Good Woman Adopts 11-year-old Cat and Then Returns to Adopt The Cat's Elderly Buddy

This is a great and tender cat rescue story from America. Two elderly cats found themselves in a cat shelter in Maryland. One is 11 years old and the other 16-years-of-age. A woman kindly adopted the 11-year-old. However, these cats are very close friends. They are good buddies. They had bonded and the lady realised this so she went back to the shelter and adopted the 16-year-old who had been left behind.

Woman returns to adopt 16-year-old Max

Cat shelters are hard places for any cat but for an elderly cat they are particularly hard because a lot of people don't like to adopt an elderly cat. They get left behind, sometimes euthanized. People are wrong though because elderly cats make wonderful companions. The only problem is that you may have to deal with illness which of course I recognise to be a difficulty but the rewards are there.

The 11-year-old cat's name is Mojo. The 16-year-old's name is Max. There are now together in a loving home the way it should be. The lady said:

"The idea of him living out his life in a cage just broke my heart."

If an elderly cat is not euthanized at a shelter they can sometimes go downhill through illness because of the stress of being in cage and a shelter. There are many cases of shelter buddies being split up, leading one to being left behind who shuts down after losing his best friend. It is wonderful that that did not happen on this occasion. We must praise the lady but I don't know her name.

This is a cross-post from the main website because it is such a good story. My thanks to Elisa Black-Taylor who wrote the story on examiner.com and originally to Tracy Campion I believe found the story in the first place.

The shelter is the Anne Arundel Shelter.

China Tests Cosmetics That Are Manufactured outside China on Animals

It may surprise people to know (or perhaps it won't) that the Chinese have a mandatory testing procedure on cosmetics manufactured outside of China on animals. There is no need for this testing because these manufacturers have found ways to test their products without testing them on animals. This is because the testing, marketing and selling of cosmetics in the European Union is banned. The European Union lead the way in this area of animal welfare. But for some peculiar and perverse reason the Chinese feel they have to test these products on animals which once again reinforces our belief, or at least my belief that the Chinese don't give a damn about animal welfare.

The question which now remains is whether these companies such as Revlon and Estee Lauder are in breach of European Union regulations despite the fact, as mentioned, that they are not testing their products on animals. It is bad enough allowing the testing of products other than cosmetics on animals such as medicines. But there is absolutely no justification whatsoever to test cosmetics which are products to enhance the appearance of humans on animals. It can only be described as immoral and unethical and actually it's quite depressing to think about it.

Clearly there needs to be representations to the Chinese on this subject. There won't be, as usual, because the West is dependent upon products manufactured in China to feed the greedy consumer in the West meaning Europe and North America. We don't want to upset them do we? We need their money don't we? We need the Chinese to invest in the West. We need their money to help build our facilities in the UK. The last thing that we want to do is to upset them on the matter of animal welfare. This is depressing.

Search results on PoC for "cosmetics".

This is a cross-post with the main website.

A Quarter of UK Pet Owners Would Give up Their Pet If They Had a New Baby

It may surprise people that today, December 25, 2015, a quarter of UK pet owners would surrender their cat or dog if they had a new baby on the way. This clearly means that a very large percentage of pet owners in the UK believe that a cat or dog is dangerous to a baby. It may be true for a dog because there are, rarely, cases of babies being attacked by dogs. Although I'm sure these attacks are ultimately down to careless dog ownership.

However, I don't have an example of domestic cats hurting babies. It is a fallacy that the domestic cat presents a danger to a baby. The opposite is nearer the truth. Some people believe that a cat's faeces are a hazard to the unborn baby. I have written an article about that sometime ago which can be read if you click on this link. The hazard is extremely slight and can be protected against quite easily. The danger is certainly exaggerated.

If a person wishes to adopt a cat while at the same time carrying an intention to have a baby in the not too distant future then they should not adopt a cat. Surrendering a cat to a rescue centre should be the very last option and only taken under very severe conditions. Cats are not throwaway creatures to adopt and discard at a person's whim. We know that.

A study also reported that 30% of UK dogs are abandoned in the months just after Christmas. This once again is another aspect of the rather careless, throwaway mentality of some cat and dog caretakers.

The same study reported that 8% of the 2000 pet owners participating had admitted that they had surrendered a cat or dog in the past when they had a newborn.

About 40% of people in a relationship stated that they had not made any plans as to what would happen to their cat or dog if they split up and went their own way while only 34% said that they would try to keep their cat or dog if they separated from their partner. That does not indicate a fantastic attachment between person and pet.

According to the UK's main dog adoption website, 67% of rescue centres said that the surrender of dogs was on the increase.

The famous London animal shelter, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, said that there been increase in people wishing to surrender their pets to their rescue centre in order to go on a summer holiday because they were unable to afford a boarding kennels or find someone to look after their cat or dog. Clearly this is shocking once again and indicates a lack of proper connection between pet and person. These people should not look after a cat or dog. That is obvious. Today there are too many people in the UK and I suspect anymore else in the world who are not suited, if we are honest, to be a responsible caretaker of a cat or dog.

The research comes from Co-op insurance and a poll conducted by One Poll.