Forest fires

[Blaze]

There was a long item on tonight's news dedicated to the appalling fires in the Gironde.
One thing really horrified us : some families who had had to leave their houses in Cazaux were allowed to return for a few minutes after two or three days to pick up any essential items they had had to leave behind. Two people they interviewed had left their animals behind - a guinea pig and a cat. The guinea pig had had nothing to drink for 3 days but was still alive, and the family took it with them (apparently in the rush to leave, they had forgotten about him ....). But the worst was a family who went back to feed and water their cat, but then left it behind to fend for itself.

I can understand the dilemma/problem for people with large animals/livestock but family pets ???

[niemeyjt]

Strange - I have just been helping a friend take on some Ukrainians. The son had a pet cat - Yosik - and he said ‘Mummy, I’m not going anywhere without my baby brother!’ It was part of the family. It travelled from Ukraine to Poland to UK. It also tripled the paperwork to get them in.

Even as a "dog" person, I could not envisage leaving a cat or other animal behind.

[Blaze]

Perhaps it isn't always easy and circumstances differ. A cat might have wandered off somewhere and the Ukrainians who had to be bussed out would probably not have been allowed to take animals with them. In the case of the people filmed on the news, their cat was there .....

The destruction of wildlife is appalling ....

[niemeyjt]

No - in this case the cat came - from Ukraine, to Poland to UK. The little boy carried the crate all the way to make sure his little brother was safe.

All their belongings were in two suitcases. Plus the cat.

So people leaving their fire-threatened houses by car in comparison have little excuse.

[exile]

Not knowing any of the specifics of the case, I can say that we have a cat that is extremely fearful. He comes to eat. He will reluctantly accept a touch on the back when he is being fed. Anything more than that and he runs and he will hide for days.

In the circumstances described, he would be very difficult to do anything with other than provide food and water. Maybe you would not consider him as a pet but as far as we are concerned he deserves all that the rest of our tribe do.

[Blaze]

...... as far as we are concerned he deserves all that the rest of our tribe do.

That's exactly what I meant by a cat who has wandered off - it's not always possible to catch them if you have to leave in a hurry. Yours would an example of this. The 2 cases in the reportage dod not have this problem.

[exile]

As I said @Blaze , I know nothing if the specifics and all I was warning of was jumping to conclusions. However in your defence I will say I am very disappointed in the French attitude to owning a cat. The one I described is very much a one-off. All of the others have had no real problem with being handled - which points to all of them having been handled as kittens. So why do they end up as strays - and with us?

Well I can answer the last bit - because we care.

[MAD87]

In my experience, the French seem to prefer dogs to cats. That's not to say that there aren't stray dogs too - our last 2 dogs were strays who adopted us.
At the time of the 1st lockdown in March 2020, we had a huge increase in feline visitors in the garden, much to the fury of our cat. The hairdresser opposite got a rocket from the maire for leaving a bowl of dry food on her doorstep but ignored it.
The stray cats presumably had owners who'd had more than a few minutes to leave their homes, but then there's no legal responsibility attached to cat ownership...

[Quiksilver]

The reports I've seen and read of the Landiras fire stated that the evacuees weren't allowed to take their animals with them to the refuges. It's a tricky situation for the authorities, isn't it? There's potential for fighting between the animals if they're cooped up together, not to mention the hygiene aspect, but heartbreaking for the families and awful for the animals concerned.

[Blaze]

@exile I agree with MAD that the French prefer dogs to cats and they are more likely to get a dog neutered/sterilised than a cat. You only have to look at the pleas from the cat rescues to see how many unwanted cats and kittens there are.
Why do they end up as strays ? Because many owners lose interest in a cat once it's no longer a cute kitten, or because their unsterilised cat becomes pregnant and they don't want the responsibility of the consequences. People assume cats can fend for themselves - cats are very resilient but turning a domesticated pet out into the wild because it's no longer of interest is not doing it any favours.

@Quiksilver It's understandable that people can't take their animals if they're having to be accommodated in a big salle or gym, but the people on the news item had cars and were staying with friends or family. It's also complicated by the fact that being the holiday season any alternative accommodation will be booked up. Heartbreaking for all concerned.