The "Pet Conundrum" scenario. (Apologies to scenario haters!)

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Dave V

Dave V

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The "Pet Conundrum" scenario. (Apologies to scenario haters!)​

In the case of some pandemic that's so contagious, that it may be foolish to leave home or wherever you choose to hide out...
All media outlets are off-line in less than a week, but we have learned a lot from the earliest cases.
Transmission is primarily by contact but is also airborne and has a 90% mortality rate within 3 days of exposure.
No stores or restaurants are open. The roads are blocked with empty vehicles and bodies litter the landscape.
There are no utility or water plant employees available, so in the case a system becomes in-operatable, there are no repairs coming.
You get the idea...water from any municipality may be undependable and the same goes for electricity and other utilities.
You have only the food and water you have at your location. You COULD go out, but scavenging for additional supplies could expose you to the virus.
No one knows it yet, but fortunately, the virus mutates into a harmless variant after about two months.

The QUESTION: Given your current supply of food and water,
  • Do you release your pets to fend on their own, or
  • Do they get an equal share of your supplies until you run out, or
  • Do you have other options?
 
My shop cats would have to go on a diet for a while, 1/2 rations, but they hunt too, so they would prolly be ok
 
I know folks who in the case of an incoming nuke etc. would unfortunately choose to die with their pets if their pets were not allowed to accompany them into shelter. The same issue applies to asking teens to leave their friend group behind...some would make an emotional decision and choose their friends over family and safety.
 
Dave Viden said:

​

The "Pet Conundrum" scenario. (Apologies to scenario haters!)​

In the case of some pandemic that's so contagious, that it may be foolish to leave home or wherever you choose to hide out...
All media outlets are off-line in less than a week, but we have learned a lot from the earliest cases.
Transmission is primarily by contact but is also airborne and has a 90% mortality rate within 3 days of exposure.
No stores or restaurants are open. The roads are blocked with empty vehicles and bodies litter the landscape.
There are no utility or water plant employees available, so in the case a system becomes in-operatable, there are no repairs coming.
You get the idea...water from any municipality may be undependable and the same goes for electricity and other utilities.
You have only the food and water you have at your location. You COULD go out, but scavenging for additional supplies could expose you to the virus.
No one knows it yet, but fortunately, the virus mutates into a harmless variant after about two months.

The QUESTION: Given your current supply of food and water,
  • Do you release your pets to fend on their own, or
  • Do they get an equal share of your supplies until you run out, or
  • Do you have other options?
Click to expand...
We have plenty of wildlife and most of my cats have a feral lineage, they'll likely be bringing ME food.
 
Dave Viden said:

​

...... (Apologies to scenario haters!)​

Click to expand...
No apology required........

The people who have made a serious effort to prep capabilities have more than enough food for their pets......and are not living in cities.......and are surrounded by game they can shoot to feed their pets forever......and don't have to worry about how transmissible a pathogen might be.

My dogs love it when I shoot something, drag it back to the house and let them hang around while I cut it up.

I make sure to give them tidbits from the carcass in the same order as their seniority in the pack.

That is how you get your dogs to treat you like the Alpha.

Edit to add:
If you are at least half decent at picking and training dogs, then they will be too much of an asset to just discard.

They have the potential to be a very important security asset.....especially for those that are shorthanded at their dwelling.
 
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we would shoot a sheep or goat if we ran out of food for us and the dogs but we have plenty of dog food and frozen meat , definitely more than 2 month worth. We also have water ( spring off the mountain) and solar and a generator, about to put up more solar panels if we ever get around to it
our Amish neighbors would probably die , they ignored covid pretty much completely so they would probably ignore something like that also
I would probably go set their horses free

my question, how would you know this was a "real" pandemic this time, and not another government mandated covid thing ?
 
You know, rats replace themselves once a month and eat pretty much anything, they don't taste bad either, just treat them like a squirrel.Lots of meat to go around!
 
We only have a realtively small dog, but his needs are included in all of our preps. We even have a BOB set up for him. He wouldn't take up any space nor consume any significant amount of supplies. Where we go he goes.
 
We only have a realtively small dog, but his needs are included in all of our preps. We even have a BOB set up for him. He wouldn't take up any space nor consume any significant amount of supplies. Where we go he goes.

This is a duplicate. Please delete.
 
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When we still had pets we had quite a bit of food for most of them. But if that had run out post SHTF, they would have gotten some of our human preps. I can't imagine the olfactory disaster that might have befallen us giving a dog a can of beans, but I guess we would have found out. It would be a good idea to determine - before the fact - what human foods are safe for animals and what are not. We knew some of this, but formal research and lists would have been better - we did not have those. Lots of things we love to eat would give a dog pancreatitis.
 
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I would toss em out the gate today, but they would just stand there barking until the lady came home and let them in.

As long as they do what they are supposed to do, alert and defend, they can survive on whatever scraps we give em. If at any point they become a burden, problem, annoyance or they don't do their job, they are either food, bait or buried. She has a few extra bags of dog food, but I would not say we prep for them.
 
Our kitty won't go hungry. The crazy chihuahua lady has two little rats. And though there's not much meat on her old wizened bones the cat can probably gnaw on her for a week or two. ;) :D
 
Since my home is not hermetically sealed, I'd venture to the back yard where the spring is for water. We have multiple water purifiers. For that matter, we have no shortage of wildlife, either.

That said, we store water indoors and have more than enough food for humans and pets for that span of time.

My dog might go nuts because she likes to go on long walks.
 
We have a smaller dog and her preps are included in with our stash.
We used to have a Maltese loving and friendly to all and a relaxing joy to have around, but except for barking they are useless to have in a downturn event.
(BTW he passed after 15 years.)
Our current kritter is a Yorkie mix and boy! is she a hunter. Yorkies are a breed that was and still is used as a ratter , once she gets the smell of a mouse or rat the hunt is on. There ain't no quit in them ,
 
I don’t view my dog as a pet. He serves an important function in my clan with the wife and me. While he is certainly a great companion, he knows his role is to keep a protective eye out and alerts us to things we need to be alerted too. He knows how to sniff out the snow shoed hares too. We can feed him just fine.
 
My pups are included and I keep preps for them.
If it came down to it..
I will cull my turkeys and chickens down to just a few of each for eggs and breeding.
The rest of the flock is part of my plan as food along with the two old goats.
As I think about it I keep a good amount of dry kitty food for the barn cats. They are great hunters..my barn floor is littered with the remains of hairy bits of small half eaten creatures and a few snakes. They are pretty self sufficient here and I will help them because I dislike mice so much.
If it turns out as a long event..I will get some more goats or see how many elk come around. I imagine they will get taken out alot so that probably will not be reliable.
For the last 9 years I've been here tho..like clockwork a herd shows up every morning in December and hangs around untill mid January . The draw right south a few hundred feet of my property is their highway to the winter grounds that this herd occupies.
 
TENNGRIZZ said:
Unfortunately this will be unpleasant for a lot of folks to understand. But culling will have to take place.
Click to expand...
When I first saw this thread, I thought it would be about: "Which pet will you eat first, after the SHTF?" 🤣
 
We have had dogs for over 50 years, each one a rescue.
They are family, in fact I would put our dogs ahead of most humans.
It's called comradeship - because they are canines has zero bearing on our relationship.

Domesticated dogs can not just be "turned loose". Their wildness has been bred out of them. My wife and I have rescued them from where they were dumped on the side of the road by evil people, and they are not in very good shape.

Our dogs are more faithful and have better souls than most of the humans out there walking around.
 
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