Another Craigslist asshat.

A post on Craigslist irritated me..... unfortunately it's gone and I forgot to copy it... so all I can do is tell you that the guy was trying to give a goat away for free because the terrible thing "eats everything"..... who'da figured. A goat that chews/eats things. *blink* To make matters worse, he also wrote that he got the "retarded" goat for his son as a pet. Pfft. Asshat.

I did keep my response though:

"Umm...Dude... Seriously.You bought a farm animal. A farm animal mind you, that is famous for eating tin cans and alike and you are actually shocked it ate random metal thingies and linoleum from your house? Seriously.

It's a goat. They are not intended as 'pets'. Not often have I encountered the little creatures in pet stores wagging their tails for attention. There are very few children's books referencing the bond and love between a boy and his goat. I do not see many Norman Rockwell paintings of boys frolicking in the park with their goat. And really, I would have to assume that teaching a goat to fetch a ball without devouring it would be a task a child may find difficult.

I think it's wonderful that you want to give the little guy to a farm (May I suggest Friendly Farm in Peterborough NH, or Petfinder.com) but I believe the problem we have here is not the diminished mental capacity of the goat, but the not-quite-up-to-snuff mental capacity of the parent.

Good luck with your goat placement."

Here's my rant about this fuckwit and others like him. Do NOT get an animal if you cannot care for it properly. An animal is not a disposable item. It's a living breathing creature that deserves at least a modicum of respect and care. The fact that there are people that feel they can simply discard an animal they've taken in simply because it doesn't quite fit into their lives, or live up to what they ignorantly imagined they would be like amazes me.

I fully fess up to my guinea pig accident. We took in a guinea pig from someone that had to get rid of him. In my ignorance I thought the little guy would be a bit bigger than a hamster and would require about the same amount of care. What I didn't realize is that they're extremely social animals. They need a lot of interaction from their owners, and a good deal of space to play. We had Sandy for about a month when my daughter and I made the decision that although we loved him and had a good time with him, he simply wasn't happy. He had grown up with kids and had been given the run of the house (I'll rant about cleanliness some other time.. but ew.) and he had spent hours with people. He only got an hour or so of play time with us per day, and simply wasn't happy. I was very upset about this decision at first. My daughter and I were horrified that we were going to have to 'discard' an animal we took in. We did some research and eventually found a site specifically for people to learn more about guinea pigs and for their adoption. We found a wonderful girl who had just lost her piggy whom she had for years. She took him and sent pictures of his new HUGE cage, along with the friend she had gotten for him. Sandy is happy.

What I didn't do is go on Craigslist and tell people that I had a free 'retarded' animal that anyone could take.

meh. I hate people.