I knew there was a reason why I hated Christmas.

[daftscotslass]

I await, with baited breath, someone who can justify why buying animals as presents for Christmas is a good thing. The main guinea pig rescue here in Scotland is over-run. I decided to look at the Scottish SPCA website to see if they had yet taken Lucy's picture off the adoptions section (they haven't) and was horrifed to see an additional 9 up for adoption post-Christmas. I couldn't bear the thought that Lucy would have had to have lived in a shelter over Christmas and travelled the 140 mile round trip to get her.

It's disgraceful. It annoys me.

[nonamian_girl]

Yea I'm not a big fan of Christmas either, though for different reasons.

[pamziaw]

I love christmas but i hate xmas, they are very differnet things. Christmas is the christian festival for celebraitng the birth of jesus. Xmas is the corparate build up, the guessing of value of what to buy someone, the exchange of gifts that you would never buy for yourself, the feeling terrible because society says you have to get totally bombed at christmas and finally the giving of pets as presents which is so unbeliveably wrong. Christmas is a good festival about celebrating that good came into the world but its been so perverted by corperate organisations trying to make money off it that i don't recognise what most people call christmas anymore, that is xmas.

[daftscotslass]

My focus was intended to be more on the moronic act of giving pets as gifts. I just cannot understand why some people cannot comprehend that yes, their child WILL tire of the pet, just like they will the PSP, Nintendo-DS etc etc.

[muffin]

Are you talking about the one in Glasgow? I live in Edinburgh, but my local sspca centre said they hate to travel far, but all the guineas seem to be in Glasgow or elsewhere. I want to adopt, but am testing my partner's hayfever reaction to hay for the next week. If yours was fine on the journey I'd like to know. Cheers.

Originally Posted by daftscotslass

I await, with baited breath, someone who can justify why buying animals as presents for Christmas is a good thing. The main guinea pig rescue here in Scotland is over-run. I decided to look at the Scottish SPCA website to see if they had yet taken Lucy's picture off the adoptions section (they haven't) and was horrifed to see an additional 9 up for adoption post-Christmas. I couldn't bear the thought that Lucy would have had to have lived in a shelter over Christmas and travelled the 140 mile round trip to get her.

It's disgraceful. It annoys me.

[Catnippe]

I don't think you can make a blanket statement that pets-as-gifts is always completely and totally wrong. Springing a pet on someone who isn't ready or willing for the responsibility is a bad decision. However, I think it's different if you choose to get a pet for your family as part of a gift-giving season.

I got Yoda, our piggy, for my son and I for Christmas as a present for both of us. Yes, we did go to a pet store, a mistake we won't make again when getting Yoda a friend, but I do take the responsibility seriously, pet-store pig or no. My son, only six, helps care for Yoda, though I would never give him ANY pet and expect him to take care of it by himself. Yoda is in a 2x4 C&C, gets loads of veggies twice a day, quality pellets, stacks of timothy hay, toys and as of today has nice fleece bedding to waddle around on instead of the aspen shavings we had been using. He seems to be beside himself with piggy joy. We're not going to be getting tired of him.

Yes, there are a lot of morons out there, but it always irks me to see the argument that getting a pet as part of Christmas, or any other gift-giving time, is the worst thing you can do. It's no worse than any other time of year if you are responsible, plan correctly and your heart is in the right place.

[daftscotslass]

Originally Posted by muffin

Are you talking about the one in Glasgow? I live in Edinburgh, but my local sspca centre said they hate to travel far, but all the guineas seem to be in Glasgow or elsewhere. I want to adopt, but am testing my partner's hayfever reaction to hay for the next week. If yours was fine on the journey I'd like to know. Cheers.

I live just outside Stirling and we drove to Ayr to get Lucy. She was fine on the journey. Good idea to have some watery veggies like cucumber on hand, though. Have you tried Lothian A.W.C.? If not, it looks like Bothwell Bridge and Glasgow cat and dog home both have piggies at the moment. Bothwell Bridge (Hamilton) is just off the Edinburgh - Glasgow road so is probably easier to get to. Drop me an email if you need any more advice .

[muffin]

That's good that they weren't bothered by travel. There seems to be a difference of opinion between SSPCA staff about travel, it probably depends on the pig, and definitely watery veggies are good for journeys. I need to give it a week to make sure my partner isn't allergic to hay, then fingers crossed I can rescue! many thanks for your info.

[Percy's Mom]

Originally Posted by Catnippe

I don't think you can make a blanket statement that pets-as-gifts is always completely and totally wrong. ... I got Yoda, our piggy, for my son and I for Christmas as a present for both of us. ... My son, only six, helps care for Yoda, though I would never give him ANY pet and expect him to take care of it by himself. ... We're not going to be getting tired of him.

The way you did things is the right way to do it. Obviously, it was a family decision with family responsibilities, and like you said, you're not going to be getting tired of him. The main problem with giving a pet as a gift is that a lot of people don't think ahead of time to what happens after the "AWWW! How cute?!" factor dies off after a couple of days. Take Easter bunnies and chicks for example. How many of them end up dying or back in a shelter for someone else to give a home to because the novelty has worn off, and people didn't think ahead of time. If all people want is cute and cuddly, plush animals are MUCH easier to take care of and can be put in a closet when the kids get bored.

