f-ing fireworks!!!

Skwee · 11-07-2005, 09:55 AM

Thanks to my friends next door neighbours being ignorant and uncaring we lost 9 Russian blue baby rats

They AIMED their fireworks right over my friend's garden (where her bedroom with the animals is) and they didn't even warn anyone.

They could have killed a whole aviary of rare, valuable and prized pet exotic birds such as red rumps, partridges, laughing thrush (cannot get hold of them now as there is an import ban!!), AND a pair of purple galinules (also known as reed hens... Google it, they're amazing)

But yeah, two litters of rat babies died, one was one week old but the other was nearly four 4 weeks old!! they were practically old enough to leave mum and would have been... if we had known

More gutting still... the bigger and older litter of Russian blues all carried the Husky gene as their mum is a Husky and their dad a Russian Blue!

Our neighbours refused to even apologise!!! not to mention they had their own blind dog and rabbits in the garden too!!!

I can't believe some people!!

**pophammy** · 11-07-2005, 10:48 AM

That is so awful! Some people just don't care

! Why don't you report them to the RSPCA as they most certainly should not have had their own animals anywhere near the fireworks. I hate fireworks. If people spent the money they wasted on fireworks on worthwhile causes like animal charities then the world would be a much better place.

flogging_molly · 11-07-2005, 01:08 PM

The ignorance of people astounds me sometimes. I cannot believe that they could be not only inconsiderate to their own pets but to yours also - not nice.

Skwee · 11-10-2005, 03:00 PM

I said two litters of rat pups died... I forgot to mention that my friend rang back in the morning to say when she checked on the rats again, what she had missed somehow was that Myffanwe was dead too

she was the mother of one of the litters, she was one of the two original rats we got!!! and really lovely

black hooded a lovely ratty

Demondog · 11-10-2005, 03:02 PM

did the fireworks actually scare them to death? Must have been pretty low, rats are fairly laid back parents usually, aren't they?

**babyboos** · 11-10-2005, 04:08 PM

I would go to the police and call the RSPCA also if I were you. That is totally awful Gemma.

Skwee · 11-10-2005, 04:22 PM

very low fireworks

we think Myffanwe probably killed her pups in her terror but we think Myffanwe herself broke her neck by running full tilt straight into the bars of her cage

not the first time this has happened, although, nothing to do with fireworks or anything, one of our amazing babies was playing and running about.. ran smack into the side of the cage and broke its neck

worse still... it was when its future owner was there...

Pendragon · 11-10-2005, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demondog

did the fireworks actually scare them to death? Must have been pretty low, rats are fairly laid back parents usually, aren't they?

I wondered this myself, but didn't like to say anything in case it was misconstrudled or cast nasturtiums on your friend, Skwee. In the total of 13 years I've bred rats, (that's hundreds of litters over the years), I've never lost a whole litter for any reason at all, not even from illness, so it did sound quite odd - to me, anyway.

They are devoted mothers and I've never known one to kill its babies; quite the reverse usually. I've even known them to give birth in the back of a moving car (when due date wasn't known) and suffer no panic or ill effects, and have occasionally taken mum & youngsters with me when visiting relatives (in an emergency with no-one to care for them at home) or to be brought up by a breeder-friend. They are very tough little creatures!

I guess in this case it must have been terrifying for them, and I'd gladly back you up as an "expert witness" kind of thing with regards to the authorities to say it's so incredibly rare, the animals must have been subjected to overwhelming stress which certainly must fall within the bounds of cruelty.