A Pet Limit?

Discussion in Pets started by ExpertAdvice • Oct 6, 2014.

  1. ExpertAdvice

    ExpertAdviceActive Member

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    View attachment 1691Should there be a limit to the number of pets that a person has?

    We've all either heard of or seen "the catlady", or maybe even seen that character on television; you could even be her, or perhaps your house is swarming with dogs, guinea pigs, or even hamsters.

    Or, it could be that you've been a bit "turned off" or intrigued by the practice of some of your friends or acquaintances who have a whoooole lotta pets!

    Do you think that this is a healthy practice? Would you do it yourself?



    If you were able to put a pet limit on someone, how many pets would you limit them to?pets.
     
  2. Nickchick

    NickchickWell-Known Member

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    That is a very difficult question. It seems like there does need to be a limit sometimes. However, I'm sure some people are very capable of taking care of many pets especially if they live on a farm. I think this would need to be on a case by case basis. Right now what we have seems to work pretty well. They have limits on how many dogs/cats you can have in an apartment.
     
  3. mariee

    marieeActive Member

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    I don't think having a legal pet limit is necessary or good for the animals. As long as a person has the space and resources to care for all the pets it's up to them how many they have. If they can't care for them and the animals are being abused or denied of basic care then that's when the law should intervene.

    I have 5 cats plus a foster one. I know a lot of people that are animal rescuers and they tend to have many animals. Some are just temporary until they find a home but other times they rescue one and can't find anyone to adopt him or even foster so they end up keeping them. For example there's one lady with 12 cats and dogs, one elderly man with 17 cats, a women with 13 cats, a small group that has 35 rescue dogs in 5 houses, etc.

    In these cases they are all responsible people. The man with 17 cats started out with one that showed up near his home. Then more started showing up and people started abandoning more cats in the are. He's very responsible, he has spayed and neutered all of his cats so they don't reproduce, the only reason the numbers keep growing is because of the people that abandon in the area. The women with 12 cats and dogs is always getting complaints from the neighbors and has been investigated but found that the animals are healthy and the house is always clean. The neighbors just complained because the dogs bark which is normal dog behavior. Apart from her 12 pets she also takes care of a community of feral cats and some of the cats have been poisoned by those same neighbors.

    It's sad that most people don't care about animals and think someone is crazy or wrong to have many in their home but as long as they are healthy it's none of your concern. I think for most of us who love and rescue animals it's hard to have just one when you know how many out there need your help. It's also hard that people don't respect what we do.
     
  4. Amanda K

    Amanda KActive Member

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    I agree with Mariee that some people can handle having multiple pets. Rescuers and reputable breeders may have what seems to be an unreasonable number of animals, but be capable of caring for them. But, there are also terrible hoarding situations that rescuers often have to face. There should be a way to discern a hoarding situation from a responsible person who loves animals. Many localities require kennel licenses for more than a designated number of pets. To me, this is a good strategy. Rescuers should be given a discount on the license fee, though. I think it is a good idea to check up on owners with large numbers of pets to make sure conditions are good and there is no puppy-milling happening.
     
  5. ExpertAdvice

    ExpertAdviceActive Member

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    Great and helpful responses guys! I definitely have to agree with you: there are persons out there who are actually able to sufficiently care for the lot that they've taken responsibility for, and with the best results! We really would have to approach this issue on a case-by-case basis, because no two situations are the same.
    It would really be a plus if there was a genuine and effective way to discern who is able to fully care for the pets they've taken on (whether one or a million), and separate those owners who treat their animals poorly, from the animals that are being unfairly victimized.
    I'm proud of the efforts of several animal shelters, and for the unselfish love that they're able to give out to all of these rescued animals. It really does warm my heart that there are persons like that out there, who are willing to literally pick up stray animals without the love and care that they deserve, and source a home for them, even providing a temporary one for them as fosters in the meantime.
    Animals ought to be given better attention, because we, as humans, have a responsibility to look out for them, and ensure they're not harmed. They give us such selfless affection and protection when they're able, and we should give each and every pet this ability to feel loved in return.
     
