Rescue Journal

in rescue we learn the biting of tongues

Carol  ·  Mar. 4, 2012

we have unknown people all over this place on the weekends...visitors for tours, potential adopters, surrendering families, new volunteers..you name it.
and not everyone who comes here for whatever reason thinks about animals or has the same experiences with animals as we do. and sometimes they say things that we find offensive..oh well welcome to the real world of someone NOT involved with rescue.

folks have asked me if i could provide them with an unaltered male or female to breed with their pet. people have asked me if i would consider trading one of our guys for one they want to get rid of. others have said..hey..who do you have for free that i can take off of your hands?
i remember one person actually asked me if and when we euthanized ellie (this was when she had a lot of trouble with walking and often went around the field on her knees)..anyway..he asked if he could have her meat cuz it would be a shame to waste it? and this guy was innocently serious...all he saw when he saw ellie was a bunch of possibly free and giant hams...he did not see a sweet pig that i was totally in love with.

ok so people sometimes say stupid things..whatever....i am kind of glad they do cuz then i know i don't want to adopt to them..they have just done me a big favor. so i don't get all mad and offended and snap at them..i just think...thanks for the info about how folks sometimes think and just peacefully and politely move on.
just because we don't like what someone says doesn't mean we have to say something rude or brutally enlightening back. when someone says gee i want a pet who won't ever pee in the house or a cat that won't cost me any money or a dog that never barks cuz it might bug the neighbors..we can just say, we are sorry..we can't guarentee them that. better to keep the happy door open and let folks freely say what they think..it makes life far easier for me when making decisions...cuz then i can really see the way that they think. if i snap at them, they will shut the open door and i won't have a clue what else might be going on inside their head.

anyway...do you know what i said to the guy who wanted to eat ellie? sorry...ellie is on daily medications and it is against FDA regulations to butcher animals for human consumption who have medications in their systems. it was a good answer..it stopped him from talking about eating someone i loved without taking a gun and just shooting him.

when we have visitors coming thru saints for whatever reason they are here..it behooves us to always treat them kindly, respectfully and politely no matter what silly thing that they say. i will take care that our animals do not go home with them..i will ensure that we will take good care of any animals they happen to be here to bring in.... cuz i have a ton of experience in sorting thru stuff that folks often say so i can decide what action if any that i may or may not want to take.

everyone who works or volunteers here learns to sometimes smile and bite our tongues..sometimes people just come out with stuff that we don't happen to agree with or even like..thats ok..opinions and beliefs about animals differ. for us and our animals...it is not the end of the world....ellie knows damn well to us... she is a precious princess...this is her reality..that man and what he was thinking meant less than nothing to her or her life.

Comments

shelagh

I was visiting on Sunday. Don't think I offended anyone.
Would like to thanks Laura for the tour. The volunteers
all seem like a nice group of dedicated people and the
animals all seem happy and all their quirks taken care of. I don't know what happens to all those muddy dogs
at the end of the day, that would be a big task. Mystic
did attempt many times to wipe himself off on me, he does
not seem old or feeble, more like a party waiting to happen.

Cathy

This discussion reminds me of when I was pregnant with my first child. Oh gosh that is over 30 years ago. Anyway a co-worker asked me what I was going to do with my two cats. I didn't quite get what she meant but the message was that you don't have babies and cats together. You know the old wives tale about a cat smothering a baby. That same person would be shocked to see a picture of my grandson in his crib with one of his cats at the foot of it along with the Noah's Ark decoration theme.

Bunny Horne

Ellie as a giant ham!!!! She's a ham alright, but not the eatin' kind. Brent and I already ate very little red meat. Since volunteering at Saints we now eat zero red meat and there's zero pork on our fork. A steak looks like Emily's sweet face and we just can't getting into eating Brad or Ellie. I've never eaten goat, never will. And I don't eat things I'm named after - the bunnies are safe.

Helga

Welcome, Bob. And sorry if we all seemed so suspicious yesterday morning. But we didn't know you were coming and sometimes we get overly paranoid about our critters.

Lisa

It is very frustrating having to bite ones tongue all the time but sadly one learns that it is often easier.

Yesterday at the Pet Expo another EXHIBITOR came to our booth and told me that "all the UVic rabbit should have been used for stew vs being rescued".....as I always get the rabbit stew *jokes* from people, I patiently sat there waiting for him to crack a smile and say *just kidding*....since after all he was at a pet expo and one would assume an animal fan, but he never did....he just followed up by asking me if I had never eaten rabbits.
Why if someone has something to say, especially if it may be offensive to someone else, why would you even say it.
Needless to say I just stared him down and kept my mouth shut.
Another guy on a different day asked if I would donate our rabbit bodies to his reptiles...I don't think I ever could do it but in the back of my mind I always wonder if it would save the life of another rabbit to be killed for snake food....but I just can't imagine doing it......

Carol

i am chuckling...you guys have been hanging out with me too long...imaginary violence is kind of satisfying and fun!

Maggie

Does this mean I can't yell at the pig delivery guy to stop dragging Polly by her legs while she screams or... secretly want to hit him with a wet sheet?

Naomi

wow people are just so dumb sometimes, cant believe they say shit like that

Carol

this is just a general info/think about post...everyone is pretty much safe for today..altho..now i do want to know if ever anyone finds out that lynne has purchased a gun!

Carol

lol...you probably would have..but if you shut them down by letting them know they just said the wrong thing..they might now know better and later not say the same thing to me and then i won't know what they are really thinking and i might accidently let the wrong person go home with one of your most favorite dogs!
so smile my friend and uncock the trigger and button the lip... i need folks to freely talk to me about what they are thinking cuz i totally suck at mind reading!

Caylee

I don't know what this is regarding so I hope it wasn't me. I don't think I said much to anyone besides Zoe today so I'm probably safe. Met Bob today. He seemed like a nice fellow :)