Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Convenience killed the cat: Pets are victims of a throwaway society

You are surely aware, dear reader, of how much I rail against out-of-control consumerism—what I like to call "hyperconsumerism"—where people are encouraged to simply junk their old model TVs, fridges, cell phones, washing machines, etc., for new ones, even though the old models still work perfectly well? Do you know how most people, brainwashed-by-advertising sheep that they are, do exactly that: they junk their stuff, knowing that the good little trash fairy will take it all away to a magical place where it's never seen nor heard from again? Out of sight, out of mind, never mind.
Funny that, eh? Most people stopped believing in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy by the age of 10, but they still apparently believe in the Trash Fairy.
Welcome to the "throwaway society." This society pretty much encompasses the enitre Western world. In this "throwaway society," if it no longer dazzles, if it no longer pleases, if it no longer fits, it is tossed away and never worried about.
Why worry? After all, what are you, some kind of commie faggot, with all your fretting over the environment and what kind of planet we're leaving behind for future generations of human beings? Live for the here and now, damnit! Here, take a ride in my SUV: see how fast it goes and how it just tears up the terrain? Tell me that doesn't cheer you up! After we've torn through twenty miles of forest, we'll stop off for takeaway food and carry it home in lots of styrofoam packaging and plastic bags. Don't you see how convenient it all is, you little green poof?
Oops, sorry, I morphed into Mr. Doangivafuk, there ...
This live-for-today society, which cares only about convenience, gets on my nerves at the best of times. But now it's gotten even worse. Animals have been dragged into it. Pets are no longer companions, fellow Earthly lifeforms that we share our homes with which help to keep us at least somewhat grounded in nature.
According to this frightening story from the April 28 issue of The Times, they are simply a commodity, to be junked if they no longer dazzle, please or fit into one's way of life.
In the space of only one year, the number of abandoned pets has risen by 25 percent. Last year, half of the 7,347 animals abandoned were cats (meaning 3,674 cats). This year alone, so far, the number of abandoned animals rescued by the RSPCA overall is 2,621. As the article states, this is very disturbing considering cats are relatively easy to care for. Dogs and rabbits are also in the majority of pets being "thrown away."
So, if your cat no longer matches your carpet, as one woman cited, simply throw the cat away. Just stuff it in a trashbag and throw it by the side of the road. Surely the carpet is much more important. I mean, what would the neighbors or your friends say if your carpet didn't match the cat!
What have people come to where they cannot distinguish a cat from a carpet, a dog from a washing machine, a rabbit from a cell phone? What have people come to that, in the name of convenience, they sacrifice their humanity?
Of course, how surprising is all this really? After all, we're prepared to sentence people in third-world countries to absolute starvation simply to fuel our funky gadgets—which all become "obsolete" in six months' time—with biofuel. Yes, as long as there's enough food for us and enough fuel for us to play Grand Theft Auto and fiddle with our iPhones, let Africans eat cake. Or nothing. Who cares?
Once people themselves become mere throwaways, you know we're in trouble. We are truly passing the point of no return here. I always genuinely try to think that it's not too late. But you sure have to have faith, don't you?
To the "lady" who cited the cat not matching the carpet as a reason for abandoning her feline companion, I say this: Someday you will grow old, and when you do, you will require the sort of care only a nursing home can provide. May that nursing home be staffed with the most argumentative and abusive people you've ever encountered. May you live another ten years with only them for company. May they make you feel like nothing more than a giant pain in the arse, someone who inconveniences them, someone who, as far as they are concerned, should just be "thrown away."
Maybe then you will realize how your cat felt, as well as what a complete fucking retard you are, as are millions of other people just like you.

2 comments:

goddessdivine said...

A cat not matching the carpet. That's a new one. I'm not an animal lover per se, but that is just fricking mean to toss out an animal like that. Some people are retards.

Not that I constantly replace items (because hello! expensive), but I'm all about donating to good will.

Mrs Andy said...

I've never heard of something so stupid as the cat not matching the carpet! Some people who were renting in our neighborhood last summer decided they would skip on the rent and leave in the middle of the night, they left their dogs. Thankfully, it only took the neighbors a day to realize what had happened and we were able to call the pet resuce, who kindly came a midnight, to save the dogs!