I read a story in today’s Washington Post about a trailer community set up for the displaced workers at the Domino sugar plant in hurricane-ravaged Louisiana.
Near the end of the story is this extremely distressing passage:
Megan says that when they got back to her house, her parakeet was dead and his head was sticking up through the top of the cage. “He was trying to breathe while the water came up,” she says.
I know I’ve said this before, but I just can’t deal with the images this conjures; the horrible deaths of so many animals, trapped and caged, unable to escape as the water surged higher. I simply would not have been able to evacuate and leave animals behind to their certain and terrified deaths, no matter how big the gun pointed at me. And no, I haven’t ever been in that situation — I’m not criticizing those who made that terrible choice and had to leave quickly and without their pets… but these anecdotes are, to me, among the worst to come from that disaster.
A pet is a committment for its entire lifetime. Pets are not objects; they are living beings, just like us.
I will criticize. I’d never leave my parakeet behind to possibly die a terrible, lonely, tragic death.
If you’re not prepared to commit yourself to loving your pet, then don’t get a pet.
=>PW