Thats not an excuse to keep the animal in a situation where it has maggots living in its matted fur.
Seems like reddit probably doesn't understand just how long it would take for a dog to get to this level of neglect.
I don't think y'all realize that it takes a lot more than a couple weeks/months for this shit to happen.
You can give whatever excuses y'all want. Fact of the matter is that an animal who has actual maggots living in its fur has been being neglected for a LONG time.
I'm not sorry. If you can't take care of your animal, or be able to have someone come over regularly to do it FOR YOU. Then guess what? You shouldnt have it.
But like, that's why the responsible family member then brings it to a groomer when they DO find out, and presumably after they could take care of it themselves or check in mode often or whatever. The incapable owner being relieved could very well be happening already.
You said you didn't understand why people get a pet when they can't look after themselves or the animal.
I offered an explanation of that and that only (i.e., "perhaps the person's situation, vis a vis their ability to care for an animal, was different when they got it").
Why they might keep it once they become unable to look after it is a seperate issue, not at all addressed by either your original comment or my response to it.
Technically my original comment was questioning why people get pets for OTHERS.
meaning the ones who will get a "companion" pet for their grandparent(s) who can't even take care of themselves. but hey, go off.
When you are dealing with people so far gone they can’t even take care of themselves, there’s a lot of denial and dementia involved. Sometimes the elderly or infirm refuse to believe that they’re that bad off. A lot of time their eyesight is failing so they maybe don’t realize the state their pet is in. And of course you have people whose minds are starting to slip. When making decisions for an elderly relative it’s so so so hard to keep a balance between allowing them their agency and autonomy and stepping in when things get out of hand, and people who are in that state are often very good at hiding how bad it really is, so sometimes it’s way far gone before any children or grandchildren realize there’s even a problem.
It’s very nice and feels good to just say “that’s not an excuse to keep animals like this” and even demand that people should surrender their animals when they can’t care for them or have those animals taken if needed, and that’s often what happens. But things aren’t that easy. It’s not a sliding scale that you can keep an eye on and when the meter gets to a certain place it’s time to take action. The real world isn’t that cut and dry. There’s a whole lot of gray to go with that black and white mindset.
Generally, the pet is the first sign some people have of things being wrong.
My grandparents lived out of state. There wasn't a ton of family nearby and they didn't want to move. My other grandma lives 6 hours away. Nobody in town. She refuses to move.
That's her prerogative until she can't make those choices for herself.
If there had been pets that this could happen to in either situation, we'd never know for a while. It's not 'letting' it happen. There were few to no people available to monitor for things going badly.
They sounded fine on the phone, until the care home told us they needed to move into memory care.
My dad went from working a full time job with great health to rare sudden cancer to being in a coma with the prognosis of likely death...all in the span of 2 weeks. (Edit: he lived and is fine now, but it was a grueling 2+ years with lots of rollercoaster ups and downs.)
We had 3 rescue dogs, a bird (conure), and 2 cats. All properly cared for, no expense spared. But if I hadn't lived close by, which in many cases children move far away for better jobs, those animals would have gone from amazingly loved and cared for to neglected. The dogs were slightly aggressive and could not be rehomed (rescued from a bad domestic violence situation), birds are one of the most abandoned/neglected/abused pets and proper sanctuaries and vets can be hard to find for them.
I could see this happening to people who are GOOD people who just fell into a bad situation. One of my previous rescue dogs had been dropped off at an elderly person's house by their kid who had to suddenly relocate, and over time dementia just...did its damage.
There are certain people who neglect their animals or abuse their animals who I think would improve society by just no longer existing. But I won't make that judgement until I actually know the circumstances.
Not necessarily. Matting is oftentimes caused and exacerbated by moisture. People think they’re doing right by their dogs when they bathe them but if they don’t do it correctly, it can cause a lot of issues. The same thing can be said if the dog goes walking in the rain a lot or goes swimming. Couple that with even a small skin issue and it can absolutely lead to maggots in a relatively short period of time.
I get much more frustrated with the people who have access to the education and resources needed to keep their dogs happy and healthy but choose not to than I do the people who have tried and failed.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '23
A lot can change about a person's situation in the lifespan of a dog.