how do you deal with horrible things you read about pet cruelty...

[carole]

I ask this question as this happened to me by accident yesterday, i was on a NZ cat shelter website here in Auckland city, when i clicked on the In Memoriam section, i was not prepared for what i read, i cannot even tell you as it is so bad, and i feel sick just thinking about it now, i cried and cried after reading it, and it is haunting me, later that evening it came back to me and i cried again, i just don't know how to deal with things like that, i try not to read things or watch programmes as i know how upset i become.

How do you deal with these type of things, i need some advice, as even now just writing about it is making me feel sick to the stomach,i so wish i had not gone to the website, it does not have any benefit me reading it,it only makes me so angry inside, so upset and so depressed, i HATE this world sometimes and the people in it,do you feel as I do, and how to you get over it. It will haunt me for weeks and weeks to come.

[happylabs]

Actually, I avoid them. If I see something on here that looks bad I just don't read it. If it is on the news I sometimes will turn the channel. However, that will not help you because you have already read something horrible. Try to put it out of your mind. Try to think of something else. Go and hug and love up your own pets. I am sorry because I know how you feel. I just cannot cope with it either.

[Grace]

There are times, many of them, when I refuse to click on a topic or link if there is the slightest inkling of something horrible on the other side.

Perhaps that is cowardly, cold hearted. I'm old enough to know I cannot fix every wrong. And I refuse to spend the rest of my life agonizing over situations where I have no control.


I just realized I did not answer your question. I have no easy way, Carole. Time will ease the pain. Go and love on your pets - read a favorite book - treat yourself.

[chocolatepuppy]

carole, sometimes I read or view pictures of animal cruelty and it haunts me also. Some can handle it better than others. Some people ask me how I can do it? I tell them, someone has to. Someone has to know what's happening to animals in this world and pass the word along and hopefully open many more eyes and ears to it. I know who I can mention things to and who I cannot. I wouldn't want to upset anyone who couldn't handle it.
For those who can't deal with it, I say avoid it at all costs. As for getting it out of your mind, that's hard but in time it will fade to where, at least, you aren't thinking of it all the time.

[lvpets2002]

Well I am a bigg Supporter of ASPCA.. So that comforts me some.. When I read the stories or hear of them on TV = it just makes me so sick.. I will start Hugging & Talking to my babies a whole bunch.. Then I vow that if I catch anyone doing something mean to a baby = that I will break their leggs & then call the police..

[pomtzu]

I wish I had an answer for this, but unfortunately, I'm the same way. There are threads on PT right now that I absolutely refuse to read, for this very reason.
I can't watch any of the t.v. shows that deal with this either. Years ago here in the states, there was a show on one of the cable stations called Emergency Vets. I made the mistake of watching it once, and was appalled by the case they were featuring. It was so horrible, and even years later, memory of what happened to that poor dog, still haunts me. I've never forgotten it. I can't deal with any of the Animal Precinct shows either. I get emotional if I see a dog or cat along the road that has been killed by a car too. I could never work at a shelter or for a vet either. I just don't have what it takes.
I wish I wasn't so sensitive to all of this, but I know of no way to get over it. It's out there, and all I can do, is do my best to avoid situations that upset me, whenever possible.
I will never understand man's inhumanity to any living creature.

[moosmom]

I see so much animal abuse that when I see something posted here, I try to avoid it. Oh, it's out there and I know it. But sometimes I have to step back and say "nope, not today."

[lizbud]

But sometimes I have to step back and say "nope, not today."

Me too. I also stop and say a little silent prayer if I should remember
a mistreated animal that I'd read or heard about.

[carole]

Thanks, i too avoid anything on PT, because i cannot handle it, i know all these terrible things go on in our world, but reading it is not going to help is it? especially when i know i cannot deal with it, as someone said, some can handle it better than other's, i remember reading recently where one of our SPCA officers had a nervous breakdown, because of his job, and what he had seen, i sure can understand that.

Oh believe me the first thing i did was hug every one of my cats and bawl my eyes out,i still feel sick, and i guess starting this thread kind of keeps it in my mind, i know in time i will forget, but it will only be temporarily, as i will never forget what i read,and never forget that poor kitty, it was just so un-expected, as i was just not prepared for it.

I still cannot believe it happened, you know it is real and that is what makes it so hard, to a believe someone could do something so evil, and i mean pure evil, i have to say i wish those people dead,i don't know if i should feel that way, but i do,they don't deserve to live in our world.

Thanks everyone, i know i am not alone in how i feel here, and it helps to know others share my feelings and can understand how hard it is to forget.

[snowbelle15]

I am the same way. I try advoiding it. But if I do hear or see something about animal abuse, I go right to Snowbelle and give her lots of love and be thankful that she ended up in the right hands and is treated with care, instead of being with someone cruel.