People who abandoned pets during Irma face felony charges

[Duppers]

Days before Irma made landfall, the Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control received dozens of calls reporting animals that had been left by their owners chained to trees or cars, unable to escape when the storm hit, according to WPTV.

Now, those owners are facing felony charges.

http://www.chron.com/life/pets/article/People-abandon-pets-Hurricane-Irma-felony-charges-12199304.php

[alittlelark]

1. Good.

[Angry Dragon]

2. also my good

[Snackshack]

3. As they should.

Abandoning their pets was a horrible act in and of itself...leaving them chained to a tree or car says something much worse.

[Duppers]

5. Exactly!

These people were/are idiots.

[lunamagica]

4. excellent

[Warpy]

6. I can see leaving them inside if you're not sure you can get them into a shelter

although I'd be more likely to leave them in a car parked outside an inland shelter, if that was the case, checking on them frequently. These people were unbelievably cruel, leaving them chained outdoors, no protection from flying debris.

Yeah, felony convictions and blacklisting at every breeder and shelter would be a good start.

[BigmanPigman]

7. Lock them up, no better yet, chain them to a tree

and expose them to the elements for a few days without food or water. It is the Golden Rule!

[MLAA]

8. Works for me, good plan.

[democratisphere]

9. Feed the horrible pet owners to the sharks.

[Doreen]

10. What about the assisted living homes

that made people leave their pets behind? Just leave them there? If the place floods oh well? Open the doors so they can get out...to where......the water that is unclean....the wind that is hard for even a human to stand against? I think it is horrible that people leave their animals when they do not have to and should face felony charges but so do the organizations who will not rescue your pets to rescue you. ALL shelters for emergencies need to accept animals with their people. Unless they took my pets I would not go even if it was a sure death to do so because my pets are not going to die abandoned.

[Duppers]

12. Some shelters did take pets.

It should be law that required all to.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. When you decide to take a cat or dog

(and I'm only naming those because they are by far the commonest of our companion animals) into your life, you're undertaking a bond similar to that of having a child. You have complete responsibility for that creature. It's not a responsibility lightly to be undertaken, nor lightly to be abandoned. Alas, a lot of people think that cats or dogs aren't all that important, can be left behind whenever.

What's really appalling about chaining the animals to a tree or car is the apparent obliviousness to what they were really doing: condemning the animal to death. Better to have simply left them outside, unchained, unfettered, in the hope the animal would somehow survive. But no.

What in the world were they thinking?

[Stonepounder]

13. Pets ARE family!

We would no more abandon our furkids than we would a child or a grandchild (since our youngest 'child is pushing 40 we don't worry about them quite as much). When my dad invited us to come to his 90th birthday party in Oregon (we live in Kentucky), we told him the only way we could come was if we drive and brought our dogs with us. He totally understood. So we drove.

If you don't understand that commitment, don't get a pet. Full Stop!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. True.

But sometimes people have to move, and a new landlord isn't always keen to have the dogs or cats.

A while back I did volunteer work at an animal shelter, and probably eighty percent of the animals surrendered to us were because the people had moved and the new landlord didn't allow pets. Truly tragic.

I want to express extreme appreciation to the landlords that allowed me to move in with three cats nearly ten years ago. It probably helped that the apartment had tile floors, and so they did not have to worry about damage, but still.

[StarryNite]

15. I agree 100%!

The problem is that so many people just think of animals as disposable property. It's disgusting and inhumane. Lock them up!

[lostnfound]

16. Do they accept big dogs on city buses? If you have no car, how do you find a shelter?

People are often not smart enough to solve their own problems. Lots of families expose themselves and their KIDS to dangers of hurricanes because they don't want to leave their pets.

My friend, who has had no medical care and needs it, finally got a new job last month that offers it. She evacuated Florida "a day early" with her pets and her kid by car, and she got fired for it. The choices that people make are sometimes complicated. No way would she abandon her pets, and she feared being trapped on crowded roads.

She needs surgery but insurance doesn't start for 60 days. She had a car, but barely enough money for gas.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

17. If were up to me. Those people would be publicly

Flogged.