We had another *situation* here yesterday and once again it wasn't our animals but we were the ones that came across it so what do you do...you can't just walk away and ignore it even though that would be a lot less mucking around.
Yesterdays *situation* was a copy of one that happened a few months ago...A cow having trouble with calfing. The calf has it's head and hoofs out but is dead, the mother...not doing too good and sounding and looking half dead herself.
The first time we knew who owned the cow but it was in our paddock. The owner lives in Perth. We rang the vet but he is unable to do anything without owner permission. Eventually we get the owners number, the vet talks to him, comes out, removes dead calf injects poor mother cow with all sorts of drugs...the owner finally gets here but the cow dies soon after. He gets a big bill but not worried about that too much as he knows the cow suffered for way too long. He says we should have just shot the cow for him. I agree but what can you do...you can't go around shooting other peoples animals without permission.
Yesterday the son rings me and says one of our cows is not right and it and the others are in next doors paddock...I disagreed, said no not our cows, have another look...he says no, definately 2 of ours are next door and is this one ours too. I come home, he says the cow has a partly born dead calf so yeah, could be ours. But it wasn't ours and ours were not suposed to be in this paddock. We get ours out and try and ring the paddock owner but I know it is not his cow, he just gets some in sometimes. Paddock owner not home and we have no number for him. We know the vet wont come...I ring the ranger but no afterhours person. I ring the police who try some numbers but no-one afterhours that can help. The cow is not looking too good and it's been more than an hour since we found her..We are in an area of 5, 6 10 acre blocks so the cow could be anyones. Son wants to try and pull the calf out to take some pressure off the cow...he has never done anything like that though and not our cow...are we allowed to..
I get in the car and drive around the block asking people if it is thier cow. Finally find the father of the owner who is on her way home.
It's now been a couple of hours and son is going in regardless as the cow needs some sort of help. He gets the pullalong out and takes it over. Before he starts we see movement in the owners yard and not long after the owner shows up, she is upset but says it doesn't look good, it's been close on 3 hours since we found the cow so no idea how long before that she was down.
The owner has no gun, says it's been too long, suffering, infection...she will need to go home and try and find someone that will shoot it for her. Son says he will and within 10 minutes the cow is dead and no longer in pain. We leave this women with a dead cow, not on her property to deal with it. She says she had a backhoe and someone she knows will use it to bury the cow.
I hate having to deal with these sorts of things when it is our animals and the husband is not home but it is so much worse when it is other peoples animal that you find. Worse still when you cannot get in contact with them or anyone to help.
If it happened to one of our animals and we were not home someone else would be in the same spot.
I think we need a plan. But need to wait until husband gets home to help sort one out.
Have you ever had to deal with hurt, injured animals out of hours? Someone elses' animals? What did/would you do?
Friday Ordeal
46 minutes ago
Barb,
ReplyDeleteI have these blankety-blank black chickens to deal with and the owners behind me refuse to deal with them. So, Mike the Plumber says he knows someone who wlll trap them with a deadfall trap.
As for the cow with the dead calf half out, I would have let son try to remove the calf. It's dead and now the mama is dead.
I have had to call animal control to people who left dogs in peril in the rent house next door to me. Since people who are owners live there now, there are no more abandoned dogs who are living in the rain, tied, and tangled. One sweet little dog stuck its head from the hole for the dryer vent, and howled. Then, it lay on the floor in the room near my bedroom, moaning, sobbing, and whining like a human child. I had to listen to this for two night and two days and then called the police. They broke down the door and took the dog away. Funny thing though--the people who were supposed to come by and feed the dog arrived as the police were breaking down the door, offered to unlock the door and take the dog away. The police kept breaking in and would not allow them to have the dog.
The woman paid to get her dog back and left it for three days again, giving me a key and giving me permission to give it away. I walked around Walmart asking people if they wanted a black lab with papers, abandoned. Finally, a man took me up on it.
Like you, I spent many hours of my time and much psychic energy on someone else's animal.
I am not sure if I would shoot a cow because some owners would see that as a way to get recompense for their cow, even if it was going to have to die or be shot.
I don't suppose anyone was being neglectful in your case.
You may know I am not a great animal lover, but I am very compassionate and will not let an animal suffer, even if it is not mine. If it weren't for my allergies and the aversion to the smell of animals with fur, I would probably have more than just a few chickens that I do hug and pet. They really don't appreciate a hug much.
Would you mind someone shooting your cow without permission?
That's really difficult Barb, I would find it very difficult to walk away from an animal in pain, but there's not much else you can do. I think one thing that helps is to make sure that all your neighbours know you and have your number, so at least your own animals won't be in that situation. We have made an effort to try to contact all our new neighbours and let them know what cattle we have, so if they see them in the wrong place they can call us. And the dogs have tags with name and number. It also reminds me that we need to get our gun licence organised so that we can kill our own animals if they are ever in that much trouble.
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