Upsetting!

[carolinacorn69]

I just watched Animal 24:7. A programme here in britain about RSPCA inspectors saving sick animals.
This bloke went to a house where a man was keeping a tiger rat snake.
He was sold it as a python and was told it needed feeding once every 4 months!:shrugs:
Shows how little he knew! The snake had no heat or water and was in a dirty little glass aquarium.
The poor thing was in a right state, emaciated and weak. It died over night at the rescue center. Terrible that this happens all the time.
So, any newbies reading this, make sure you know what your getting! Make sure you read up on what your getting and make sure you can care for your animal properly! Never buy on the spur of the moment!!!!!!

 

[snakewispera snr]

This makes me so mad I could......
The problem is, MORONS won't be on here to read this in the first place.

 

[Susan]

Unfortunately, animal cruelty occurs more frequently than people realize and most of the time, nothing is done. And in those cases where the authorities become involved, as shown on all of those shows, nothing happens to the people committing the crimes. And don't think it's always people that are ignorant of proper care or are just plain "mean" that inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on innocent animals. We had a patient just last week, a cat with a large mass in her abdomen, go in for exploratory surgery. Upon "inspection", the mass was a large lymphoma that was connected to the entire small intestine. To remove it would mean the entire small intestine would have to go as well, which would cause the cat to be unable to absorb it's food resulting in her starving to death. To simply close her back up and do nothing would cause her not only the suffering she had experiencing before surgery, but the added suffering of recovering from surgery and then the addition of having the cancer spread further. The vet advised the owner to simply "not let the cat wake up". The owner, however, insisted that the cat be allowed to wake up from the anesthetic IN ORDER FOR THE CAT TO BE ABLE TO KNOW IT'S OWNER SAID GOOD-BYE TO IT. It took several different phone calls as well as speaking to the owner in person by other staff members for the owner to finally allow the vet to euthanize the poor cat. And unfortunately, she had already woken up enough from the anesthetic to have felt some pain from the surgery.

 

[bitsy]

Saw something that might have been the tail end of this item, this morning. Didn't catch what the snake was, but it was emaciated and an x-ray showed had a fully-formed egg seemingly lodged in its midsection. The vet tube fed it some fluids to try and get its stength up before operating to remove the egg, but the snake died overnight.

Apparently this case of neglect was proof that snakes shouldn't be kept as pets. Isn't it odd that cruelty to dogs isn't proof that they shouldn't be kept as pets?

As much as I hate ignorance and neglect of any animal, the double standards applied to reptiles by welfare organisations, makes me spit.

 

[carolinacorn69]

That was the show yes.
If im honest, the chap who rescued the snake had no idea what he was doing. He rescued a tiny baby green iguana earlier in the show and was going on about how seriously it could hurt you. Mad.

Yeah he said that about keeping reptiles, but i think he meant only about that species of snake. What he should of said was that MORONS shouldnt be allowed to keep snakes. For someone who keeps reptiles, who can mistake a rat snake with a python? When a snake is extremely thin you feed it right? And there is no snake, or animal for that matter, that should not ALWAYS have a bowl of water present!

 

[v_various]

Apparently this case of neglect was proof that snakes shouldn't be kept as pets. Isn't it odd that cruelty to dogs isn't proof that they shouldn't be kept as pets?

As much as I hate ignorance and neglect of any animal, the double standards applied to reptiles by welfare organisations, makes me spit.

Don't even get me started. Some of the reasons the SPCA wants to get rid of all pythons and boas are things like "they're fad pets", "people abuse them and don't take care of them properly", "they are maimed by being de-fanged" (uh, hello? 23 countries made de-clawing cats illegal instead of you know, BANNING ALL CATS. No to mention, who defangs a python or boa?)

It drives me insane.

 

[lyndy299]

Possibly off topic...

This is something that makes me reeeeeaaaalllllly angry. It really irritates me that these people who are supposed to be trained in all animals kept in the UK still seem to ignore all reptiles. Reptile cases are going to come up and they should be trained for it. Cruelty to all animals is going to happen unfortunately. I think my insane anger sprouts from dealing with the SSPCA when I was working in a reptile shop. They would come in to inspect regarding something completely irrelevant and they would irritate me. They would stand there and actually ask about the animals (which yes, seems good to begin with) until the officer themselves starts telling you how wrong they think it is for you to keep these animals, asking if you keep them yourself and asking "Why would you do that? Do you actually LIKE them?". We used to take animals in for them because they had no facilities for reptiles at all. I'm glad they did, since on more than one occasion a corn would get loose, be found and picked up, taken to us and the officer would say "What kind of snake is it?". When we answered...the next question would be..."How venomous is it?" Seriously....

*cough* Rant over?

 

[tricksterpup]

Possibly off topic...

