Please be warned, I am about to describe an actual event of animal cruelty.
When I was 5, I had a kitten. She was so lovely and I would spend so much time stroking her on the rug in front of the gas fire.
Over time, she was getting more clingy and less energetic. My father thought that she must have cat flu. My father explained that cat flu was not like human flu and that it was deadly to cats. I am actually crying now just remembering this...
We were poor, my mum worked as a cashier at a discount supermarket and my father was unemployed because he was lazy. Working was beneath him. He just liked to drink everyday instead.
My parents decided that vet fees were an unnecessary cost and if my kitten's health did not improve, they would take matters into their own hands. The day then came when they felt it was necessary to drown my kitten in a big bucket of water in the back garden.
I wish so much that they didn't but they did. Why couldn't they ask a family member or a neighbor for help? I'm sure the vet fees would not have been more than the cost of what my father drunk in alcohol in a week! My brother held myself and my sister back as my father drowned the kitten in a plastic bucket which had previously been used to make home brew beer. My brother loosed his grip and we ran to save the kitten but it was too late, she was dead.
She had fought for her life, my father had deep scratch marks on his hands to prove it. As an adult, I now give £10 a month to a cat charity, but I still feel so bitter about this. I can't ever forgive my parents.
I apologise but I can't proof read this as just typing it out was extremely upsetting for me.