#pet welfare

[chrisstoddard-championofpet]

Chris Stoddard - Champion of Pet Welfare through My Pet Matters

Chris Stoddard is the founder of My Pet Matters, a charitable organisation dedicated to improving the lives of pets and their owners through education, assistance, and advocacy. My Pet Matters focuses on fundraising efforts to support animal shelters and rescue centres across the UK. Through various initiatives such as prize draws, events, and campaigns, the organisation raises funds to provide essential resources and supplies for animal shelters. Chris Stoddard, a devoted animal enthusiast and advocate, leads these efforts, aiming to enhance pet welfare and promote responsible pet ownership. The organisation offers workshops, seminars, and online materials to equip pet owners with vital insights into pet health, behaviour, nutrition, and more. Visit: https://www.chrisstoddard.co.uk/category/my-pet-matters/

[arcinox]

These kitties need a little help!

This GoFundMe has been set up by a friend of mine who's kindly housed three kittens on behalf of their original owner. They need a little financial aid to get them all neutered and cover their normal, early meds.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, no matter how small! If you can't help now, please could you help us spread the word?

Thank you! ♥

[kids-worldfun]

5 Tips for Responsible Pet Ownership in Family Settings

Every home needs that special touch, a fluffy (or not so fluffy) companion who makes our hearts flutter with their innocence. But how do we ensure that our tail-wagging companions experience the same joy they bring into our lives? This guide will lead you through five fundamental tips that every family should follow to create a loving and nurturing environment for their pets. From adopting the…

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

hi! can i ask what's ur opinion on giving pets away? not necessarily because u can't afford to care for em anymore but maybe incompatibility of personalities or maybe lifestyles. is it wrong to give ur pet for adoption if u know someone who's better suited for keeping a pet, like emotionally?

This is going to be controversial, but I support making that choice.

There’s a lot of rhetoric lately around how it’s evil and unethical to rehome your pet if you don’t “need to.” And what that does is prioritize human ideology over the actual animal’s well-being.

Pets that aren’t a good match for your home or pets that aren’t really wanted anymore frequently have lower welfare! When caring for an animal becomes a burden or is forced, people end up resenting them, and that means the animal often doesn’t get all of its needs fulfilled. Even if you’re still feeding it and providing appropriate vet care, how likely are you to provide affection or enrichment to an animal you’re tired of being stuck with?

Lifestyle and personality really matter to making sure a pet is a good fit for a home. A dog that alert-barks at every leaf that moves is probably a bad fit for someone who has a chronic migraine syndrome, and they might not know that until the dog has been in the home for weeks and started to open up. A really feisty kitten that requires a ton of play might not do best in the home of someone older who wanted a quiet lap cat. And while you can you do your best to plan to find a compatible animal, you won’t always know ahead of time what issues might arise.

“Forever home” rhetoric is really, really popular and I think it’s very unfair to the animals it is supposed to support. It started with the backlash of seeing animals abandoned inappropriately, and has been heavily reinforced in the public mind because it’s so frequently used to drive fundraising and support for legislation. The whole “forever home” concept communicates to people that getting an animal is an immutable commitment and that if you can’t keep an animal, it is a personal moral failing. It frames human priorities (we think people who get rid of animals are Evil and Bad and should be shunned) as more important than actual welfare needs for individual animals (are they getting the care they need where they are).

Obviously, I don’t support people dumping animals or just getting fad pets they’ll discard immediately, but there’s so many alternate situations that can arise. Even if it’s just “they got a pet and didn’t know what caring for it would take and didn’t want to care for it so they brought it back, how awful” like… okay, I’d like the person to have done more research before they got a pet, but isn’t it better that the animal now has a second chance to go to better home? Knowing what a commitment requires theoretically can be very different than having to actually follow through regularly, and I’d rather see someone maturely acknowledge that having an animal isn’t a good fit than keep it anyway!!

If animals being happy and with all their biological, veterinary, and social needs fulfilled is actually the goal, we need to prioritize their welfare over human opinion. I’d much rather see an animal rehomed responsibly to somewhere it will thrive and be welcomed than see people keep animals they can’t/don’t want to care for out of guilt or shame. 

[allperfectpets]

The Ultimate Guide to Buying and Keeping Pet Fish

Looking for a pet that's low maintenance, calming, and beautiful? Look no further than fish! Fish are the perfect pets for many reasons, from their beautiful colors to their relaxing presence. Plus, owning fish has even been linked to improving stress levels! In this article, we'll go over everything you need to know about getting pet fish, including what type of fish to choose, how to set up their tank, and how to care for them.

[furrista]

The Furrista Approach to Pet Welfare

Pet welfare is a crucial aspect of animal care, and it’s essential to ensure that our furry friends are treated with love and respect. Whether it’s through providing proper nutrition, exercise, and medical care, or by advocating for animal rights. There are many ways through which FURRISTA can guide the pet parents about pet welfare and make a positive impact in the lives of their fur babies. pet…

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the commentary I'm seeing about this has been of the "But--but--I would do the same thing because I don't want anything bad to happen to the deer!"

Look. I love wildlife, and I love getting to see deer, coyotes, and even the occasional black bear in my neighborhood. But they are here because there is good habitat nearby with lots of natural food sources, not because I deliberately put out food for them to eat. I respect them as wild animals with whom my relationship is very different compared to the domesticated animals I take care of every day. A deer is not a sheep or a horse; a coyote is not a dog.

