bi of yore. call me sir or ma’am or partner, whatever floats your boat, whatever vibe you associate me with. Who needs drugs when I got ADHD? (Turns out I need drugs BECAUSE I have ADHD).
If the right way is too hard, fuck it. Do it the wrong way.
Folding clothes keeps you from getting the laundry done? Stop folding clothes. Put a basket in your room and throw your unfolded clean stuff into it right out of the dryer, it’s fine.
Rinsing dishes off keeps you from loading the dishwasher? Load them dirty and run it twice.
Chopping onions keeps you from making yourself dinner? Buy the freezer bags of chopped onions.
You forget to take your meds and don’t want to get out of bed to get them? Start putting them next to the bed.
Can’t keep up with the dishes? Get paper plates. Worried about environment impact? Order biodegradable ones online if your local store doesn’t have one.
Make the task easier. Put things where you use them instead of where they “go.” Eliminate the steps that keep you from finishing the task. Eliminate the task that is stressing you out.
Do it the “wrong” way. It’s literally fine.
This is huge. I have been working on this for years with great success.
If the system doesn’t work for you and you’re the only one who uses it, DON’T CHANGE YOURSELF, CHANGE THE SYSTEM.
No kill shelters result in animals dumped on the highway and tossed in the river because the rescues wont take them. That’s the part they never tell you.
Meanwhile the spca will take every animal, and if they have to euthanize them at least it will be done kindly and not via neglect or cruelty.
Because people in the notes are not getting this, let me explain:
No-kill shelters TURN AWAY animals. When they’re full - and they often are because most of these no-kill shelters are small - they stop taking them in. While they are “taking their time to find the right homes for every single animal”, many other animals never get in the door. Somehow they don’t count those animals, or track what happens to them. A success for them doesn’t include the ones they turned away. They’re taking their time because they can.
The No-Kills who brag about 100% adoption rates are the worst, because they tend to reject the most. The animals who will be difficult to adopt out? They just don’t take those. Special needs? Too old? If they’re going to be hard to adopt out, they can claim to be full, even if they’re not.
They are telling owners they absolutely cannot take their fifteen year old cat because they are full of litters of kittens. Adorable kittens that will turn over quickly, and boost their adoption numbers. So what happens to the fifteen year old cat? After days of being rejected at the shelters they get dumped on the side of the road somewhere, or worse.
You cannot imagine the VOLUME of animals that a city shelter deals with. The kill shelters are not allowed to turn anyone away. The difficult cases, the special needs, the elderly, the feral. The dog that bites, the cat that pees everywhere. Every animal is going to be taken in and treated with kindness. They are going to be assessed and treated for their fleas and conditions and behavioral problems. They will get their time on the adoption floor. They will get the best chance possible to find a new home. And if it’s not possible, they will be humanely euthanized, and that cage space will go to the next animal who is already waiting for it. It never stops. While you were working on the paperwork to adopt out 1 cat, three people brought in 4 more. It’s a numbers game that you cannot win if you aren’t turning people away.
A lot of times kill shelters get the animals that the no-kill shelters refused to take. Maybe their owners bring them. Or maybe they got literally thrown in the garbage, abandoned, or put in a bag and tossed in the river, when the no-kill shelter said they were full. The police and rescuers will bring these poor injured animals to the city shelter where they will be cared for. The volunteers will spend days and weeks trying to wash the tar out of their fur, or treat their broken bones, or whatever other horrible thing has happened to them. They will feed and house them. They will put most of them in new homes. They will save many many more animals, by orders of magnitude, than a no-kill shelter ever will. A no-kill shelter will brag about dozens or maybe hundreds of adoptions. Kill shelters are dealing in thousands of successful adoptions, and they still have to euthanize because it just isn’t enough. There are just so many animals to take in.
And then, after all this, the No-Kill Shelters get to claim the moral high ground somehow, and self-righteous types will refuse to adopt from the only shelter that takes absolutely everyone. It’s infuriating.
