what i don't understand is...

Even if some (or many) people think of animals as a 'lower class', why does that give any person the right to neglect, abuse or not respect them I wonder?

Curt -- How dare BC Housing even suggest that "one would get rid of their pet for a place"!! To me that sounds like a veiled threat. It is policies such as this one that create so much sadness, pain and grief in this world -- sadness to have to give up an animal to house oneself and one's family, and the pain and grief a once-beloved animal feels when it is brought to a shelter or literally "thrown out" because its humans must make a "Sofie's Choice-like" decision. How despicable.

Re: I think that to many members of society, animals are considered a lower class than humans. I don’t have any children. This reminds me of when I was talking to BC Housing last year to help me find a place (when I had Pat). they had a spot on their form asking if one would get rid of their pet for a place. I asked them if the asked people to do that with their children and told them the that pets ARE family members and who in their right mind would do that. Anyway, I am getting off my soap box now

Of the six cats currently residing here only one - Squid - is a showed up on my doorstep cat. When Squiddy at about eight months old showed up here I notified the Humane Society, put posters up around the neighbourhood and posted one in every vet clinic in town. No one ever showed up looking for him. Of the other five - Millie and Katie - you will have read the story. Mo found Mooch going home from Saints one day. And Sunny and Halfpint's pregnant mom ended up at the Buster Brown rescue ( I think that morphed into the Humane Society). Obviously no one was frantically searching for them all over town. Mooch the First who is no longer with us was adopted from the SPCA and lost the first day by the people who adopted him. He had an SPCA collar so I called them and they gave me the woman's phone number. She told me she didn't think he liked kids, promptly busted out and had been missing for two weeks. She didn't notify the SPCA. When I aske if she was coming to get him she hemmed and hawed and finally admitted she already got another cat and didn't really want him anymore. To some people cats and dogs are just disposable objects not living feeling creatures. Over the years Quigley, The White Guy, Mugsy and Hardcase all ended up on the doorstep and no one ever came looking for them. That's pretty sad.

Neither duty or punishment Bunny; just your generous heart - so you see your mother did leave a wonderful legacy behind - YOU!

Thank you, Allison, for all you do and ALL the other AMAZING people who care so deeply for our feathered and furry friends.

Don't think me nutz or deeply religious - I am neither - (okay a little nutz) a few years back a friend gave me a bible. Exodus 34 reads "The Lord....yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the 3rd and 4th generation".

My mother was an unkind person who cared very little for most everything. She was unkind to people, animals and the environment. When my parents passed on I donated a good portion of my share of their tiny estate to a number of agencies (environmental and animal welfare). When I made the donations to each agency I sent a letter indicating I was "attempting" to make some amends for the destruction my mom left in her wake during her tenure on planet earth.

Was it my duty or my punishment?

Lovely story, Allison. If everyone helped out like you did, the world would be a better place. One of my cats is also a neighbourhood stray that I adopted last year (well, actually he adopted me!) He was also a mess - matted, dirty hair, ear mites, fleas. And he also is one of the most affectionate cats I've ever had. He fits right in with my little family of two other cats and a dog. Unfortunately, many of the strays around here are so scared, they run away if you try to touch them. Some of them have been feral for a long time, it seems. At the very least, they are well fed.

It is not complicated at all but actually very simple. To the vast majority of the public you BUY a pet and you OWN it, that being the case "you can do with it as you want, it is your personal property".
(f.y.i. Obviously, these are NOT my personal values.)

Carol-- I think that to many members of society, animals are considered a lower class than humans. I don't have any children, but I do have 3 dogs and a cat. People tell me that my pets are just my substitutes for children and that's why I love them so much -- but I don't agree with that. I think that there are humans in this world who have an incredible compassion for all living things, and who consider animals as important as humans-- and I am one of them.

I am not an animal rescuer, but have rescued and found homes for three animals recently, and I did it because I knew it was the right thing to do. The saddest, most alarming rescue I did was of an abandoned cat in the town where I work. His elderly owner had died last fall, and the cat was literally thrown out on the streets.

He was living outside during the coldest months of the winter (it got as low as -40 C). There were some local women who were feeding him and letting him sleep in a garage and come into their place of business for a few minutes a day, but not one of them would do more to help, The cat had ear mites so bad, he scratched his ears until they bled. He had worms coming out his butt, and a large patch of frostbite on his leg. But he would come up to total strangers and ask for rubs and hugs -- such a great cat.

Finally, I could not stand it anymore and took him home and then to the vet the next day. Two weeks and $270 later, "Romeo" was neutered, dewormed, and ear mite free and I had found him a wonderful indoor home. Now why couldn't those women have done that for him?

I barely have enough money to pay for food and my heating bill (sound familiar?) but I knew that I could not live with myself if that cat had died. He turned out to be one of the most loving cats I have ever known and is now the best friend of a wonderful woman. And I did not ask her to help with the vet bill when she adopted him, because I had made the commitment that if I was going to help this cat, I would do it without expecting anything in return, other than knowing that the Creator watches everything that we do or do not do for all of his Creation.

Strange, my daughter and I were having this very same discussion today while walking our dogs, Carol. There are so many stray cats dumped out here on Hatzic Island - another one turned up three weeks ago. Thankfully there are many kind people here who feed them. I just can't get into the minds of people who feel that animals are disposable and it's O.K. to treat them cruelly. Guess there are dozens of different reasons why some people do this, and it's so heartbreaking. But don't they have any conscience?

Pedigree donates a lot of dog food to shelters and rescues. I don't know if that's only dry food or not -- but has that option for wet food been looked into?

I don't have anything to add to your very deep post,
will have to read that book though.

I said I hated Superstore, but I will have to retract
that. The manager couldn't have been more helpful,
and they can get in as much Pedigree as we need. So
Hats off to the Langley Superstore. So I will get
a few of the Kirkland for those who want that choice,
and Pedigree as the staple.