I know I'm fairly new to this forum, but for the last few days I've wanted to say this but bitten my tongue and cancelled posting about 5 times what I want to say because I don't want to cause offence, but now I just feel I have to say something.
I have been looking at the "Urgent" forum and in most of the threads that have been moved there, or originally posted there, the issue of the cat trying to be homed has been clouded by people arguing/discussing whether the thread should be in that forum or not. I've found this very off putting and it is leading me not to want to bother looking in that forum at all, as it makes me angry to see people jumping on the thread poster, or the admin that move the thread there, questioning their motive for putting the thread in that forum.
Yes I understand that if there is a forum for cats in urgent need that forum must be policed to make sure that other cases don't creep in there and clutter it up, but shouldn't that be up to the mods to decide and if there is an issue that needs clarifying about a case posted there, that instead of a public discussion/argument being held in the thread, that distracts from the actual cat(s) in question, that the discussion happens in private messages.
Surely it can't just be me that feels this way? I fear it is going to inevitably disadvantage those cats most in need of rehoming if, like me, people stop looking in that forum because of the way some people feel the need to publicly chastise anyone posting there.
I personally had no problem with JS posting Kay's case as urgent because very often old cats that get taken into the RSPCA are put down, whether they are ill or not. I've had an RSPCA officer tell me in the past that if the centres get too full they just pick a bunch of the old cats and bruisers and have them PTS to make space for the easier to home kittens and pretty cats, so I would class any elderly cat about to be sent to the RSPCA as an emergency case. I know not all RSPCA centres are run in the same way, but you just never seem to be able to tell until it is too late when it comes down to the RSPCA euthanasia policies.