For the record: Because of the feral cat situation in my neighborhood, I’ve been talking to both no-kill and the municipal shelters.
In order to get spays/neuters/vaccinations for cats and kittens through the local no-kill rescues, I would need to take responsibility for the colony as a caretaker and would be financially on the hook for treating cats and kittens that were too well to euthanize but which needed treatment beyond the bare minimum of neuter/vax. I can’t do this. I can’t afford to do this, these aren’t my cats, this isn’t my colony, this is a bunch of neglected animals that I can’t afford to care for, that I don’t feed, and that I primarily know as the sick cats who shit in my yard. I can’t afford to give them medication for their ear mites and gut issues, and they’re too feral for me to medicate anyway, but this is what would be expected of me if I was to get help from kitten rescues in this area.
The municipal shelter has a TNR program that costs zero dollars; I can choose to buy my own trap or put down a deposit for a trap from the shelter, and other than taxes that’s what I pay for the services they offer. They are the ones who showed up to trap a feral kitten with a broken leg when I couldn’t get over my neighbor’s fence (they were on a vacation for a month and hadn’t seen the kitten) to take it to the shelter. If I trap cats in my yard I take them to the shelter where the the cats are then spayed/neutered/vaccinated then released back into my neighborhood. If the cats are ill and too feral to be medicated reliably, they are humanely euthanized because it is cruel to let a cat with untreated worms or ear mites to be released to suffer through a short, miserable, life with parasites and the attendant infections. And if you’ve never dealt with ferals you likely don’t understand how difficult it is to medicate and care for a feral cat. It’s literally like trying to provide medical care for a wild raccoon or coyote, and is similarly dangerous for you and stressful for the animal.
Rescues and no-kill shelters don’t take ferals. They don’t treat ferals. They don’t spay and neuter ferals unless they can find someone (you, the person dealing with a colony) to take financial responsibility. When I started talking to local rescues I was despondent about the feral cats in my neighborhood because their approach meant that there was no possible way that I could get these cats vaccinated or treated; I couldn’t even get them spayed or neutered without a massive commitment of time and money that I simply don’t have.
The local municipal shelter, which isn’t a “kill” shelter because all shelters in LA are no-kill (which I think is bad; I think it’s bad that our shelters are overtaxed and required to go through extreme contortions to avoid being a ‘kill’ shelter when they already were going out of their way to avoid unnecessary euthanasia) lets me take steps to improve this situation. They accept ferals and vaccinate them. They give one-time medications to animals who can be treated that way. They spay and neuter so that hopefully this large colony of neglected animals will dwindle and cease to suffer and cease to be a health risk and attractive nuisance in the neighborhood.
Anyway. “Kill” shelters are great, euthanasia for animals who can’t be placed in homes or given a good life is a thousand times better than simply allowing animals to suffer untreated, and for the love of fuck please spay and neuter your pets because reducing the number of unwanted animals is an enormous step in improving this situation.
not that this post needs anything added but here’s my two cents anyways:
in the time ive spent in vet med, the worst thing i consistently see is humans forcing animals to live to the point of cruelty. this goes for private owners of pets but also for some of those no-kill rescues
there isn’t a single person who works in animal rescue or in vet med who enjoys putting animals down. many of us cry every single time despite how often it happens in the thousands of patients seen each year.
sometimes death really is a kindness and a mercy. ive had many conversations with owners in euthanasia rooms that ultimately amount to: passing peacefully and painlessly surrounded by our loved ones is all any of us can really hope for.
and those animals euthanized at “kill” shelters? it’s never from lack of respect for that animal. municipal shelters fight to keep adoptable animals alive tooth and nail.
if you don’t like “kill” shelters, the best thing to do is support them. financial, volunteer, advocate, etc. the more resources they have the more they’re able to do.
