[Poppyseed]

My aunt, uncle and grandmother have a horrible history of animal collecting, getting tons of animals and not taking care of them as they die at a early age or inbreed or other horrible things. I've been pleased that lately they have kept their pet intake down, and only has one dog at the momment who is not chained thank God! But they also have a bird that's behavior has become agressive from lack of handling.

Well, I just hear that my aunt got my cousin Anthony (who lives with them) a pet rat. I'm very worried and heart broken by this. They have had a cage full of sugar gliders while I was too young to do anything inbreed from 2 to 8 or 10 in a cage too small for even one little rat. They have had a ferret nearly starve to death because they didn't read on the diet and when it was out of ferret food, feed them vegetables. I rescued the ferret before he died and brought him to a local ferret shelter and everyone was very angry at me for that. They say Anthony 'missed' the ferret he never played with and didn't take care of D:

Now they have a rat and I just lost one recently. My grandmother said Anthony plays with him all the time but it has only been a month and I'm certain it won't be long until the new appeal wears out.

What should I do? I can't keep tabs on them as often now that I live far away. I'm worried to death for this poor creature and I'm hopeing they have learned but know that might be too far fetch. As soon as the poor things claws get too long, he will probably accidently scratch someone and be written off and neglected as mean. Then it will go down hill from there. Or he will die from pnemonia as they will refuse to take him to the vet.

Gah! I just needed to talk to someone about this as it broke my heart. Any advice on how to deal with this without angering my family members?

 

[fallinstar]

Re: Worried~ famiy animal 'collector' now has rat

ask them 2 tell u if he gets 'bored' ov the rat and say as soon as he does u will adopt it either that or go over steal the rat then say it must have ran away lol

 

[JennieLove]

Re: Worried~ famiy animal 'collector' now has rat

All the advice I can give you is to call animal abuse services and tell them about this, if they find that the animals are being abused or neglected they will give them a warning or even take the animal from them and may even tell them that they may not have any more pets. If they do they will get fined and if those animals are also abused they can face jail time, depending on the seriousness of the case. Or if you feel comfortable enough to try to do something yourself, go for it! Personaly I would talk to them and tell them that if they DO NOT take care of them you WILL have someone take the animals away. It may cause probelms, I don't know how they would react to something like that, but they need to understand that these are living things. If Anthony isn't mature enough to take up the responsibilities of an animal then he shouldn't have one, simple as that. Seems like your aunt, uncle and grandmother arn't mature enough either...especially if they like these types of thing happen all the time.

 

[twitch]

Re: Worried~ famiy animal 'collector' now has rat

if you think things are gettng bad again (animals straving) then give the local spca an annoymous call and have them checked up on. having said that they don't do anything for animals that just aren't getting enough handling but if there's sick animals or animals not getting food then they will either warn or confiscate. if they confiscate they tend to try to get the person legally banned from having any more pets but that doesn't always work. in any case, the spca is always an option.

i don't think the boy will ever admit to be being bored of the rat if he "missed" the ferret that he never cared for but you cna certainly put it out there that you'd be willing to take in the rat if the boy ever changes his mind no matter the temperment of the rat. i hope things don't go that far though. good luck.

 

[fallinstar]

Re: Worried~ famiy animal 'collector' now has rat

good idea jennielove im slightly tipsy at the mo so good ideas arent workin with me lol

 

[JennieLove]

Re: Worried~ famiy animal 'collector' now has rat

LMAO! Tipsy haha, have a good drink?

 

[JennieLove]

Re: Worried~ famiy animal 'collector' now has rat

LMAO! Tipsy haha, have a good drink?

 

[fallinstar]

Re: Worried~ famiy animal 'collector' now has rat

its now errm ten past 1 in the morning and i bin back from the pub an hour and still half there lol so yes thanks i did

 

[Poppyseed]

Re: Worried~ famiy animal 'collector' now has rat

Thanks guys. I e-mailed my grandmother with my concerns. I hope they listen and right now all the animals are fine. Like I said, they only have one outdoor dog that isn't chained, a bird that gets fed (Grandma is thinking of giveing him to us since Vickie can't stand the noise he makes and Chris is awesome with birds) and now that little rat. I'm hopeing my e-mail will get heard I think that they don't even SEE the horrible things they are doing to their pets.

I will when I go into town check up on the rat personally. I don't want to report them I do love my grandma and she really can't do a lot about things because the animals are mostly my aunts that she buys for my slightly mentally retarded cousin who is mentally there enough to have a job and drive so should be mentally there enough to take care of his pets. Hopefully everyone has learned.

I'll just keep an eye on things and hope for the best. Everything seems fine now and has been for around a year, so let's hope they stay with that. They just have a horrific past with animals.

 

[Nazarath]

Re: Worried~ famiy animal 'collector' now has rat

I think your doing the right thing poppyseed, i wish i knew of a way they wouldn't get mad but i honestly don't know. if needed i would do as everyone has said for calling in the animals treatment. They wont know it was you (as fare as i know). Good luck and let us know how it goes.