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duck-in-a-thrift-store · 1 month

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I witnessed something kind of heartbreaking and kind of infuriating today, so here's a vent about it

Trigger warning for animal cruelty, and for... just a really fucking sad situation, I guess

Also, the events here are not entirely in order, it's been a fucking emotional roller coaster of a day and I'm writing this at... well I don't remember what time it was when I started but it's 5am 6am now, I had to get it all out into words outside my head and there was only so much editing I could do on my current level of brainpower, so some of what I say in here will make more sense once you read further

Things had been going well enough. Unexpectedly well, actually. We had planned to see my grandparents this weekend and we took one of our dogs with us and stopped for coffee on the way and just generally made a day of it, got to the campground they're staying at and got to hang out with them and their puppy and my aunt and uncle and baby cousin, we all had lunch and my granddad took a few of us out on the boat to ride around the lake, which I had been looking forward to

All in all it had been a really nice day

But someone had the idea to go check out the campground's petting zoo, and well, things went pretty severely downhill from there

We were walking around the back of the sheds beside a more open enclosure, I was sort of lagging behind so I hadn't seen yet what was causing a disturbance, but I caught up to my grandma right as she was about to call the management of the place, saying it looked like a mama goat was in distress and asking if they were aware

Basically what this lady told her over the phone was "oh yeah we know, she's probably not going to make it, she just had triplets and there's not really anything we can do" and I guess she was like, grossly nonchalant about it, based on my grandma's description

I hadn't heard it all, just enough to know there was something going on with a mama goat, she wasn't doing well, and that the management knew about it

I think I hadn't fully processed it yet, as I was missing chunks of context and I hadn't actually seen it for myself, because I thought vaguely "oh that's kinda sad," but once I took in the full situation?

When I tell you I was devastated-

I got past the clumsy wooden walls to the open part of the pen, where there was a goat lying on her side, seemingly unable to move but for a feeble kick of her legs every now and then and the rolling of her eyes. She had collapsed- presumably- outside her shelter, in the hot, bright sun, left unshielded from the elements and unable to even get any water to cool down, as she lay slowly dying out in the open for all to see, alone but for the tiny, fragile kids that depended on her for their own survival. There was a small tub of water in the pen, but the nanny couldn't get up to walk over to it, and it was too tall to be of any use to the kids. I watched one of them push at it, trying to knock it over with his itty bitty head.

My mom, who's been a major animal person since childhood, was very much not ok with the whole scene (neither were the rest of us, but she sort of led the way). She went into the pen, along with me, my sister, and my aunt, while my grandma kept trying to figure out if anyone who worked here gave a shit about the animals in their care

There's a gap here where I lost track of what everyone else was doing. I was busy approaching the little goat by the water tub, tipping it enough for him to get a drink, and then fending off his repeated attempts to eat my shoelaces. He was a hell of a cute little guy, and trouble right out the gate. I was a bit caught up in his adorable antics for a moment, but the instant attachment I felt toward the little guy would end up making the rest of our time there all the more painful as I considered his bleak future through a lens of irrational, protective affection. I scooped him up in my arms so he'd stop chasing my laces and we could focus on the more serious problem at hand without tripping over him

Her baby in my arms, I turn my attention back to the suffering mama goat. My mom dips her cupped hand in the tub of water and offers it to the nanny, to one of the kids, and we follow her example. I stand between the nanny and the harsh sunlight and arrange first my sister and later my aunt to stand beside me and cover her body more effectively in shadow, offering her some small respite in whatever ways we can.

The matrons of my family are fighting the good fight with the campsite workers, over the phone as well as in person- once someone finally deigned to show up- much more calmly than I possibly could have done, but it's obvious to us my mom is furious (as she should be).

As for me, over the course of all of it, taking in the scene- the ailing creature at my feet, the knowledge that she wasn't expected to survive, that her and her kids were virtually being left to starve or succumb to illness or bake to death in the sun, that these babies might watch their mother die and wither away beside her, all while some dirtbag humans who either had no fucking clue what they were doing or just didn't care and in any case had no right to possess these animals practically stood by and did nothing but bitch at the witnesses with hearts- I was crying. I kept crying, on and off and on again. I kept having to look away just to get control of myself. At one point I was slipping dangerously into a fit of public sobbing and had to bite down so hard on the skin of my wrist that I'm pretty sure there are still marks now, almost twelve fourteen hours later.