  6. pennylane

    pennylaneActive Member

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    No, I don't think so. Many people can care for a number of different pets. Some do well with one, others do well with many. If the owners are caring poorly for their pets-- then I think there should be some intervention. Otherwise, let people manage what they can handle on their own. More times than not this will be enough.
     
  7. mariee

    marieeActive Member

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    A kennel fee is going to do more harm than good. No matter how good the discount is it would mean rescuers would pick up less animals as the cost to rescue each would be more expensive. It's hard enough just to cover food and vet care.

    I can't really think of a good way to discern good pet owners from bad ones because the bad ones wouldn't really care about the law anyway. Unless the government wants to spend a lot of money enforcing the rules how do we know that people wont keep animals under the radar while the responsible ones are the ones following the rules. If we have people that have illegal tigers and wild animals, what's going to stop the truly bad people from having illegal dogs and cats.
     
  8. sidney

    sidneyWell-Known Member

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    When taking care of pets, you have to take consideration of your lifestyle, income, and home/apartment. If you can afford to take care of more than 3 pets then well and good, but also make sure you don't neglect them like forget to clean their cages or take them for a walk. We used to have 6 cats before if I remember correctly, and we can afford to feed all of them and all were roaming freely in our backyard.
     
  9. Denis Hard

    Denis HardWell-Known Member

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    Setting pet limits can be comparable to enacting a law which dictates to parents how many kids they should have. In any case how would such a law be enforced if for example someone secretly keeps a number of pets, say in their basement, to avoid detection?

    IMO, a person should own as many pets as they can take care of. If someone can take care of a 100 cats then let them have their pets.
     
  10. Amanda K

    Amanda KActive Member

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    The answer to this question varies greatly depending on where a person lives. I live in an apartment complex now. Even if my next-door neighbor took great care of ten cats, it would be cramped for the animals and cause significant irritation to other tenants in the building. I grew up in a house in the country on 35 acres of land. My neighbors could've had 100 cats and I would never have noticed. There are animal welfare laws in place already to TRY (though there really is no perfect way to enforce them) to enforce humane treatment of animals. Many hoarding situations emerge when good-hearted people try to save more animals than they are able to care for. Unforeseen events like a death in the family or a disability can render a stable environment for animals unstable very quickly. This can happen to any situation, but the prospects for re-homing two dogs are much better than for ten. I don't see the harm in a waived kennel fee for rescuers so long as they can demonstrate high quality of care. But, at a certain number of animals, depending on the locality, there needs to be a safety net.
     
  11. insertkittyface

    insertkittyfaceActive Member

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    That's kind of a difficult question, because I know some people have a bunch of dogs and cats that they just can't seem to take care of, but there are people that run farms that have a bunch of cows/horses/chickens, and that's how they make their living. I guess there should be some kind of limit on domestic household pets like cats and dogs, but it shouldn't effect farmers.
     
  12. mariee

    marieeActive Member

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    Just because some people can't take care of their household pets doesn't mean others can't. What would happen to those animals that used to live with people if limits are places? They would either go to the streets or be killed in shelters. If you know someone neglecting their pets report it to the police as animal abuse. I've seen cases where people can't even take care of 1 dog but that doesn't mean someone else can't take care of 10.
     
  13. sthrngypsy

    sthrngypsyActive Member

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    Pet limits are always, always a bad idea. If the animals are causing a nuisance (noise, smell) to the neighbors then take care of it individually. Don't punish another person. Amanda, I have seen people in apartments take care of 10 cats to the extent you would never have guessed there were 10 cats there. Cats don't need a ton of space and vertical space counts as well. One thing I have learned in my life is not to judge how many animals is "too many" for another person, only for myself. If I got another cat right now it would be "too many" for me, but might not be for someone else.
     
