as you think it is but in my opinion it's better to be safe than sorry. The animal cruelty officers will check the place out and see if things are okay. If they are then there's nothing to worry about and your mind can be put at rest. If they're not then you did a good thing by reporting this and hopefully the animals can go to better homes but if this is animal cruelty and you don't report your concerns then you may regret it in future.

I hope this helped, take care

[TheBabyEater]

I do think this is animal abuse, in a way. Obviously when most people think of abuse, they think hitting or neglect like not feeding it. But if your house is such a mess that germs are endangering your pet's life, then it's abuse. And no doubt, all the hair and feces all over is MOST DEFINITELY a mess. There are a lot of germs and bugs in old hair and especially in feces. Even mice feces when they're contained to a cage can spread bacteria. I don't think you're being whiny at all, I personally think something needs to be done.

You can always contact the police or an animal hotline anonymously, that's what I would do. If they really want to make animals and pets their "livlihood" then they REALLY need to take care of them. Dropping food on the floor is just not okay when the place is such a mess. It's no wonder they die, they're getting sick all the time.

Obviously it's up to you. The RSPCA might give them a warning to clean up the place, since they obviously love their pets, but I think something needs to be done. They're certainly not taking heed to other people's suggestions and threats after all, maybe a real intervention needs to be done.

[metalheadjessus]

Thank you so much for your replies, and they have helped to reassure me that i'm not just over reacting! Yesterday, I found out that you can contact the RSPCA over the internet now, under an account, so I can tell them what I have posted here and see if they see it as a cause for concern. Thank you both for your help

[Nenya]

That sounds like a good idea, I hope it goes well for you. Be sure to update us with the outcome