I haven't posted here in a while, but I have two cats,

Bageerah:
Geerah

Adrial:

Adrial

He's five and she's four...

Since this topic has been slow going lately, for a food for thought, posting a vid of a stranger woman throwing a cat she just saw in a garbage bin, caught on tape.
Luckily, this story ended happily, as the cat was saved and returned to the owner safely.
Woman throws a cat in a garbage bin
This may not qualify as an out-right animal cruelty, but my family got cats, and I hope this would never happen to any of them! >.<


And now, to lighten up, here is the vid of pooches in costumes, in honor of Halloween!
Halloween Pooches
Poor doggies! XDDD

This is awful. Yet, sadly, this is not the first time I've heard a story about a cat in a rubbish bin...

I should be the only one who knows that Cat Bin Lady story. It should have been local news and that's it. The only reason it is SUCH a big story is down to the internet and how easily that video could spread. Comparing her to Myra Hindley and the like is just plain stupid. I read a story of a woman keeping 48 pets in squalid conditions in cages...that was a tiny box of an article, below the half a page story of the fact Cat Bin Lady was fined.

That bin belongs to the owners of the cat, as does the camera filming it. How did it take 16 hours to find a cat meowing in the bin directly by your front door? I don't condone what she did, but it has to be kept in perspective.

@Chiyo - Aha, thank you for the additional info! While this can develop into some interesting discussions, as far as my intention of posting the vid, it had more to do with bringing the awareness to the cat owners, and it was not intneded to bring about the discussions on any of the "media/viral circus" surrounding this "case" (in print media, broadcasting media, & Web, etc.) in UK and other areas & on the Web, nor going into discussions of particular details/aspects of this "case," etc., as I think those may be likely to become off-topic discussions for this thread, and probably better to be handled on other part of the forums. ^^

Hence, if anyone is interested in any of those aspects, please open up a separate thread with more detailed info to facilitate your desired area of discussions, with your opinions, in our Debate District forum, and continue such discussions there.

QUOTE (Chiyo @ Oct 25 2010, 06:37 AM)

...Comparing her to Myra Hindley and the like is just plain stupid...

Uh... I'm not well informed on the "case" surrounding this vid, nor I know who Myra Hindley is or what she is famous/infamous for (though I'm guessing that may be some UK lady who has done some nasty deed?) nor how that was brought into the discussions for the case surrounding this vid, and hence I can't reply to that intelligently. Sorry! xp I'm tempted to ask you to elaborate your comment here and kindly provide us with more information on her, or how her name was brought up, etc. but that could probably lead to more off-topic discussions here, so.. maybe we should leave it at that. ^^ Anyone interested, please check around the Web and do search, etc., and probably you can find more info there. ^^



Setting aside any details of this particular case (since I'm not well-informed on the case at all ^^) and strictly providing some info to the question presented, as a cat owner with my own first-hand experience... (unless this was a rhetorical question xD)

1.) Not every cat meows loud (as everyone probably knows. ^^) True, some cats are loud. I used to have a cat who meowed so loud, and he could also distinguish the sound of my car and he always started meowing loudly long before my car arrived home, and if I had the car windows open I could hear him meowing a block away! On the other hand, one of the current bunch of ours has such a tiniest voice (she is also very small and dainty) that I can hardly hear her meows even when she is standing right next to me. If she were in a enclosed garbage bin outside I may not hear her meowing even if she tries her heart out to produce "loudest" meows she can come up in her distress.

2.) And, another real-life story of mine is that one time one of other current bunch, an ex-stray cat who loved going outside, did not come home. We looked everywhere inside and outside the house, every nook and cranny, thinking all kind of possibilities such as, she might have gotten in a fight with other cat, or even a dog, and got injured and hiding in some corner, or got hit by a car (unfortunately, this turned out to be the case. She survived the accident, but she lost the use of one front leg. T.T)
YET, I DID NOT THINK of checking inside the garbage bin! And, when I saw this video, it hit me, like, "OMG I've never thought of looking inside the wheelie garbage bin!" ...probably because the design of the bin was/is such that normally cats can not get in by him/herself, hence I automatically excluded the bin from my search area, and I did not think of the possibility that someone might intentionally threw in the cat inside.

Bottom line: Yes, from my own experience, I think it can be plausible that a cat owner may not realise that the missing cat is in the bin directly front of the house for 16 hours. (Again, I'm not well-informed at all about this particular incident, so, setting aside the case, this is simply presenting my own first-hand cat-owner experience.)


(BTW, adding to the possible unfortunate situation presented above, in my case, usually those garbage bin being placed on the curve side means the content of the bin will be dumped to the garbage truck shortly, and in case of our town the collection of the bin content by the truck is automated, meaning, the truck driver will push the button in the driver seat, and the mechanical arms attached to the side of truck will come down, lift up the bin high, and dump the content to the truck automatically, and hence there is no chance of "sanitation workers finding the cat while handling the garbage bin," and my cat, especially the tiniest one, could likely to get "caged in" inside the tank on the back of the truck with the garbage, till the truck would dump the whole content at the dump site somewhere afar. And because of her tiny size and her dainty nature, basically she has no discernible fighting skills if attacked by other cat/dog while/if trying to get home from wherever she gets dumped. Meaning, if this happened to one of my cats, this could potentially turn into some serious situation. )


As I understand, the lady who threw a cat in the bin had no real cruel intention, and to her it was just a "light-hearted joke." (..Although, as a pet owner, and for my taste, I didn't find this "funny." But, judging from Pyroclasm's post above, unfortunately, it seems there are more who might behave like what this lady did also out there. ) And, although I'm sure many of such cases would end without developing into any serious harm, nonetheless in my case with my cat, something like this could possibly turn into potentially serious situation, and hence this vid served me as an wake-up reminder and served to correct my lack of awareness. ...and basically, that's why I posted this vid to share it with other cat/pet owners (in case there are some other pet owners who were like me with "slow awareness.")


And by the way, of course there are so many other real serious cases of animal cruelties, such as cats/dogs/birds etc. being maimed, poisoned, killed, etc, by psychotic humans, or the cases of "puppy mills" where greedy & scrupulous breeders would exhibit the gross negligence toward the well-being of the puppies, or otherwise supposedly loving pet owners turned into out of control "animal herders," etc. And of course, IMO, they deserve to be told also. But, as far as this thread is concerned, those discussions are probably off-topic and this thread is not the appropriate vehicle. Hence, if anyone would like to discuss those topics, please open up separate thread in our Debate District forum.



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Anyway, sorry for the wall of text! XP ... Now, please post more names & pics, and stories about your pets!

I have a Chihuahua named Sandy. She's 12 years old.

I also have 3 guinea pigs.....all female. Their names are Blanca, Black Star, and Anemone.

Pics:

Blanca:



Black Star:



Anemone:



And this is my dog:

My cats Callie

Click to view attachment

& Sunflower.

Click to view attachment

Sunflower's pictures are all blurry because she won't stand still. She's still a kitten (under a year old)

Oh myyyy..!!! Those are just so cute! :'D

I used to have pets. I had ten cats, consisting of one mother cat and her nine kittens. But my mother decided she couldn't handle them all after a few short months and we had to throw them out. T____T

I'm still wondering about having my own pet. Either a hamster or fishes. Two cents? :3