  14. Amanda K

    Amanda KActive Member

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    I certainly don't mean to judge, sthrngypsy. I used to work in a vet's office and saw how important each animal was to caring pet owners, and vice versa. I don't want to punish responsible pet owners for the actions of irresponsible people. But, unfortunately, during my time at the vet's office, I saw some terrible and unexpected things happen to the owners of pets. Then, the animals ended up in the care of friends or family who would often just drop off food and water daily for weeks at a time because that was all they could afford to do. The animals would end up in a shelter, and many were not adopted. I just think that when you reach a certain number of animals- which is dependent on the carrying capacity of the area- some oversight is needed. Things escalate from bad to worse very quickly when there are a large number of animals in question.
     
  15. Dora M

    Dora MWell-Known Member

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    I'd say it all depends on the space and time that you have available. If you have got a lot of room and can dedicate sufficient time to caring for a lot of pets, then I see no problem. Difficulties start when there is overcrowding, lack of hygiene, and often also a lack of appropriate food and personal care. Obviously, you have to provide your animals with more than just shelter and food. They need regular exercise, vet checks, training and love. It can become a challenging task to provide all that for a large number of animals in a small space.
     
  16. dizzykitsune

    dizzykitsuneActive Member

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    As long as each animal gets proper attention and care then I don't see there being a problem. If you have a home full of litter, scattered food, and other pieces of waste then it's unsanitary and dangerous for both the animals and anyone living in the household. If the person can actually care for each animal then it's perfectly fine, but if they can't keep up then I would consider that animal abuse.
     
  17. DrRipley

    DrRipleyExpert

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    I don't think there should be a pet limit. I'd more be in favor of charging people with negligence if they somehow do harm to their pets by having too many of them or some similar reason, but I firmly believe that we should all equally have the right to have as many as we want just as long as we can give them all a good standard of living.
     
  18. ohiotom76

    ohiotom76Well-Known Member

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    A friend of mine at any given time has had like 20+ cats in her house. I get that it may seem nice that she is rescuing them all, but in reality she is torturing these animals in many ways by doing what she is doing. At least at a shelter they can get the proper medical care that they need and there are several people there keeping everything clean and all the cats fed and taken care of properly. Also, at the shelters there are a constant stream of people coming in who may potentially adopt the cats.

    When they are instead trapped in someone's house who is hoarding them, they may not be getting the medical attention they need because the owner doesn't have the money to take them all to the vet when necessary. The owner may also be feeding them less frequently and or giving them poor quality cheap food that is not good for them. And when they owner leaves for work all day those cats are not being watched or taken care of for several hours at a time - who knows what could go wrong or what they could get into. And the worse part of it all is they stand no chance of ever getting adopted into a better home.

    Unless you are raising or breeding cats and have the proper facilities to house all of them, I think it's a bad idea to hoard a bunch of them in your house. 4-5 might not be so bad, but 15-20 on up definitely is.

    In the case of my friends house, the smell hits you like a ton of bricks when you walk in, especially if you are just entering the house after several hours of them being left alone. That cannot be sanitary or safe conditions for you or the cats to live in.
     
  19. Spectre456

    Spectre456Active Member

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    I've thought about this before and I came to the conclusion that the magic number as to the number of pets I would own is two. It could be two dogs, two cats, or a dog and a cat, or a combination of other animals probably. As long as it's only two I feel like cleaning up after them and feeding them won't be overwhelming. Once the number of pets you have goes up to three or more it's very hard for it not to become a chore for me.
     
  20. isabbbela

    isabbbelaWell-Known Member

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    I think it all depends on the person, how much they can afford to spend with their animals, how big the space is and how many people are going to help. For a regular person, they shouldn't have more than three or four, just because one person taking care of more than three pets is quite a lot. But if it's more than one person living in the same place, I don't see why they couldn't have more than that. Also, if it's a veterinarian and they have a lot of money to spend, they should be entitled to have as many as they want.