[homeschoolmama]

Yeah, I agree with Catnippe & Percy's Mom. There are ways to go about getting a pet during a holiday. But the planning has to start months before then, not be a spur-of-the-moment decision.

But I see the mess that "Christmas pets" brings too. We volunteer at a local animal shelter, and they have so many kittens & rabbits right now it's sick. They BEGGED us to just take a few home for a few weeks. But my husband had already made me promise that I wouldn't foster any pets until we've moved. (sigh) That was a hard promise to keep this last week. Just in the one shelter we visit, there were 92 pets dumped within the past 2 weeks. And they told us that almost ALL of those were Christmas gifts.

[twofinepigs]

We got ours for ourselves for Christmas last year, but all that meant was that we used Christmas money to make it happen. We'd already done all the research and set up for them, they weren't a surprise!

I have actually heard of people I know (not friends but friends of friends or relatives of same) giving SURPRISE pets as Christmas gifts. I can't believe anyone I know would DO that, but apparently they do. It's insane. Would you show up with a baby?

"Here! I know you want one! And I got eight diapers, a Rubbermaid box to put it in, and a box of teething biscuits - you're all set!" And the parents are all, "Umm, it was a nice thought, but how ---" with the kids running around screaming, "A baby! A baby! Yayyy! We got a baby!"

[Chloë-Jasmine]

That's a really good point you make. Obviously, a baby is more work then a guinea pig (sometimes I don't know about that though LOL) but it's the same idea. Children are children for a reason, so they can learn how to do things properly. You can't just thrust a living thing at a child and a bag of food and expect them to take care of it. I think getting a 'family' pet is nice. Then mom and dad fall in love too and aren't so eager to 'get rid' of them. And especially when it's to a shelter... I've only had to get rid of animals once, because we couldn't afford them (I know, you're suppose to consider animal expenses but it was my mom's cats and she lost her job) , and I gave them to one of her good friends.

[i love piggies]

When I was eight years old my mum knew I wanted a pet. I had been helping out with the other family pets and she knew I really was ready (with her help of course)
So for my eight birthday she got me a puppy (a lassie dog). I done everything for her. My mum always supervised. Sadly after 4 years we had to move, my poor dog had to go to a new home.
After weeks of searching we all decided she would be best off with an earlderly couple on a farm. As far as I know she is still keeping them company.

I dont agree with people giving pets as presents unless the person/s are fully aware and willing to accept responsibility.
My friend made a comment to me over christmas that made me furious. She said it was too bad I didn't breed because I would make a fortune over the christmas period. Some people have no idea. As she wasn't very animal savy I didn't even bother with an arguement.

[WritingLife]

Originally Posted by pamziaw

I love christmas but i hate xmas, they are very differnet things. Christmas is the christian festival for celebraitng the birth of jesus. Xmas is the corparate build up, the guessing of value of what to buy someone...

Actually, the term Xmas is very old. X is the Greek letter Chi, which was used since early Christian times as a shorthand way of writing Christ (as seen in the Chi Rho symbol). Xmas has been used for centuries as shorthand for Christmas (Christ's Mass). Tis true. Learned that in History of Christianity class.

I agree with the concerns about pets as gifts. It's one thing if you know that the recipient wants that pet, has been longing for that pet, and is prepared to care for that pet. It's quite another thing to suprise the kids with a baby rabbit on Easter, then dump it in a shelter three weeks later because the kids are tired of it and won't interrupt their Gameboy time to clean its cage. (Our Webster ended up in a shelter because the parents thought that giving the kids a pet would "teach them responsibility." The kids were preschoolers!) I seethe when I see Farm and Garden stores advertising near Easter: "We have chicks!" They may intend the chicks for people to raise as laying hens or fryer chickens, but people think it's cute to go buy a chickie for the kids for their Easter baskets, never thinking about what's going to happen when Chickie gets its feathers.

Our shelters fill with unwanted kittens every summer during "kitten season," and with rabbits after Easter. Man, if I had a Green Lantern ring... well, there'd be a lot of people suddenly finding themselves trading places with their unwanted bunnies for a few days to see how they like it.

[i love piggies]

I may sound like I am extreemly stupid, but where do people give bunnies and chicks for easter. I believe everyone who says this, but I have never heard of it before.
I am completly astounded.... what kind of ididot gives someone the actual easter bunny for easter? What the hell happened to easter eggs?

[WritingLife]

Just ask your local animals shelters, or check their listings. Many shelters get lots of bunnies, and the numbers jump after Easter. I don't know if this is a regional phenomenon or not, but since the topic came up on the Mutts comic strip (which does great Shelter Stories strips and advocates for animals), I think its pretty widespread.

I keep trying to tell people that pets are not appliances. You don't just throw them away when they break or you're tired of them. But they don't listen.

Even people who you think would know better. Our Scout troop had a giant rummage sale, and one family sold a small bird cage with three zebra finches in it. My son keeps zebra finches, and he was appalled that anyone would sell animals at a rummage sale, as though they were just someone's cast-offs. Several people were concerned that the poor birds were too agitated with all the commotion, and soon one sympathetic family bought them and took them home right away.