This is something that makes me reeeeeaaaalllllly angry. It really irritates me that these people who are supposed to be trained in all animals kept in the UK still seem to ignore all reptiles. Reptile cases are going to come up and they should be trained for it. Cruelty to all animals is going to happen unfortunately. I think my insane anger sprouts from dealing with the SSPCA when I was working in a reptile shop. They would come in to inspect regarding something completely irrelevant and they would irritate me. They would stand there and actually ask about the animals (which yes, seems good to begin with) until the officer themselves starts telling you how wrong they think it is for you to keep these animals, asking if you keep them yourself and asking "Why would you do that? Do you actually LIKE them?". We used to take animals in for them because they had no facilities for reptiles at all. I'm glad they did, since on more than one occasion a corn would get loose, be found and picked up, taken to us and the officer would say "What kind of snake is it?". When we answered...the next question would be..."How venomous is it?" Seriously....

*cough* Rant over?

Ok, first off lyndy please get off your high horse on this. I see this rant all the time about how Animal control knows nothing on herps and how many of these people really need to know about herps? On average in a typical city they may only get a handful of reptile calls compared to a dog or cat. The average pet is a cat or a Dog and most people KNOW nothing on herps. Remember we are only a small percentage of pet keepers, please keep that in mind.

You worked at a shop that received these animals. I am called by the Humane Society to pick them up here. This last month, I got 2 calls to pick up 2 turtles on separate occasions. They go up for adoption in our local herp society or fostered out. But I do not expect the Humane Society or Animal Control to know anything about reptiles. Thats why they have me and a few other herp members that deal with this.
I have gotten calls of a 8 foot snake and it only being 4 feet long. Calls of large pythons only being a rat snake or a boa. Again, they are not trained to deal with these animals, as I am not able to deal with Dogs. Don't expect me to answer any questions about Dogs. I know nothing compared to the average dog keeper, I might seem stupid.
But basically I do computer support for a living, I do not expect everyone to know about computers.

So instead of being arrogant please try education, offer to have a work shop with these people and teach them a basics on reptiles. Teach them on the most common snakes, lizards, and turtles as pets, You will find them most receptive to this.

 

[lyndy299]

I have some explaining to do...

Im sorry if I came across like that and after reading my post I can see a reason to take me off my high horse. I think it's just something I'm particularly sensitive about because of circumstances which shouldnt have happened which did.

I'd like to clarify that I honestly don't expect everyone to know about reptiles, and working in that shop I did educate and I loved doing it. I just found it upsetting that when we did have reptile experts in (through the SSPCA - a Scottish society) they were still misinformed. I used to feel so uncomfortable around them and because of my age at the time (I was under 18) most of my opinion and knowledge was shrugged off as invalid.

I don't expect everyone to be able to deal with reptiles, which is why we would look after the animals on their behalf...but after the animals were dropped off we wouldn't hear from them again.

This is a very difficult topic and I hope you'll understand that I don't mean to cause offense to anyone. I'm from the North East of Scotland and its a very different world I guess. There's no such thing as a herp society and so these people are the only ones around. I would be totally fine with the way they are educated if there was a more specialised and knowledgeable society available, but for reptile rescues all anybody could do was call the SSPCA, who would pick the animal up, bring it to us without notification, sometimes not ask what it was and leave. The animal would never be tracked and would have to be homed through the shop if no owner could be found. Many of these animals had to be taken to the vet at the cost of the shop.

I'm not criticising all animal rescue societies. I could never do that as I haven't experienced the way they operate.

I am truly sorry for any offense caused.

 

[bitsy]

Animal control knows nothing on herps and how many of these people really need to know about herps?

Hmm, well, reptiles are becoming more and more popular as pets and Corns are the most popular pet snake in the world. Pet reptiles have been around in significant numbers for well over 10 years now - how much longer before animal control "needs to know"?

I don't believe we're such a small percentage of pet keepers any more. One stat I've seen quoted is that reptiles are now the third most common type of pet in the UK, after cats and dogs. Don't know how accurate that is, but it's thought-provoking.

At the very least, I would expect an animal welfare employee to a) recognise a Corn Snake and b) not automatically believe that any snake they find will be venomous. They think that by ignoring reptiles, they can "prove" that they're no good as pets; after all, if animal welfare people don't know how to look after them, how can the poor ignorant public?

Unfortunately, many of the animal welfare agencies in the UK (I'm thinking mainly of the RSPCA) have so alienated the reptile keeping community with their vociforous, political and inaccurate anti-reptile campaign, that many knowledgable people would rather not work with them. Even letting the RSPCA into your home is seen as a risk to your reptiles.

It's time they took their heads out of their bottoms.

(climbs right back on the high horse that lyndy got off....!)