BBC2 9pm Tonight - Wonderland Mad Cats and Englishwomen

morg_monster

I agree with the others, catmad you and all the others working at Celia Hammond are angels in disguise.

I also would disagree a bit with the person who said it was at heart a "look at the freaks" documentary. I thought it was done pretty sympathetically and didn't make Pat or the others look like oddballs, as they were so likeable and also very self aware of the situation they were in.

EmptyPockets

geri1965 wrote: »

It was upsetting but if it makes people think, it was worthwhile. The fact that a kitten can die for something as seemingly insignificant and preventable as a flea infestation is a message worth getting across. I don't think it was being "prodded" at all - she was very gentle and loving with it, and at least it had someone there with it at the end instead of being left to die under a tree in a cardboard box.

I understand what you're saying, and I do agree that it certainly got an important message across - I just think that message could have been conveyed in a different way - I had already watched the program to the end, I had already found it very disturbing and depressing - to then sit and watch an innocent little kitten gasping its last breaths and dying in obvious discomfort I found unnecessary. I said to my husband for about five minutes beforehand "that kitten is dying, its dying right there" - Surely a professional, someone with so much experience as Celia, would have known this also, and could have ended the suffering earlier..?

It just came across to me, that it was done that way, left to die on its own rather than being PTS quickly, for the TV cameras - capturing the awful moment for all to watch...

Froglet

Couldn't agree more,EP.Yes the point needed to be made,but not at the kitten's expense.It could have been just as powerful if they had put it to sleep because it was suffering and couldn't be saved.After all they had shown that happening earlier on.

RacyRed

EmptyPockets wrote: »

I understand what you're saying, and I do agree that it certainly got an important message across - I just think that message could have been conveyed in a different way - I had already watched the program to the end, I had already found it very disturbing and depressing - to then sit and watch an innocent little kitten gasping its last breaths and dying in obvious discomfort I found unnecessary. I said to my husband for about five minutes beforehand "that kitten is dying, its dying right there" - Surely a professional, someone with so much experience as Celia, would have known this also, and could have ended the suffering earlier..?

It just came across to me, that it was done that way, left to die on its own rather than being PTS quickly, for the TV cameras - capturing the awful moment for all to watch...

Wow! I saw this completely differently.

Kittens that ill can sometimes live, it was on a drip which no doubt contained everything it needed, including pain relief. The kitten was being given every chance to live!

It wasn't alone when it died, Celia was with the little mite, stroking and telling it how sorry she was that she couldn't save it. If I remember correctly, the lady in the other room is a vet and was on hand.

Nothing I saw in that clip made me think that the kitten had been made to suffer unnecessaily. I can appreciate that many people would prefer the death of an animal to be clean and clinical but it often isn't like that, even when they are put to sleep by a vet. If the poor little thing had been in pain it would have been given a lethal injection, but it wasn't in pain, it was fighting for life and it lost the fight.

The kitten appeared to me to die very quickly and without pain. She contracted in her final moments but, that is what dying is, death isn't ever pretty, not ever. And what we saw was the effect of neglect on an innocent.

What makes me angry is the thought of the person who put those babies under a tree in a park then walked away and left them to die cold, hungry and covered in fleas.

EmptyPockets

RacyRed wrote: »

It wasn't alone when it died, Celia was with the little mite, stroking and telling it how sorry she was that she couldn't save it.

I don't see how that is really relevant, to be honest - cats are well known for preferring to go off somewhere quiet and die alone, and it's not even as though the kitten knew Celia - she was a stranger to it, no matter how nice she was being. While it was in that distressed state, I doubt it was taking any comfort from Celia's presence.

KxMx

I work as a volunteer with the local volunteer run Cats Protection branch (admin/ fundraising, wouldwant to take all the cats home, much to Lily's disgust) so will be interested later when I watch this on iplayer.

I had misgivings mind you when I realised her work would be on Wonderland, they portray the subject matter anywhere from eccentric and weird to a caricature. Rarely anything is shown in a good light.