(no subject)

[urocyon]

My mom had some interesting news yesterday I had missed. It seems there is an ongoing kerfuffle over an Amish-run puppy mill in Bland County (VA). I would be amazed if my Aunt Sally were not in up to her eyeballs, trying to shut them down. Up to this point, I had not realized this sort of thing is an ongoing problem. Then again, Bland Co. did not have a need for regulations against puppy mills before, and SWVA is hardly known for its Amish population. This is a recent phenomenon there.

I can't help but think that this sort of thing is a logical(?) consequence of the "dominion" over other creatures hooey.

There was some good news about Punkin this morning. We didn't hear from the vet yesterday, but he called first thing this morning to say that she was doing remarkably well, and they were about to do surgery.

Then he called again, about noon, with further news. They had dealt with the eye, but the jaw fracture was worse than anticipated. One side was fairly cleanly broken, but the other had a more complicated fracture near the joint. He was concerned that the callus forming as it healed would interfere with the function of the joint, so referred her to a specialist in Basildon.

I was zonked out on Benadryl when the vet called back, and am fairly sure I baffled him. It's hard to think through logistics when one is half awake, so I was just very vague on the possibility of picking her up and transporting her to Basildon this afternoon. Yet another prompt to get a British driving license! I don't do well with the phone, sounding fairly wooden at the best of times, and was too groggy to explain properly. It was certainly not that I don't want the girl to have the best possible treatment ASAP.

It's frustrating. In my previous life, as I've started to think of it, taking the poor cat to the vet school in Blacksburg would have registered as a short crosstown drive, 25-30 minutes. That didn't even qualify mentally as a commute when I was doing it daily, frequently more than once. Now there are a lot more barriers to shifting her about the same distance Romford-->Basildon, a straight shot on an A road, than there would have been to hauling her to Richmond or DC. I definitely miss being reasonably mobile, and it upsets me that the poor cat is suffering for it. But I digress.

I did arrange to pick Punkin up in the morning. After consulting with vatine, it seems that public transport or cabbing it will not be necessary. A friend with a car volunteered to do the honors, and I am very grateful. VRCC called rather quickly, so the baby girl has an appointment for 10:30 in the morning. vatine has asked for a half-day off, so with any luck he'll be able to go along.

At least the girl is mostly out of the woods now.

Comments

[vatine]

Half-day has been approved.

[ciciaye.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear Punkin is doing well :-)

CCA

[urocyon-c.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[saigh-allaidh.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that Punkin is doing well and that you are able to get her to this specialist. I hope all goes well and she has a good recovery.

On the other note, the puppy mill thing I won't even go read because I'm so sickened by this. We need to get this stopped. So many members of my family are enamored with the Amish for their crafts and "simple lifestyle" but I'm so horrified by how they treat animals. So many of the quite young horses going to slaughter here come from the Amish...they have such a short lifespan with the over working and lack of care, far worse than anything I've heard from my father about when the logging industry here depended on them. I'd say part of this is actually because compared to that time, horses are actually cheap compared to the worth of a dollar, so it's easier to just replace them when they're used up.

I find this a stark contrast to the love and devotion you are showing.

[urocyon-c.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I was actually rather surprised, not having seen/heard anything about Amish attitudes toward animals before this. I'd just ended to consider their other beliefs peculiar but unlikely to harm others. (The sort of attitude being counted on by the folks expanding into other areas to set up such exploitative businesses, I would imagine.) From just a little looking, it does seem to be a common problem. It's sad to hear about the horses, and very frustrating, since it's hard to see what can be done. Farm animals should not be falling under a different category of welfare regulations, in the first place. :/ The cost factor does seem very pertinent here, factoring in the hundreds of dogs dying in this case for lack of a proper heating system and sprinklers.

It frequently gets me, the number of people who do not seem to consider that they have taken on the same set of responsibilities as they would with human children--if anything, more, since the other animals are even less capable of taking care of themselves. (Not even counting the few who don't get their kids medical treatment as needed--coming from someone who was part of the Uninsured Masses for years.) Ah well.