Irresponsible breeding rant

[punk-a-doodle]

Ugh, yomama, reminds me of two horses up the road from me when I was a kid. Hooves so overgrown that each step scooped up manure and mud in their tiny fenced area (they could turn around in it, but that was about it...they were never taken out to be ridden etc.), distended abdomens, no shelter. Animal control was the only group I knew of back then, and they could not do anything because the horses had food and water.

 

[redhen]

I'd call the humane society(ASAP),.. noone has to know who called.

 

[zzGypsy]

so there are lots of degrees of animal-abuse related behavior...

the worst is active abuse (injuring an animal deliberately) or failure to provide (no water, no food). There's neglect, where the animal is not adequately cared for, with inadequate food or space or unhealthy living conditions. things like failure to make appropriate decisions and provide care, and things like alowing an animal that's suffering to live instead of humanely putting them down are abuse and neglet too.

so the person who's responsible for their care bears the responsibility for those things.

but ... hard question here... what about the person who knows it's going on and doesn't stop it, prevent it, intervene, or report it to the appropriate agency who can deal with it? personally I think that person bears some responsibility for the suffering of the animals too. they could act to see the abuse stopped, to save the animals from suffering, but they don't. I believe that to passively allow abuse/neglect to continue when you could act to stop it is to contribute to it. I know, I'm being kind of a hard-a** about this but if you know animals are suffering, DO something.

mostly people don't because 1) they don't want to get in a hassle with the person involved, 2) they're not sure if what they're looking at is abuse or not, 3) they don't want to be blamed for what happens later, 4) they just don't want to get involved.

if animals are being harmed, get involved. if it ticks your uncle off... well then it does, and is having him happy really more important than stopping the animal's suffering? it may annoy your family, but... if they're annoyed because you acted to protect animals that can't protect themselves, then too bad, they're wrong, and they can live with that annoyance. if they're like my family, they may not want you to rock the boat... guess what, sometimes the boat is already sinking and they just don't have the courage to deal with it. be the couragous one, do the right thing by the helpless critters.

not saying it's easy, family dynamics can make us tripple think things like this, but acting to stop the abuse of those who can't protect themselves is *always* the right thing to do.

if you think it's abuse, intervene. if there's nothing you personally can do, then report it to someone who can.