Quote Originally Posted by Cryptic View Post
Well I'm not saying Atmosfear intentionally abused his fish and I guess I could have come off as saying that. What I am saying is that if he had read about how to take care of it, or any fish, before he got it he would have known that overfeeding is like a huge no-no as far as fishkeeping is concerned. He didn't set out to do anything malicious, but still didn't care for the fish correctly so the bottom line is ultimately the same.

I see your point with the dog with the hip problem, especially if it's an older dog. I mean if my cat gets cancer at 16 years old I'm not going to put him through expensive and painful chemo to get what? Maybe another 2 years with him? Maybe? That would be senseless of me and cruel to him. Instead I'd just make him comfortable to the point where that would no longer be possible and then I'd put him down.

I don't agree with your choice for your kitten though. My cat only took $600 to cure because he'd had it for about 2 months and it was so entrenched in his lungs and sinuses that he failed 3 antibiotics, so there was no choice but to megadose him IV style at the vets. Your kitten would have likely been cured by a $60 vet visit and $15 or so of antibiotics. I guess I can't know that for sure but it seems to me like he would have been worth $75 or so. Especially since, once cured and barring anything else unexpected, you could have had 15 or so good years with him. That's what I mean in how much or how little you value something.

And believe it or not I do understand the "it's just a $5 fish" argument to a point. Seriously if it gets cancer or something, just get a new fish. I have fish too and I fully realize that while I like my fish and even have a favorite angelfish that I've had for 8 years or so and have gotten pretty attached to, I'm not as attached to my fish as I am to my cat. There are degrees of value, at least to me, I just personally see no reason for not knowing how to care for any living thing and having it pay the consequences in the end.
Their dog is about 2 years old and the breed he is live to about 12 years (their side of the family have a lot of that breed and that's what they've said anyway) so they could have gotten 10 years more life out of him but they just can't afford, they've had fliers up advertising that he can have 10 years left if somebody is willing to pay for his surgery but nobody will come upto the offer because why would one do that when they can go to the shelter and choose a perfectly good dog for free?

I'm not sure exactly how long my kitten had had it for or anything but after having a long talk with the vet he said the best idea (because I was a student at the time I only had an after school job) was to put him down.

This is pretty much a case of what's done is done and we should be more concerned about finding a way to reverse the outcomes, there's no point in arguing wether he treated it correctly or incorrectly because whilse we're arguing we could be searching for something to help his fish.