I Mustn’t Judge

Animals tend not to lie to you. Their condition usually apeaks for itself. For example, you can tell when a wound has been there for a week or more because it will have started to heal, and when somebody tells you “It just happened this morning!”, you tend to get a bit skeptical. You also become very dubious of people who bring you an animal that has obviously been sick for a while. You have to wonder why it is sick enough to see a vet now and not one or two months previously when it started to get sick. Why have they brought you this creature after it has been wasting away for almost 3 months? Why not at the start when it had a better chance of recovery? And why are you so desperate for a diagnosis so you can take it home on a weekend or a public holiday?

We have to wonder: If you loved your pet so much that you can’t stand to leave it in hospital for another day, why didn’t you love it enough a month or two ago when it started to get sick?The one lesson I learned about animal welfare is the one I always come back to at times like this: Animal welfare comes after Human welfare. If the humans are suffering, so will the animals.

People often don’t want to tell you why they’ve let the animal get to this state, or why they can’t afford the surgery that will save its life. Sometimes you’re left to wonder, and it becomes very tempting to make judgements based on very little information.

Sometimes you get just a little hint. Words like “I’m going into hospital soon” give me that sinking feeling in my stomach. There’s a whole story behind those words, and the pet will have been less important when the human is in that much trouble.

It’s nobody’s fault, and although I care about the animal I’ve been nursing for 3 days, I care about the human too, especially when it looks like thay’re on the brink of despair.

I want to save this one in particular. I think he’d probably make it. Aside from the emotional investment (from both me and the family), he’s an interesting case. I want to follow it through to recovery, not to euthanasia.

I just haven’t found a way to magic an extra $400 into the family’s pocket.