A kitten's sad tale

Dear friends,

I am very sorry to tell you that I am the bearer of sad news today... Although every day presents tough challenges and heart breaking decisions for our team of vets at Animal Tracks it doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye to a furry friend. Especially when a life ends before it has even begun.

A few days ago a local taxi driver came to the centre with a poor abandoned kitten which he had found on the road side. He immediately stopped and picked it up and luckily he knew where to take it. Why the kitten had ended up alone on the side of a busy road is anyone's guess. Perhaps the mother had died, perhaps she had abandoned it. The most devastating scenario is to think that humans may have thrown the kitten out on the road. It is not uncommon that owners of unsterilised pets simply throw away the newborn offspring because they don’t want any more animals and aren’t decent enough to consider the consequences of such an act. These newborn animals are in no position at all to care for themselves and they are left to a merciless fate of mental and physical suffering before they die of hunger or are killed by vehicles or other animals.

The kitten was only around 2 weeks old when the taxi driver brought it in and there was little the vets could do to save it. If it was to stand a fair chance it would have had to be reared in a protective environment with someone feeding it around the clock and even in such circumstances its chances would have been slim. At animal tracks the environments is not suitable to accommodate such young animals as there simply isn’t staff and facilities to cover all their needs so in these cases the vets and staff have to face cruel reality and put them to sleep.

Some may argue that all animals should be given a chance regardless of their circumstances and condition but at Animal Tracks the aim it to prevent suffering. If the vets know that the prognosis is such that keeping the animal alive will prolong its suffering then this is not something they are willing to do. I know what it is like to be sick and scared and I can assure you that this is not a feeling that any living being should be allowed to experience if something can be done to relieve it.

I hope to have some good news for you next time.

Love,

Olive x