Accidental animal crueltyI once invented a brilliant game - I'd sit at the top of the stairs and throw cat biscuits to the bottom. My cat would eat them, then I'd shake the box, and he would run up the stairs for more biscuits. Then - of course - I'd throw a biscuit back down to the bottom. I kept this going for about half an hour, amused at my little game, and all was fine until the cat vomited. I felt absolutely dreadful.
Have you accidentally been cruel to an animal?
This question has been revived from way, way, way back on the b3ta messageboard when it was all fields round here.
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rob, Thu 6 Dec 2007, 11:13)
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An act of kindness gone wrongBack in the late 80's, after having decided that life in the hall's of residence were not for me (mainly because I'd split with my girlfriend and she was still in the halls too) I decided to try flatsharing while still at college. A chance to prove to my family that I could be self-sufficient and responsible (hmm). So I moved in with a couple of mates, and all was well. After a year, I moved into another flat with some other people, but by this time was very deeply involved with my ex-wife, and so didn't really spend a great deal of time there.
It was around this time that I started keeping fish again, having done so when I were a nipper. Nothing fancy, just goldfish initially, starting with a solitary specimen in a bowl that my ex bought me, to buying a bigger tank that I could keep 3 or 4 in. It was a nice addition to my room, I thought. However, for the first few weeks I didn't have a filter, and so had to change the water on a weekly basis.
I had a friend at this time who was going through a bit of a rough patch, and so, because I was rarely at home, said he could doss in my room if he liked, as long as he fed the fish for me on nights I wasn't there. He agreed, and all was well.
Now this friend smoked, which I didn't object to. But he also smoked a bit of weed from time to time. The room I was using at the the time was the smallest in the flat, and he used to smoke in the room, but never thought to open the window for ventilation.
The result of this activity was that I came home one evening, to pick up some stuff and also check that the fish were OK. My friend was out, but when I went into my room there was a god-awful smell that I couldn't place. And then I saw it. The water in the fish tank was a disgusting greeny-brown colour, and the smell was emanating from there. Seeing that I had only changed the water less than a week ago, it couldn't have got that dirty so quickly.
It transpired that my friend's smoking habits had been the cause. Because there was no ventilation, the smoke just built up in the room and was somehow absorbed by the water in the tank. This quickly had the effect of clouding the water so much that you couldn't see a damned thing in there, whilst also releasing a noxious smelling odour that made you gag reflexively.
A quick water change and scrub of the tank rectified the situation, and the fish, amazingly, were fine. But I still feel an enormous surge of guilt when I think that my act of kindness to a fellow human being nearly resulted in the poor little scaly fellers contracting gill cancer from passive smoking.
I bought them a filter the very next day and asked my friend to keep the window open in future.
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Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 11 Dec 2007, 12:36,
1 reply)
A new inventionfish tank = bong water
(, Wed 12 Dec 2007, 15:27, closed)
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