are you ever nervous to sell them?????!!!!!

[mama2many]

I do sell my surplus babies. I only have so much room-however I NEVER let them near my coop or birds. You can see them from afar-I'm too freaked out by germs to have people trompin through my babies spaces. I keep the for sale birds down at the house isolated from the regular guys and gals. You can see how they are housed there-no need to see the big set up.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Quote:
I hear what you're saying PP and I understand it on some level, but after umpteen years of rescue work I for one would never give one of my rescues (cat, dog, bird or any other living thing) to someone who has this philosophy because I have no way of knowing if they're a kook or not. I could only give living feeling beings to folks who welcome - indeed, even eagerly embrace - scrutiny because they understand that the world is full of danger and would not want a defenseless being to end up in the wrong hands. And believe me, after years of finding homes for rescues I could tell you stories that would make your skin crawl. People who on the surface appeared to be sweetness and light but who in reality were very dark souls. I truly wish I had the time to recount some of these stories right now because they make my point better than I possibly could by speaking in generalities. It is through these experiences that I have come to understand how crucial it is to screen thoroughly (and so that prospective adopters can feel secure in trusting me, I make sure they have a 'resume' and references for me should they want to do any checking up).

I live this philosophy in reverse as well. When I adopt a being from anywhere I want the person from whom I'm adopting to feel welcome to visit and ask me anything under the sun because it's not supposed to be about me or my convenience or my privacy, it's supposed to be about the well being of the fur or feather soul placed in my care. I even send them photos and updates over time if they are interested.

JJ

If we were talking about human children, i would agree with you, but i don't equate the two. I think that humans have an important responsibility to treat the animals in their care with decency and certainly not to abuse them. Folks who house 15 dogs in a crate made for one and make them live in last month's feces ought to have similar things done to them.

Don't get me wrong. But they're still not human children, and should not be treated as such (in my slightly less than humble opinion).

When it comes to chickens specifically (which is where this started, i think

), as mama2many pointed out, i'm definitely not letting a person i don't know, who raises chickens, walk around anywhere near my chicken housing, etc. I can get chickens from somewhere else; thank you. But then again, i pretty much keep a closed flock at this point. For the most part, i raise my own. The longer i raise chickens, the more strict i become about the risk of outside germs. If i lost them all, it might break me in two. So i guess, for me, it's really a non-issue.

To be clear, i might have different ideas about how things should work, but i don't have anything against folks who work hard to keep animals out of horrifying places about which we have all heard and lamented.

My focus is just in a different place.

 

[jjthink]

Yes, it is

We can just agree to disagree.

I don't want any feeling, thinking being to suffer if I have the power to avoid it - humans are just one thinking, feeling type of being. One quick story and then I'll hopefully be just a little late for work.

And it's amongst the mildest, which should be very telling. When I was looking for homes for a rescue kitty's 5 black babies (found her very pregnant - mom and babies have since all been fixed) I met a person I thought would offer 2 of the joyful, loving and innocent babies a good home. On paper she was a model citizen. I was so happy because I had met a lot of nefarious types*** through my efforts to find good homes. One day when she was visiting with them a second time (they weren't yet at that point at adoption age) I casually asked where the kitties would be staying if they went to live with her (I really meant indoor or outdoor) and to my shock she said in a low, almost crazed voice "In the basement in the dark where all black things should be". I learned through this she had a cat named Coal who lived in darkness until it died. My heart sunk at the thought of these beautiful life loving beings I had come to love being keep in the dark for however many years before they died. I think it's safe to say that many shelters would not have discerned this before giving her cats. But I did, and off she went, without any of 'my' precious babies.

***e.g. One young couple visited and appeared on the surface so innocent, and looked like they were going to or from church. They acted perfectly. Later, when I peeled back layers of the onion to check references I found out he was violent and angry and he began to torment me, with threatening phone calls and notes, demanding that I turn over kittens to them. Sure, if I had just turned kittens over to them I wouldn't have had to endure this guy but I'd rather have to endure it than put some little defenseless beings into his crazed hands. I can handle ity better than they possibly could.

Another guy seemed so wonderful. I liked him so much and was going to adopt out to him a feral kitty that had become wonderfully tame. The guy was so wonderful, or so I thought, that this one time I did not do my full complement of screening (references etc.) and at the appointed time brought the kitty to his house. Well, this mild mannered sweet guy was fallen down drunk on his front lawn and was screaming at me to throw the cat in the house. That was the end of that. Kitty went back home with me and the search for a good home continued.

And on and on. The number of stories could fill a book, and may someday. Similar situations with chicken adoptions including adopting out a couple of roos (that a neighbor dropped off at my place without consulting me first and I already had a roo) to a place with a spectacular and immaculate coop and run and recommended by the feed store but to a guy that unknown to me was bipolar and he stopped caring for them and soon after got his whole flock killed because he stopped feeding them and closing their door at night. I went over to do a spot check, which he had welcomed (when in a better state), and found the 2 roos and 1 hen alive and everyone else dead. It was a massacre fit for a horror movie. I took the 3 survivors out of there and started all over on finding them homes. I should have reference checked the guy better than I did. Will never make that mistake again.

Okay, so more than 1 story - there's so many I can hardly stop but now I'm really late! And yes, we started out talking about chickens for sure but more than that, we're talking about humans and the risks associated with not checking them out. Acceptable risks to some, but not to me. As long as I draw breath, I will do everything in my power to spare any being the suffering that comes with associating with the lowest common denominator of our species. And sadly, they are all around us. It takes unspeakable amounts of time to do it right, but I can't sleep at night otherwise, because of what I have witnessed over the years in the course of trying to find homes for all manner of beings.

JJ