[Image ID: A series of tweets from hannah (@/ hannahschramm) on 11/13/21 reading: The difference between a “kill” and “no-kill” shelter is so misunderstood and prompts me to write a 7 tweet rant on why you need to know the difference and give equal support to both
Municipal shelters are more often tagged as “kill shelters” because they are contractually obligated to serve the community they reside in. If Cleveland City Kennel, Lorain County Kennel, and others alike get a call for an animal they Have to bring it in regardless of their
current volume of dogs. So if they have 20 kennels are all are full they must bring it in regardless. Contrasting, private shelters (more often, “no kill” shelters) have the ability to pick and choose when and what to accept into their shelter. They do not have to exceed their
max amount of animals. So going back, people often boast that they’d never support a “kill shelter”, never volunteer for one, never adopt from one, never even visit one. And essentially, that’s the problem. Since they are contractually obligated to take in every animal in their
municipality and they get no adoptions, inadequate staff, no support from the community, no adoptions animals are senselessly euthanized because of the stigma that they are creating themselves. If we all showered municipal shelters with the same love “no kill” private shelters
got, euthanasia wouldn’t even be considered because kennels would open because the community supports them and adopts/fosters/etc. “Kill shelters” aren’t full of monsters who hate animals, they’re typically minimally staffed with volunteers that work so hard to save every single
animal with little to no support from their community. thanks for coming to my TedTalk, support your local shelters. All of em :)
This thread is excluding situations where animals have no other option but euthanasia, for example: overly aggressive animals or incurably sick animals. No shelter is exempt from those heart breaking cases! /End IDs]
heads up to americans: the federal government is suspending the free covid test program on Friday, March 8th, so if you haven’t already gotten two orders of 4 at-home tests, now’s the time to do it
heads up to americans: the federal government is suspending the free covid test program on Friday, March 8th, so if you haven’t already gotten two orders of 4 at-home tests, now’s the time to do it
The thing I keep coming back to, with all the *gestures expansively* is that real life doesn’t have peaceful epilogues.
Every single win has to be defended. Forever. I’m sorry. It sucks. The Nazis lost until they stopped losing. The US had abortion rights, and then 50 years later it didn’t. Empires fall, and then they invade other countries again. Oppressive regimes are overthrown and replaced with other oppressive regimes. You will never finish the work etc etc etc. Which is why it’s so fucking important to be able to acknowledge and celebrate progress, when it happens. The people who came before you didn’t put in all that work for nothing, and you aren’t, either. You can’t save it all for the Ultimate Victory because there is never going to be an Ultimate Victory. There’s no such thing as a time when everything is good, and ours shall not be the commune of Heaven.
FOUND family??? you think i just found them like this??? babes this is FORGED family. Me & the bros were scrap metal in a junkyard (very valuable, very sharp, very dangerous, uncared for) and we GOT IN THE FUCKING FIRE TOGETHER. WE did this. we said I AM NOT LEAVING YOU and melted into each other for better or for worse (it’s for better) and we are A FUNCTIONAL UNIT now. DO NOT SEPARATE. BATTERIES FUCKING INCLUDED. FOUND family my ass, we built this non-nuclear family unit from the ground up, don’t devalue this!!! it was is and will be a labour of love!!!
I like this but also. “Forged family” as in “we faked the paperwork to scam money from the government”
[ID 1: Two tweets, the first from @/pisanoromano reads: “imagine if twitter was around when Caesar got stabbed”. The reply from @/doranofthenorth reads: “I don’t have to. Tumblr puts on a festival for this every year.”
ID 2: A hamster holding a knife peering around a wall, yellow text reads “soon” /End ID]
BTW please do not forget your daily clicks! Any myth of this NOT going to Palestine has been debunked, and it doesn’t take any time to simply click one button.
You click the button and the ad money goes directly to Palestinian relief funds!!! It’s safe, and if you haven’t done it before I’d highly encourage you to start now!
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