The International Schools Review Forum

I hate seeing ITs leaving pets behind in every location, or worse. I know so many ITs who get a new pet in each new country, and then just give them away or leave them in a shelter rather than pay to ship them. At my current school, we have a family who are having their dog and cat both euthanized rather than taking them to their new post. And they had two cats and a guinea pig at their previous post, and did the same thing. I don't care if this post outs me, it is disgusting.

That's terrible.

One of the keys to my job search was a place where I could take my pet. And it's costing me a bunch of money. But who would get a pet without taking responsibility for it? If I get a dream job one day where I couldn't take a pet, I would only go if I could find a good home for him. [Edit: after some thinking, the only thing I would probably accept as a good home would be with my parents.]

I've known at least one family like this at every school I've been at. Makes me so mad I could spit. A couple have had the audacity to say that they get pets so the kids get to learn the joy and responsibility that goes with it. As if.
A pet is for life.
If you abandon a pet, you're off my Christmas card list, permanently.

Horrific, if my pets can't come then I don't go. Wtf is wrong with people, these are loving, breathing, feeling beins with the capability of love and companionship. If I ever get to have anything to do with recruitment this will be one of those hidden tests, if you can treat an animal that loves and trusts you like this them you have no honour and are scum.

We're taking our dog from Dubai to Thailand... he's a pug and they don't fly very well... so we had to find an airline that would fly him in cabin - Turkish so we have to go via Istanbul... with a 9 hour transit - we are now looking at getting him a stroller thing so we can wheel him around the airport as he has to stay in his travel bag... Instead of a 6hr flight it is taking us 24hours to get there and don't even start on how much it is costing for all the bits and pieces to get him on the plane... We are slowing training him, getting him to stay in the travel bag longer each time (we're only up to 90 mins)

But, there is no way we would even consider leaving him behind - he is family and in my interviews I made sure I checked if there was any pet policy that affected accommodation etc... it would have been a deal breaker.. fortunately it didn't come to that and we're going to a house with a shady lawn for him to play on and a solid fence all the way around and a pug proof gate (and another pug living a few doors down) - Pug heaven!

I hate to bring this up, but will Thailand allow you to import your pug? They have a lot of restrictions on snub-nosed breeds and I hope that a pug is not one of the dogs they won't accept.

I only say this because we are currently organising our own dog's transport to Thailand and this is one of the issues that would have come up if he had been the 'wrong' breed for the country!!

coughingfurballs wrote:
> I hate seeing ITs leaving pets behind in every location, or worse. I know
> so many ITs who get a new pet in each new country, and then just give them
> away or leave them in a shelter rather than pay to ship them. At my
> current school, we have a family who are having their dog and cat both
> euthanized rather than taking them to their new post. And they had two
> cats and a guinea pig at their previous post, and did the same thing. I
> don't care if this post outs me, it is disgusting.


these people are clowns. i have a huge headache every time i have to fly with our dog, but i can't leave her behind.
though i wonder if leaving her here so idiot, spineless twerp kids could shoot at her with arrows would be worse than euthanization.

if this was a family at my school i'd call them out on it hard. but that's just me. i don't mind sticking my nose into anyone's business. wrong is wrong in my books, and needs to be out in the open whenever possible.

thanks for ruining by breakfast.

v.

I had a pet cactus, it died.
If I were to get a pet dog I would want a Leonberger, or Vlcak (if a cat it would be a Serval) but it would be impossible to travel with any of them.

I can't understand how people could be so heartless and put their pets down rather than re-homing them or taking them. We are taking our 3 rescued Chinese cats with us to Singapore - costing us an arm and a leg but they're family!

PsyGuy wrote:
> I had a pet cactus, it died.
> If I were to get a pet dog I would want a Leonberger, or Vlcak (if a cat it
> would be a Serval) but it would be impossible to travel with any of them.

well, bear-dogs, tamed wolves, and wild cats aside you're probably responsible enough not to get them, since you're a jet-setting, international teacher traveling all the time.

v.

PsyGuy wrote:
> I had a pet cactus, it died.

Are you less nurturing than a desert, PsyGuy?

(Actually, I can't keep a plant alive to save my life. The nice thing about pets is that they will bark or hiss at you if you forget to feed them.)

@vandsmith

Yeah.....Probably....
I have read that foxes can now be kept as pets even though they are F1 generation, if you get them as pups. Id love an arctic fox.

@chilagringa

More like over nurturing, I thought the more you watered them the bigger they grew. What ends up happening is you drown the roots and the roots grow mold and then the cactus dies. Would explain why there arent a lot of cacti in the tropics or rain forests.

Ah, so you kill your cacti with love.

It's not just ITs that treat pets as disposable items. It makes me so mad, they love and trust us and they deserve better. PsyGuy might be making jokes but he has hit the nail on the head. If you are not willing and able to make a commitment to an animal for the rest of the animals life don't get a pet.

Just pit bulls and staffies are banned our puglet is fine to enter.