I Am Mad As A Hen! (Furbabies Mentioned)

bbhalphen

So.  Little background story:  I've always really liked my BIL/SIL.  They are always sweet.  They have two kids we love.  They don't always make the best choices, though.  I also think my SIL has some kind of 'buying' problem--she doesn't buy expensive things, but she buys JUNK all the time off of Craig's List, at the dollar store, and their house is always cluttered.

Anyway, a couple of years ago they got two Yorkies off of Craig's List for their 5 year old daughter.  She played with them a while and got tired of them, but they were still taking care of them.  At Christmastime last year, their cousin gave them a mixed puppy, "Dutch."  They all seem to fall in love with this puppy and start kind of ignoring the Yorkies.  I didn't realize how bad it was.  We don't go over there much, but we went over there once a few months ago.  Dutch was playing around with them in the house, but no sign of the Yorkies.  I asked where they were and found them cooped up in this tiny kennel together.  I played with them a while and they happily ran back in it when they were done.  DH and I talked about how small it was, but we didn't say anything.  Dutch was treated like royalty while these others were being ignored. 

Recently they put the two Yorkies back on Craig's List to give them to a better home.  These two college-aged girls took them and ended up writing my SIL and BIL a nasty letter talking about how mistreated the Yorkies had been.  BIL was defensive and telling DH about it this morning.  He said he had been feeding them, but they had moved them out in the shed.  There was pee and poo everywhere that he "never felt like cleaning."  They didn't let them out of the shed because they DIDN'T WANT TO PAY THE MONEY TO NEUTER DUTCH and they were scared that he would get the Yorkies pregnant.

I am LIVID.  I wish I would have known this was going on, because I totally would have meddled in it.  They are always getting little things like frogs for their girls, and they always die.  It pisses me off SO much that I just don't know what to say.  I was thinking about writing something really passie-aggressive on my fb wall, but I don't know.  I don't want to cause a major fight or anything, but I'm going to see them next weekend and I don't know if I can keep my mouth shut.  I'm tired of them getting pets, small as they may be like frogs and crawfish, and letting them die or giving them back away.  They recently asked DH's uncle for one of his horses.  He said, "How much are you going to give me for it?" LOL. They wanted it for free.  They even talked about getting a Shetland Pony and letting it stay in their fenced in subdivision backyard (which I found out is totally against city ordinances, so I'm sure that's not going to happen now.) 

Sorry this is so long.  I just really needed to vent.  DH agrees with me, but he never wants to make anyone mad, so he didn't say anything when his brother was talking about it this morning. 

Scout05

This breaks my heart and makes me furious at the same time. Those poor dogs. I hope their new home is loving and kind, and they are given tons of attention.

I would say something in person to them, but I'm confrontational. You can only do that if you are ready to get into it and have them be mad at you. Of course, in this case, I would take the "you can't be mad at me because I am mad at YOU" stance.

Seriously, if they get a pony and mistreat it, or if their current dog is showing neglect, call the ASPCA. You can do it annon.

swanck

That's really aweful!

I don't blame you for being livid.  Id on't really have any advice.  I'm just furious with you!

Poor puppies.   

Olive44

I think you have every right to be mad!  That is horrible that they treated those yorkies that way.  I don't know if you should say anything if they are just going to get super defensive about it, but maybe you could intercept any future attempts of them getting more animals.  It sounds like they aren't responsible enough to handle them. 

bbhalphen

Olive44:

Maybe you could intercept any future attempts of them getting more animals.  It sounds like they aren't responsible enough to handle them. 

I wish I could do this, but they get them off Craig's List and we only find out about it afterwards.  I think they've given up on the horse idea because they definitely can't afford one, unless they find one in the "free" section of CL.   I HOPE they learned the lesson with the Yorkies.  Allison, I've decided to say something next weekend if they bring it up first. I'm not sure that they will, though, because BIL always tells DH stuff that I'm sure would make SIL furious about if she knew.  I'm sure that's something she would try to hide from us, especially knowing what dog lovers we are.  The thing that gets me the most is not letting those little dogs out of the shed because they didn't want to neuter Dutch.  It normally doesn't bother me that much if a dog isn't neutered, but this is affecting the other dogs in the family.  They had no business keeping Dutch if they couldn't afford/didn't want to neuter him.

bbhalphen

I did just write something really passive aggressive on fb:

Son of a gun. If you can't afford or don't want to pay for getting your dog neutered, you have no business having a dog!

If DH sees it, he might get mad and think I'm starting trouble. 

ETA: He saw it and that's exactly what he thought. I deleted it. I'm still mad as hell and I think he's a little mad at me now.  "It may be stupid what they did, but they ARE my family."  sigh.

jms2005

How in the world can people treat animals like that? I just can't imagine. I would not hesitate to call animal control if you think something like that is happening in the future.

KristysRedBarn

I would be furious too.  We went through something similar with DH's sister and BIL recently.  It's caused problems all the way around.  We did say something and of course it was my fault because I don't understand them.  Then of course we somehow misunderstood the situation, etc.  Things are even more tense now than they have been.  We did call the aspca but they didn't want to intervene, they said they have too many other more serious issues than dealing with this one.  They just recently got another dog, it was posted on FB, and I'm furious and sad at the same time.

GuppyAmy

I'm sorry. You have every right to be angry! I'd be pissed too! How can anyone mistreat a poor innocent puppy.

butterfly843

I would be angry also. Those poor dogs, hope their new home spoils them rotten.

Court1

This disgusts me.  Seriously.  I can't believe a human being would treat an animal like this.  Well, I know people do, but I'd say something.  It's just so wrong.

ColindaP

What complete and total pieces of _shit.

PeetiePie

bbhalphen

KristysRedBarn:

I would be furious too.  We went through something similar with DH's sister and BIL recently.  It's caused problems all the way around.  We did say something and of course it was my fault because I don't understand them.  Then of course we somehow misunderstood the situation, etc.  Things are even more tense now than they have been.  We did call the aspca but they didn't want to intervene, they said they have too many other more serious issues than dealing with this one.  They just recently got another dog, it was posted on FB, and I'm furious and sad at the same time.

Our situations do sound similar! This is what I'm scared of, causing something. It would piss DH off to no end, even though he agrees with me!