🚀 go-pugleaf

A difference that makes no difference is not a difference.  Perhaps you 
like my other standard question better.  Lady are you aware you have 
reached the fire department?  Is that cat on fire?
	The reason that most fire fighters respond so negatively to animal rescue 
calls is that they are a clear indication of the low level of value 
citizens place on the welfare of the fire fighters who serve there 
legitimate emergency needs.  Fire fighters have, in fact, been killed 
while attempting animal rescues.  We are not vaccinated against rabies 
or plague or any of the other diseases for which animal control officers 
are already protected.  That cats death however unfortunate is not worth 
the real cost to the community of a fire fighter being scratched or 
bitten.  A cat, no matter how many ribbons or other awards it may have 
received, is certainly worth less than the lining in a fire fighters 
coffin.  Elevated physical rescue work contains real risk to the people 
that conduct it.  The stranded cat is no danger to the public unless 
they are stupid enough to climb up after it.  The fire and rescue 
service and the animal control service exist for one reason only and 
that is to protect human beings from injury or disease.  People who join 
the animal rescue league and other animal welfare groups have chosen to 
take certain risk in caring for animals.  The idea that fire fighters 
should be expected to undertake the hazards attendant to elevated rescue 
work for a cat is obscene.  Is that response cogent enough for you.
--
Tom

 > A seemingly clever, if facile, response.
 >
 > If a cat in a tree is dying of starvation, exposure or injuries, it
 > will generally fall out of the tree when it becomes unconscious,
 > whereupon it will either die from the fall, remain unconscious and
 > then die, get run over by a car or attacked by other animals, or
 > recover and leave.
 >
 > This is why there are rarely cat skeletons in trees.  The cat's
 > demise is hardly ever a result of quietly starving to death up
 > there.
 >
 > That said, cats are rarely truly stuck in trees.  They *think*
 > they're stuck, yowl piteously, then figure out a way down when they
 > get hungry enough.
 >
 > Jeannie
 >