Cameron Renaud                                                                                                                Renaud 1

Professor Bullock

WRD 110 Section 29

19 October 2012

The Cat is Out of the Bag

Whether you like it or not, animals play a huge role in our everyday lives. From being around your pet to just walking past a squirrel on the sidewalk it is almost impossible to get away from them. Although it may be easy at times to overlook animals or not properly care for them, animals do always deserve proper treatment and the same respect that we demand. This statement may seem rather obvious, but all too often people do mistreat animals. It was not until I had an experience of my own with my pet cat that I realized this either.

            In the summer of 2000 my family moved from my life long home in Fort Wayne, Indiana to Prospect, Kentucky. The move brought many changes to my life with one of the biggest being a new pet cat named Sierra. At the time I absolutely hated the idea of getting a cat because my dad always told me how nasty and annoying they are, and he was right. To make things worse when my sister picked out the cat she went for the cutest kitten she could find. Not the friendliest. After several years of coming home to foul smells and ruined rugs I was finally able to talk my family into getting rid of the cat. The only catch to getting rid of the cat was that I had to do it myself. At the point I figured as long as the cat was not in the house anymore I

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would be happy. I was overlooking the change in my cat’s life I was about to cause and I did not really care at all.

            The next morning after talking my family into letting me get rid of our cat, I managed to unseal my eyelids just around noon and stretch my arm over to my phone to see what my plans for releasing it where. Luckily for me along with having to get rid of our cat my mom left me with a long list of chores to finish before. I finished up all my chores rather quickly, but when it came down to getting rid of the cat I was not sure what I should do. My parents decided the night before that since there was no Humane Society or veterinarian within thirty minutes of my house the most logical way to get rid of the cat was to just drive a ways down the road and let it go. This was completely fine with me too. I could care less what happened to the cat, I just wanted it gone. The plan seemed rather simple at the time too, but actually executing the plan turned out to be rather difficult. The cat did not let anyone touch it or even get close to it- also some of the reasons we wanted it gone. So getting it in a cage to take away was quite challenging. After about twenty minutes of chasing the cat around the house I finally caught it. I drove down the road for about fifteen minutes to make sure I never would have to see the cat again and released it. I never thought I would miss the cat either until I let it go and watched it run off into the woods. The cat seemed to run away in slow motion, and I was immediately struck with the reality of what I have done. I knew the cat would not live nearly the same life it did in my house, and that it probably would not be able to survive in the woods without any care. Knowing how much I altered the cat’s life made me instantly realize the importance of

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properly treating animals. I immediately wanted to take back what I just did and find a different option, but it was too late.  

 I never realized the respect animals deserved up until this point in my life due to the fact I was raised around hunting and also killing animals on farms. I now realize the respect all animals deserve and encourage everyone to think about what they are doing before they potentially change an animal’s life like I did. Although this did change my view on how animals should be treated quite a bit, my views on how animal should be treated are not quite as extreme as some animal treatment groups such as PETA (People for the ethical treatment of animals). Before my shift I just thought that people supporting these groups are absolutely crazy because I would see them protesting fishing and eating meat, two things I absolutely love. Now I have a better understanding of where they are coming from and do support them spreading the word about the treatment of animals in some cases. I also now realize just how important places such as the Humane Society are as far as taking care of animals in need.

            Spreading this message to others was very difficult for me at first. My parents were so excited about me getting rid of the cat that I never really bothered telling them how has changed my life. On top of that I was not supposed to talk to my sister about getting rid of what was basically her cat because my parents didn’t want me bringing it up to her and remaindering that it was gone. Keeping my feelings about the situation locked inside was very hard.  It was not until this project that I have really got to spread the importance of properly treating animals to my pears and persuade them to change their views on animal treatment. The opportunity to

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spread my realization to others and also try to convince them to do the same has also helped me to care more about animal rights than I did before.

            Preventing animals from being wrongfully treated is also very easy to do. Not long after my realization about how animals should be treated I looked into different Humane Society community service opportunities and found out just how easy and fun it is to help. The program that I first got involved in with through the Humane Society is called Picture Your Pet with Santa. The program was set up at the local shopping center and allowed people to bring their kids and pets to get their picture taken with Santa. The pictures were free of charge and slimily just asked the people that came to make a small donation. The money went straight toward the updating the Humane Society so that it can hold more homeless animals. I was unbelievable surprised with the amount of support the program got as well. This experience also aided in my shift about helping animals gets proper care. Seeing just how many people came out for the support and how much money the donated helped me see how much other people care about helping animals. When I finished working at the program I went to the humane society that sponsored the event to see what I was working to help on. I found out a lot about the Humane Society from this visit too. Such as they are one of the few shelters that do not put animals down if they cannot find a home for them and just how often they take in new animals. They are also very accepting of animals that people cannot take care of. Finding out how well they take care of the animals and how easy it is to bring a homeless animal in was sickening to me at first because I could have helped my cat get a new, better home. It would only have been an

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extra twenty or so minute ride for me to make this change. The Sickening feeling was soon replaced with rejoice knowing that I will know what to tell other people who are trying to get rid of their unwanted pet what to do, and hopefully help to save other animals.

            Today I still think about how I screwed up releasing my cat every time see a cat or hear someone talking about cats. This terrible feeling is something I want to never have to feel ever again and hopefully prevent others from having to experience as well. Hopefully others are to draw on what I learned and utilize the knowledge to also help out animals and spread the word. I am not asking to give up hunting, fishing or eating meat like some support groups do, but I am highly encourage helping out with programs similar to the Picture Your Pet with Santa program I did with the Humane Society. The programs are set up to have fun and also help out animals. If unable to help with a similar program I just highly encourage spreading the word about helping out and what the Humane Society does and properly treating animals no matter how much you despise them.