No idea if this belongs here but it's so specific that no Reddit REALLY seems like it fits?! Anyway...
One our young chickens went missing. Our town is very small and has A LOT of feral roosters and hens so every so often, I go for a walk just in search of him. We even found a stray hen with a bunch of hatchlings in a scrapyard so we relocated her and she's integrated into our flock.
With that in mind, you have to ask...why are there so many damn strays? Well, it turns out, I found out why.
There's a house about a block from ours that is just...full of sad, skinny animals. They had three little kittens in their driveway that were skittish and skinny. I managed to make friends with one and it was very small despite looking maybe 8 - 10 weeks old - slim and 'runty.' I had some chicken feed (in case I found my elusive runaway) and managed to call over two hens and one of their roosters from their yard as well. They were really small, dirty feathers, sneezing and coughing. IN TURN, the hen food lured some sheep over that I hadn't even noticed.
The sheep nearly made me cry. We recently rehomed two ewes because our paddock wasn't sustaining them well enough after one of them had a surprise-lamb (unknowingly pregnant when we adopted her!). So seeing these broke my heart. Two were so overgrown with wool that they could barely move and another was...so, so skinny. It hadn't been sheared but its wool was coming off in clumps all over its body. I could see its spine and hip bones sticking out.
I really, really want to help these animals. But I have a feeling the RSPCA here might not take it all seriously because, well, it's not illegal to have kittens outside or to have a lot of chickens/roosters. Are they sick enough to warrant an investigation? Is skinny enough to go on?
I thought about dropping a letter offering to adopt some of the animals, like the kittens and chickens at least, in a way of like "I noticed you had hens/kittens! I'm looking for some, could I adopt yours?" That way I could get them healthy and rehome them. I can't really take the sheep but I could offer them somebody to shear them for free at least, and maybe offer our leftover food/hay from when we had ours until the weather improves.
But...is there a polite way to do that AT ALL? Or should I just contact the RSPCA with my concerns and hope that's enough to get them all out of that place?
TL;DR: Found a home of sad, skinny animals. Want to ask owners to let me take some so I can rehome them after getting them healthy. Is there any way of approaching it? Or do I just ask RSPCA/animal rescue to investigate and hope it's enough to get them out of there?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/am8tp3/is_there_a_polite_way_to_ask_somebody_to/
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