Dog Electrocuted!

[peanut]

well i am a quite gentle chap really, just with a deep loathing of all things pet related. the whole concept is thankfully lost on me. maybe electrocution is a bit harsh , maybe some therapy for those that might be thinking of sharing their home with an animal, and those that already do, could be removed from society and sectioned i'd put my hand up for that job too

cheers, velocidad.

I'd happily put you out of your misery. Only take a moment

 

[Fnaar]

Changing tack slightly, much as I feel sorry for the owners, this is a quote..“We have lost our gorgeous wee Rocky and we just want someone to admit responsibility for what happened.” I find this sudden "blame someone and hang them out to dry" reaction quite worrying. Discuss.
BTW, all babies look like Winston Chruchill.

 

[velocidad]

I'd happily put you out of your misery. Only take a moment

an end to my misery, now that would be nice! i assume by that you mean you'd be happy to end my life peanut. seems are rather OTT and a very personal response to my hypothetical and exaggerated for comic effect posts.
as i'm often on the edge of doing the job for you, it may be best to call ahead first. i wouldn't want you to travel all the way up here to put me out of my misery, just to find i'd gone all DIY on ya.

cheers, velocidad.

 

[Cubist]

Changing tack slightly, much as I feel sorry for the owners, this is a quote..“We have lost our gorgeous wee Rocky and we just want someone to admit responsibility for what happened.” I find this sudden "blame someone and hang them out to dry" reaction quite worrying. Discuss.
BTW, all babies look like Winston Chruchill.

It's not all that sudden, it's a creeping malaise that threatens our very society. Poor Rocky's owners are devastated, and are trying to find answers, yet their quoted anguish appears to mirror the tack our entire lives are taking. Nothing can ever be put down to "one of those things." Our litigious society demands not only answers, but a desire for recompense.

However, no one is prepared to take responsibility for anything these days, still less their own actions. Witness the furore surrounding the recent cold weather. If a car driver gets stuck/slides/crashes in the snow, it's not their fault, it's the council's fault for not gritting the roads. If a sat-nav is stolen from the dashboard blame the police for not being there to look after it, etc etc.


I also believe that people have become so reliant on authorities to look after them and their actions, that they have eroded the ability of society, and decent behaviour, to regulate life in general. In my early days I would not do wrong, because if I did I feared the fact that our neighbours, or anyone else in the vicinity would see me and tell my parents. I would also expect the neighbours to tell me off. Nowadays ONLY the police or parents are allowed to bring errant children/teens to heel, as I discovered to my cost one day when I told off a little boy for spitting in my son's face. My exact words were "Don't spit in xxx's face, that's a horrible thing to do." I then suffered several minutes of vitriolic filth from his mother, who asked me who the hell I was, told me I had shrunken body parts and threatened to fetch her husband to sort me out.

 

[Cubist]

To a large extent I am floating an argument that is a little bit theoretical rather than real. I am simply proposing that we have become so wedded to our animals that sometimes we forget that they are animals taken from the wild for our pleasure. Many nations do not have this hang up.

I will admit to having a pet cat - I often look at him and wonder whether he would rather be free.

Gavintc I think you are absolutely right. It could well be what I call the "Walt Disney Effect." I grew up in and still live in an environment where the distinction between wild animals and domesticated ones can still be made. I kill and eat game, rabbits and venison, but allow myself the occasional bout of sentimentality towards household pets. It's the ones who cannot differentiate between serious agricultural pests like rabbits and the Netherland Dwarf which inhabits their daughter's hutch that irritate slightly. Children's literature is chock-full of fluffy bunnykins wearing waistcoats and living full whimsical social lives with other woodland creatures. In reality they damage crops, destroy land drainage, undermine pasture etc etc. I have no qualms in helping to reduce their numbers. Conveniently they are also made of meat.

 

[Mr Pig]

It's not all that sudden, it's a creeping malaise that threatens our very society.

Great post, I agree with everything you've said. Just last night I was talking to my wife about this very issue. I hate this country and it's getting worse.

 

[Arch]

It's not all that sudden, it's a creeping malaise that threatens our very society. Poor Rocky's owners are devastated, and are trying to find answers, yet their quoted anguish appears to mirror the tack our entire lives are taking. Nothing can ever be put down to "one of those things." Our litigious society demands not only answers, but a desire for recompense.

However, no one is prepared to take responsibility for anything these days, still less their own actions. Witness the furore surrounding the recent cold weather. If a car driver gets stuck/slides/crashes in the snow, it's not their fault, it's the council's fault for not gritting the roads. If a sat-nav is stolen from the dashboard blame the police for not being there to look after it, etc etc.

I don't like the blame culture either, but I think there's a difference between a driver going out and driving like a plonker in snow, and then blaming the council, and a family seeing their dog electrocuted by what ought to be a completely safe and harmless lampost. If the lampost was faulty because of an unlucky coincidince of faults (as seems to be the case here), then that's your answer, and it can be fixed. On the other hand if it was faulty because it hadn't been fitted or maintained properly, that needs to be addressed, before it causes more harm - suppose that means there are dozen of other posts in the same state?

 

[Mr Pig]

The poles are still cordoned off so I don't know what's going on with them.

 

[Cubist]

I don't like the blame culture either, but I think there's a difference between a driver going out and driving like a plonker in snow, and then blaming the council, and a family seeing their dog electrocuted by what ought to be a completely safe and harmless lampost. If the lampost was faulty because of an unlucky coincidince of faults (as seems to be the case here), then that's your answer, and it can be fixed. On the other hand if it was faulty because it hadn't been fitted or maintained properly, that needs to be addressed, before it causes more harm - suppose that means there are dozen of other posts in the same state?

Don't get me wrong, I have all the sympathy in the world for the dog's owners, and indeed if this incident prompts a thorough check of all the lamp posts in the authority's area, then all well and good. I suppose I was ranting at the "where there's blame there's a claim" culture, which has turned us all into a bunch of risk-averse eejits, and threatens to turn our children into pampered sloths.