If ever there was a worthy cause for taking righteous outrage to the vitriolic world of social media, the recent string of animal abandonment cases in Warwick in recent weeks and months certainly fits the bill.

It is difficult to imagine the depraved mentality required to allow any animal to knowingly suffer, but it brings about a specific sense of anger to see that the animals, which have included primarily dogs and domesticated rabbits, all had homes at one point before being found; in some cases emaciated and on the brink of death, and in the case of one poor husky, dead from heat stroke.

You can argue that some people go too far with how much they anthropomorphize pets, with some treating them as equally as they would a human child; even going so far as to call them their children. For the record, we don’t think that’s going too far; a good dog or other pet can be a better companion than most people if you treat them with kindness and respect.

However one thing that cannot be argued is that becoming the owner of any animal comes with it a minimum level of responsibility. When you take another living being under your care, the unspoken and sacred contract you enter states you are to ensure that animal at the very least enjoys an existence free from fear, pain, hunger, or excessive stress. As beings that cannot rely on themselves for their own wellbeing, it is the very basic duty we are charged with when we bring them into our homes and into our families. It is the payment for which you will receive a lifetime of unconditional love and appreciation in return, and one worth making.

Pet ownership is not for everyone, and that can be a difficult lesson to learn. Some people, out of embarrassment, frustration, stubbornness, or a combination of these factors, would apparently rather opt to release the animal into the wild and wash their hands of what they consider to be the problem at hand. How they move forward and live with themselves after that, we would argue, is a matter better understood by professional psychologists rather than animal-loving journalists.

But the inhumanity angle of this issue is only one part. In our communities, big-hearted people who run and volunteer at animal shelters do incredibly difficult, time-consuming work for very little pay (most, in fact, don’t get paid at all) in order to try and pick up the slack for others who do wrong by animals. They bring them into shelters, get them updated on vaccines and treat their medical needs, and then go through the arduous process of trying to find good homes for them.

The last thing that these organizations should be doing is putting up reward money from their shoestring budgets to try and achieve justice for animals who have been victimized by selfish, heartless, and thoughtless individuals.

If you are having second thoughts about your ability to care for a pet you’ve adopted or purchased, reach out to a shelter. Call the Rhode Island SPCA. Ask a friend if there’s anyone interested in adopting that pet. Abandoning them out of convenience, and letting fate dictate what happens to them, is unnecessary, cruel, and thankfully in Rhode Island, it is a crime.