People who do things like try to tame deer or, worse yet, try to raise a fawn or other young wildlife like pets are robbing those wild animals of their natural existences. We've already wrought our own preferences on the landscape to a severe degree, tearing the wildness out of it to create lawns and farms and subdivisions and strip malls. When we then dismiss the wildness of these animals and impress our own desire for connection on our terms on them, we are harming them.

I've already written elsewhere about the difference between "tame" and "domesticated". No matter how docile that deer seems, it is never going to be as (relatively) safe and tractable as a domesticated sheep or goat. It will always be more unpredictable, and more likely to lash out suddenly at a person due to fear, or hormones, or protection of young.

These animals need their wild instincts to be intact if they are going to survive without being dependent on us. They need those instincts in order to find mates and keep the gene pool stirred up. Their instincts keep them safe from danger, including humans. And their instincts never totally go away, no matter how much we may try to tame them otherwise.

This is why a good wildlife rehab is going to minimize handling of the wild animals they care for, especially those that are going to be able to be released back into the wild. The less comfortable these animals are with humans, the better their chances of surviving in the wild and having fulfilling, natural lives. Wildlife that retain their wariness of humans are less likely to end up falling prey to hunting, or being killed as nuisance animals when they get too aggressive in seeking food or otherwise coming into conflict with people.

The person who painted "pet" on a fully grown white-tailed buck and put a collar around his neck may have felt like they were doing that deer a kindness, but they have likely robbed him of the chance to just live a natural life as his own, independent being out in the woods and fields. He might be out there, sure, but perhaps he won't mate because he imprinted on humans. Or maybe he will end up shot by a hunter in spite of the precautions because he's just too friendly and those antlers are worth taking the shot.

There will always be something missing from this deer's life because of the arrogance of someone who thought they could own and keep and control a wild-born animal for their own enjoyment, instead of allowing him to come and go as he pleased. Honestly, it reminds me of King Haggard from Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, whose response to seeing something beautiful was to capture it and keep it rather than simply enjoying and remembering that magical moment:

"I like to watch them. They fill me with joy. The first I felt it I thought I was going to die. I said to the Red Bull I must have them, all of them, all there are. For nothing makes me happy but their shining and their grace. So the Red Bull caught them. Each time I see the unicorns, my unicorns, it is like that morning in the woods and I am truly young, in spite of myself."

That's how I feel about people who are willing to drastically alter a wild animal's behavior for their own selfish benefit, even if they think they're being kind. I know I'm fighting a bit of an uphill battle in this, but I'm rather stubborn that way.

[typhlonectes]

[petsync]

Every time I try to take a nap, my cat suddenly becomes the most active creature in the world, jumping around and knocking things over. It's like she knows!

Here you will find the best videos about cats and dogs

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A ban on four cosmetic surgeries for pets came into effect in Quebec today, putting an end to vocal cord removal, ear cropping, tail trimming and cat declawing for aesthetic purposes. Veterinarians say the non-essential procedures unduly expose animals to risks associated with anesthesia and can lead to behavioural issues. The Quebec regulation still allows veterinarians to recommend the surgeries for medical therapeutic purposes, and it makes an exception for the ear cropping of stray cats in authorized capture, sterilize and release programs.

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Tagging @politicsofcanada

[fucxingcuties]

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Random people on the Moo Deng post: “OP is just saying Moo Deng’s handling is bad because they’re racist, they hate other countries and think America is better!!!”

Me, an Australian, who has lived in multiple other countries and worked in facilities in the Asia Pacific and regularly posts about signs of positive welfare and examples of good animal husbandry in facilities like Chimelong (China) and Kamagowa (Japan) and supports any form of good animal husbandry no matter the country: 🧍‍♀️

[great-and-small]

Big yikes at this Reddit post I saw. Morbidly obese (not pregnant) ring-tailed lemur sitting in a shopping cart at Winn-Dixie should set off all kinds of red flags to you. Apparently the owner said this poor fellow is a “rescue” but no reputable primate rescue would casually push a lemur around in a shopping cart in a public place.

Lemurs are the worlds most endangered group of mammals and they absolutely do not make even remotely good pets. Posts like these can make people think otherwise but I promise you no lemur is going to thrive in this kind of lifestyle.

[orcinus-veterinarius]

we always complain, rightfully, about people who don't keep their cats indoors or under control outdoors (with a catio, a properly secluded area, a harness) but I think we don't talk enough about a type of people that's just as dangerous for the ecosystem in general, even if their intentions are good : people who feed stray cats. People need to stop feeding random cats they're not willing to adopt. It's not said enough imo, feeding feral cats is too accepted still...

Yeah… unfortunately it’s true. And I know people feed strays out of the goodness of their hearts. But what the cats ultimately need is not just food, they need to be off the streets.

A local humane society I follow posted something recently that made me cringe so badly. It was an “appreciation post” for “community cats.” Apparently free-roaming cats can live “happy, fulfilling lives” if they’re only TNR’d. Guys… that’s not true.

[curiositysavesthecat]

Video sent to us by the submitter. Trigger warning for possibly animal injuries and animal negligence

*This poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. If you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post).