The woman who eventually showed up reiterated that the nanny had had triplets and that there wasn't much they could do, and when my mom tried to argue with her, she started pulling shit like asking my mom if she even had any animals of her own, suggesting she didn't know what she was talking about, and stating that "sometimes nature just has to take its course"

First of all, my mom has had animals most of her life. Maybe not farm animals, but still.

Second and more importantly in terms of relevance and knowledge, our next door neighbor literally raises goats. My mom is always home and talks to this woman a lot; she's seen and heard plenty about these goats and their care, and has in fact helped birth new kids when one of the goats went into labor while the owner was MIA.

She also had done her research and prepared and overall been very aware and responsible when one of our dogs had a litter of puppies, and under her prepping and care all ten puppies and their mom survived and were healthy.

So like. Don't fucking say my mom doesn't know what she's talking about, when you literally leave your animals in a state in which they don't even have access to the most basic of necessities for survival and she actually does have a background with the type of situation at hand.

Also, our neighbor's goats have had multiples and been ok with a little bit of assistance when necessary, so them suggesting that her health was a lost cause purely on the principle of her having had triplets is highly suspicious and their general evasiveness, nonchalance, and obvious oversights make it seem pretty damn clear which party doesn't fucking know what they're doing

And, what the fuck do you mean "nature just has to take its course???" Like yeah ok sometimes things go wrong sometimes animals get hurt or sick and they die and that's just a part of life, but this isn't the fucking wild, this is a setting where you have chosen to be responsible for these animals, their lives and welfare literally depend on you and it is your responsibility to take that seriously and to provide for them and not to just let a mother fucking suffer a slow agonizing death and let the babies starve.

If you really have tried treating her like you say (doubtful) and if the owner/boss of the place is really a vet (highly doubtful), then why the hell are you allegedly unable or unwilling to put the poor thing out of her misery? No seriously they told us the owner was a vet, and then turned around and told us they couldn't euthanize the goat when my mom said that that would be the more humane thing to do. Literally the least you could do here, and as my dad pointed out, even if for some reason their "vet" boss didn't have access to the necessary drugs, they could just shoot her. It would be quicker, it would be over

Someone was sent out to carry the goat to the office (for some reason? I don't know what their plan was from there) but she wasn't strong enough to carry her that far, she said she'd have to wait for so-and-so to get back so he could carry her instead, but in the meantime she at least dragged the nanny into the shade of the shed. It would probably be her final resting place. We found a smaller container elsewhere in the pen and filled it with water for the kids, but it won't do them much good on the 2 feedings per day the office promised us they'd be receiving (newborn kids need to be fed at the very least 4 times a day).

Unfortunately we had predetermined plans set for that evening that involved other people, so we couldn't stay any longer, we had to get home. Before we left, my sister and I carried the babies into the shed to be with their mother for however much time she had remaining, my mom rushing us, getting snappy in the way she has a tendency to do when she's distressed and taking her anger out on the wrong people, because it's socially acceptable to be impatient and harsh with your own kids but it's not to cuss out other adults in public, even if they really deserve it. I could barely speak but I croaked out a "we're coming" laced with a reflexive returning bite, my own defensive tendency to the pattern. I tried to plant a kiss on the furry head of the kid I was holding but I was shaky and I think I missed; I whispered to him "I hope they don't let you starve," bit back another sob, set him down and walked away

I think this whole thing was like. A canon event for me. I just really genuinely don't understand how someone can be so indifferent to the lives in their care, when we- a random group of strangers who hadn't known any of these goats even existed until then- were so thoroughly caught up and distraught over their fate that we stood with a dying animal and did whatever precious little we could with none of their alleged credentials or experience or resources. Where are your fucking ethics? Where is your humanity? It is your job to do something about this and yet you sound like you're mad at us for trying to get you to do just that. God I want those goats to be ok, and I also want that petting zoo to be shut down and all the animals relocated to homes that will actually care for them. But life isn't fair, and that isn't what will happen, and chances are those babies are going to lose their mother- if they haven't already, by now- and then their lives, and the people responsible will just continue about their own, unchanged. How can you be unchanged? You probably knew those goats' names. I didn't have even that much information and yet I cried for them like they were my own. I will never understand you, and I don't want to

#sorry for spiraling on main #duck's diary #duck rants #animal cruelty #animal death #animal husbandry #goats #baby goats #humanity #indifference to the suffering of others #my mom was the pissed one and i was the weepy one *in the moment*#but trust me i was and am definitely fucking mad about it too #i hope that woman gets fired #and that campground loses business #and the animals get rescued #but I'm not optimistic

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